Thousands of songs and music videos from hundreds of artists have disappeared from YouTube in the United States due to copyright issues. The streaming platform, in fact, was unable to reach a new agreement with the publishing rights organization Sesac. This was reported by the online edition of Rolling Stone.
Artists such as Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Mariah Carey, Green Day and many others have been affected by the impasse created as the expiry of the agreement between Sesac and YouTube approaches. “We have been conducting good faith negotiations with Sesac to renew our existing agreement. Unfortunately, despite our efforts, we were unable to reach a fair agreement before its expiration,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday. “We take the issue of copyright very seriously and, as a result, content represented by Sesac is no longer available on YouTube in the United States. We are actively in discussions with Sesac and hope to reach a new agreement soon.”
Among the songs and videos removed in the dispute is Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” of which only unofficial uploads remain on the site. In fact, every studio recording and music video has been removed from Nirvana's official YouTube channel, with only the MTV Unplugged and other performance live performances still available (for many affected artists, live performances are not included in copyright restrictions and remain on YouTube.)
Some official Nirvana videos, such as “Come As You Are”, are still searchable on YouTube, but not playable: “Video unavailable. This video contains content from Sesac. Not available in your country,” reads a warning.
Likewise – Rolling Stone reports – the video for Bob Dylan's “Subterranean Homesick Blues” is not available, as is every Adele music video before her latest album “30”.
Sesac, which currently licenses the public performance of more than 1.5 million songs on behalf of its more than 15,000 affiliated authors, composers and publishers, has not yet wanted to comment on the dispute with YouTube.
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
