Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
- A licensing dispute between YouTube and SESAC has led to the removal of many popular songs from YouTube and YouTube Music in the US.
- Users attempting to play affected songs encounter an error message, and some songs no longer appear in search results.
- YouTube says it is working to reach a new agreement with SESAC, but it’s unclear when or if the missing music will be restored.
Over the past few days, I encountered a frustrating problem on YouTube: many of the songs and nonstop mixes I used to enjoy were suddenly unavailable. When I tried to play them on either YouTube or YouTube Music, an error message appeared stating, “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”
What made it even more confusing was that these videos and songs were still showing up in search results, my home page feed, and my playlists. I could click on them as usual, but then I was met with the error message when I tried to play them.