Here’s why you can’t listen to Lofi Hip Hop Beats streams right now

If your relaxing, studying, or writing periods have felt a great disturbance in the force in recent days, look no further than the saddest news for lofi beat lovers everywhere: The YouTube classic “lofi hip hop radio – beats to relax/study to” has been taken down.

It was an automatic copyright strike that meant that someone claimed the channel was copyrighted. YouTube’s system is built so that when such violations are reported the video is automatically pulled down; it’s then on the video maker to prove they didn’t violate copyright.

Lofi Girl, the account behind the streams, said on Twitter that the claim was based on “false” copyright strikes, and had reached out to Youtube to remedy the situation. But both the “beats to relax/study to” and “beats to sleep/chill to” streams were both down (and, if you’re interested, listed with a runtime of about 20,000 hours each).

Luckily, Team Youtube responded on Twitter saying that they confirmed “the takedown requests were abusive & terminated the claimants account,” noting that it may take 24-48 hours for the videos to pop back up online. The streams were not restored as of 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Of course, there was already a push to #BringBackLofiGirl on Twitter, which includes an artillery of memes, Reddit conjecture, and fan art (as is the internet’s wont). As we await the return of the soundtrack to our lives, let’s not forget to rejoice at the internet joining forces to protect Lofi Girl as well as her cat.

Lofi Girl streams are dead (for now). Long live Lofi Girl streams.