Spotify reveals the reason why hundreds of K-pop songs were suddenly removed from its music catalog. On March 1, Spotify users around the world noticed that many K-pop songs were no longer available on the platform. The entire discography of some artists disappeared without warning, while others saw that some of their songs remained.
In the morning, Spotify officially announced that its license agreement with Korean music distributor Kakao M had ended, meaning that all music distributed by the label was no longer available on the platform.
A Spotify spokesperson explained, "Since our original licensing agreement with Kakao M ends on March 1, 2021, we will no longer be able to provide its catalog to fans and listeners around the world."
"We have been making efforts in all directions over the past year and a half to renew the global licensing agreement so that we can continue to make Kakao M artist's music available to fans around the world, as well as our 345 million users in 170 different regions," they continued. "However, despite this, we were unable to reach an agreement on renewing our global license."
Spotify has also clarified speculation that the termination of the license agreement with Kakao M has something to do with the service's recent launch in South Korea, which put Spotify in direct competition with Kakao M's own streaming service, Melon. A company spokesman stated, "The issue of our global licensing agreement is not related to the launch of our service in South Korea."
"We feel this situation is very unfortunate for many artists, as well as fans and listeners around the world, and we sincerely hope to quickly resolve the current situation," they continued. "We will continue to do our best so that we can continue to work with Korean rights holders, including Kakao M, and help the Korean music market and the streaming ecosystem as a whole grow together."
Since Kakao M distributes most of Korean music (for reference, 37.5 percent of the year-end Gaon Chart Top 400 Songs from 2020 were Kakao M releases), the loss of the catalog was a major blow to Spotify and the K-pop fans who use the service. .
Among the artists whose discography was affected are IU, SEVENTEEN, NU'EST, MAMAMOO, Epik High, CL, GFRIEND, MONSTA X, Apink, THE BOYZ, Sunmi, (G) I-DLE, LOONA, SF9, HyunA, 4Minute, VIXX , INFINITE, Dreamcatcher, MOMOLAND, ASTRO, Zico, Block B, BEAST, Jessi, WJSN, AOA, BTOB, Golden Child, VICTON, Lovelyz, PENTAGON, ONEUS, Hyolyn, KARD, Brave Girls, CNBLUE, DIA, Younha, SECHSKIES, and much more. /dreamers.id
