Brian May sounded alarming on Monday (December 18, 2023): “Hello guys,” the Queen guitarist wrote on Instagram. According to him, the social network and the record company his band is signed to are blocking Queen videos. He himself has already received a warning and has therefore deleted almost all the clips that he posted himself: “Be careful, otherwise you will be banned!”
May writes: “I have been watching this for a few days and am very concerned. “I have asked our management to look into the matter and find out if there is a reason why Instagram and Universal are suddenly becoming so draconian.”
The 76-year-old wants to make it clear that he is against this punishment of the fans: “The decision to take these videos off the internet certainly did not come from us, the band. hopefully we’ll get an answer soon. In the meantime, you should be extra careful, and I’m sorry that you good people with good intentions have gotten into this situation.”
In his Instagram post, Brian May also shares a screenshot documenting a ban, albeit not by Universal Music, but by Sony Music.
Finally, a few comforting words from the guitarist:
“I wish you a nice Christmas time. Like many of you, I don’t find it easy to achieve the frenetic happiness that the media portrays as a prerequisite for this time of year. But let’s all look around and look for ways to make other people’s Christmases as merry as possible. Apart from anything else, this is good therapy! Cheers everyone! Bri.”
May’s followers welcome the posting. One describes what is currently happening on YouTube: “Thank you for this post, Brian. There appears to be a targeted campaign to delete Queen + Adam Lambert videos and also completely shut down certain YouTube channels that have been around for over 10 years. A lot of fan videos have been lost, which is very sad.”
However, a simple YouTube search with the keywords “Queen + Adam Lambert” returns numerous search hits of recorded videos, not all of which appear as if they were published on official or authorized channels. Here is an overview.