YouTube and music licensing group SESAC have reached a new agreement, restoring songs removed over the weekend.
Many popular songs, including those by artists like Adele and Nirvana, had disappeared from the platform. YouTube attributed the removals to a lapsed licensing deal. SESAC confirmed the new agreement in an email to The Verge but pointed out that YouTube removed the songs prematurely. The agreement wasn’t due to expire until October 1st.
Here is what SESAC said in its email statement:
We have reached an agreement with YouTube to equitably compensate SESAC’s songwriters and publishers for the use of their music. During our negotiations with YouTube, our affiliates’ works were unilaterally removed by YouTube ahead of the contract end date of October 1, 2024. YouTube has begun the process of reinstating videos featuring these songs.
SESAC represents over 15,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers, licensing the public performance of more than 1.5 million songs.
As the statement says, YouTube has started restoring the removed music videos following the agreement, but not all have returned as of yet. Some popular songs such as Adele’s Hello and Kanye West’s Power are still unavailable in the US, though YouTube says the videos will return “shortly.”
It is unclear how long the new agreement will last between YouTube and SESAC. The removed songs should be recovered within a day or two.