If you’ve recently found that some of your favourite songs are missing from YouTube Music, you’re not alone.
Many users in the US have reported songs disappearing or becoming unplayable due to a licensing issue between YouTube and SESAC, a major performance rights organisation.
Here’s what happened and when you can expect your music to return.
Why YouTube Music songs have disappeared
The disappearance of songs from YouTube Music is due to a licensing dispute between YouTube and SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors and Composers). SESAC represents numerous well-known artists, including Adele and Ariana Grande, and oversees the performance rights of over 1.5 million songs.
When a company like YouTube wants to use music on its platform, it needs to secure a licence from performance rights organisations like SESAC. These deals ensure that artists are compensated when their music is played publicly.
Unfortunately, the agreement between YouTube and SESAC expired recently without a new deal in place. This resulted in the removal of SESAC-represented songs from both YouTube and YouTube Music.
However, the removal wasn’t consistent across all SESAC-affiliated artists. While some songs by popular artists like Adele and Nirvana vanished entirely, other SESAC-affiliated artists like Kesha remained available.
Users encountered an error message when trying to play these tracks, which read: “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.” Some songs also disappeared from search results, causing further confusion.
YouTube confirmed this in a statement provided to , explaining that despite its best efforts, negotiations with SESAC had stalled, and as a result, songs under SESAC’s catalog were temporarily blocked.
When will my YouTube Music songs be back?
Thankfully, YouTube has managed to secure a new deal with SESAC. On 30 September 2024, YouTube announced that it had successfully reached a new agreement with the performance rights organisation.
This means that all the missing songs will be returning to YouTube and YouTube Music over the next couple of days.
YouTube acknowledged the frustration caused by the outage and expressed appreciation for users’ patience. While it’s a relief that the issue has been resolved, it may take a bit of time for all the missing content to be fully restored.
So if your favourite tracks still aren’t showing up or playable, they should be back soon.
If you haven’t started using YouTube Music yet, now is a great opportunity to try it out. What’s more, now you can hum to search in YouTube Music too.
