YouTube blocks songs by Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day, and others in the US, after its music licensing agreement with performing rights organization SESAC expired
Adele, Nirvana, Kendrick Lamar, Britney Spears & More Unavailable Jurin Charnvirakul / RM Update News : YouTube and YouTube Music Removed Some Music MD Ijaj Khan / Hindustan Times : Green Day, Adele, Kendrick Lamar and other top artists' music videos blocked from YouTube due to... Rushil Agrawal / Android Authority : Many popular songs have vanished from YouTube and YouTube Music: Here's why Ananya Gairola / Benzinga : YouTube Blocks US Access To Adele, Bob Dylan Songs Amid Rights Dispute: Google's Video Platform Responds To Angry User Deprived Of Tunes Tyler Lee / Phandroid : Can't find your favorite song on YouTube? You're not alone Ashley Iasimone / Billboard : Songs by Adele, Bob Dylan, Kendrick Lamar & More Blocked on YouTube in Dispute With SESAC Lauren Rettig / mxdwn Music : Songs By Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day, and More Blocked Due to a Legal Dispute Between YouTube and SESAC Mandy Dalugdug / Music Business Worldwide : MUSIC VIDEOS BY ADELE, KENDRICK LAMAR AND MORE BLOCKED FROM YOUTUBE IN THE US AMID LICENSING DISPUTE WITH SESAC Anthony Ha / TechCrunch : YouTube blocks videos from Adele, Green Day, Bob Dylan, others in dispute with SESAC Johanna Romero / PhoneArena : YouTube licensing dispute blocks some popular artists' music videos from the service Daniel Kreps / Rolling Stone : Thousands of Music Videos, Including Nirvana's ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ Removed From YouTube Amid Copyright Dispute Abner Li / 9to5Google : YouTube and YouTube Music missing songs due to expired ‘SESAC’ license Luke Bouma / Cord Cutters News : YouTube Blocks Millions of Videos In The US Over Music Rights Fight Moneycontrol : YouTube removes songs by Bob Dylan, Adele in the US, here's why Chethan Rao / Android Police : YouTube loses access to several songs due to licensing dispute Sagar Naresh Bhavsar / Neowin : SESAC removes a ton of songs from YouTube and YouTube Music due to a dispute Stephanie Kaloi / The Wrap : YouTube Blocks Songs by Adele, Nirvana, Bob Dylan and More Due to Legal Dispute Natalie Oganesyan / Deadline : YouTube Blocks Songs From Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day & More In SESAC Dispute Carly Thomas / The Hollywood Reporter : Songs by Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, More Blocked by YouTube Due to Legal Dispute X: @teamyoutube : @claybitkid @claybitkid we hear you. our music license agreement with SESAC has expired without an agreement on renewal conditions despite our best efforts. for this reason, we have blocked content on YouTube in the US known to be associated with SESAC - as in line with copyright law @pearltearizzy : Approximately 1.1 million songs have been taken off YouTube by SESAC right now For those who don't know, SESAC is the organization that deals with rights to play music on public spaces and businesses. So far, this only affects Americans. [image] Anthony Suszczynski / @asuszczynski : A significant number of videos, including music videos, on @YouTube are currently inaccessible due to a licensing dispute between the platform and SESAC, one of the major music rights organizations in the U.S. The disagreement has led to widespread content blocks, frustrating [image] See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
The removal exposed how a music service’s apparent catalog can change when a rights agreement lapses: access depends on the underlying permissions, not simply on whether a track has long been available on the platform.
It also follows a history of friction between YouTube creators and rightsholders over aggressive copyright claims, while an earlier SoundCloud music removal tied to monetization concerns showed that licensing disputes can quickly reshape listening options.
First-order effects
- U.S. viewers lose access to affected songs and music videos on YouTube and YouTube Music while YouTube and SESAC lack an active agreement.
- Affected artists and rightsholders lose a distribution and discovery channel in the U.S.; YouTube must negotiate restoration terms or sustain a reduced catalog.
Second-order effects
- The outage makes rights coverage more visible to listeners and creators, who may redirect viewing, uploads, and music discovery toward content that remains cleared.
- It strengthens the negotiating leverage of both sides: SESAC can demonstrate the value of its repertoire, while YouTube’s willingness to block tracks establishes that it will not keep content live without a deal.
Third-order effects
- As music services become major discovery channels, licensing renewals increasingly function as product-availability events rather than back-office transactions.
- If such lapses recur, platforms and rights organizations may face pressure to build more resilient renewal processes, since fragmented rights can make a nominally broad catalog intermittently unusable.
The trend: Streaming platforms are treating music-rights licensing as a continuously managed access layer, with contract disputes directly altering the consumer product.