In an echo of the disagreement between TikTok and Universal earlier this year, YouTube and SESAC were "unable to reach an equitable agreement" on terms for renewing YouTube's music licenses from SESAC, and therefore all the music that SESAC represents was pulled from the platform, affecting songs by Adele, Kendrik Lamar, Bob Dylan, Ariana Grande, and many more.
YouTube users were presented with the message "This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country."
They tweeted "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."
There are some interesting differences to the TikTok and Universal situation:
Firstly, the dispute was fairly short lived - it only lasted over a weekend and the music is already back up - so someone was motivated to do a deal!
Secondly SESAC is a US Performing Rights Organization (PRO) rather than a record label and/or publisher like Universal. PROs license the public performing right on behalf of their members - who can be either recording artists / record labels or songwriters / music publishers, depending on the PRO. SESAC represent certain songwriters / publishers in the USA.
The public performing right simply grants public venues the right to host the “performance” of music by means of both musicians in person, and recorded music. Although it confusingly uses the word "performance", this is just slightly old-fashioned terminology for the simple act of playing music, and has no direct impact relevance to performing sporting or performing arts routines (other than the right needs to be in place for venue where your music is played).
So why does YouTube need a public performing rights license? Well, it is a public venue - just an online space rather than a physical one - and the same license applies to it and all other online sites on which music is played (including TikTok and other social media platforms).
Thirdly, PROs only have the ability to license the public performing right in one particular country. In SESAC's case this is the USA, so SESAC's music was taken down in the USA but the same videos were still available for viewing in the rest of the world. Universal as a record label and publisher have a worldwide remit and control of rights (they simply use PRO's to license public performance rights on their behalf in each country).
Finally you may wonder why, if PROs can license online sites like YouTube and TikTok to play music, why then did a record label and publisher like Universal also get involved in a licensing dispute with TikTok?
Well, by now, if you regularly read our blogs, you will probably have got the idea that every particular use of music needs a license. The answer is that TikTok being a video-based platform, doesn't only 'play' music. The music is also synchronized to video, which itself is a separate right, referred to as a 'sync' right. If you wanted to use video commerically, for example to promote a team, club, or event, you'd need a sync license. Live stream, video on demand, and broadcast licenses also include a sync license element.
And yes, this also applies to YouTube - so why aren't we hearing about Universal pulling music from YouTube? License agreements can last multiple years and are signed on different dates, so user generated content on YouTube will currently be covered by sync licenses from all rightsholders whose music is used.
So what can you learn from this incident between YouTube and SESAC for sports and performing arts routines?
Organizations like YouTube (and TikTok) take music copyright very seriously and will pull music for which they don't have all the necessary rights rather than risk copyright infringement.
Music public performing rights are necessary for the venues where you carry out your routines to be able to play your music, but you need to get several other rights.
Rights to the same song from each of its different owners can be represented by different entities in different countries - music rights are like a giant worldwide jigsaw puzzle where the pieces can change as representations change.
With ClicknClear licenses, we manage all this complexity for you - and our music license verification system (LVS) automatically checks music submissions and licenses so that sports administrators can protect you and themselves from the consequences of using music without the proper licenses.
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