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Spotify has made an official statement addressing why hundreds of K-pop releases were suddenly removed from its catalog.
On March 1 KST, Spotify users around the world noticed that many K-pop songs were no longer available on the platform. The entire discographies of some artists disappeared without warning, while others saw some of their songs remain.
Later that morning, Spotify officially announced that its license agreement with Korean music distributor Kakao M had expired, meaning that all music distributed by the label would no longer be available on the service.
A spokesperson for Spotify explained: “Due to the expiration of our original license agreement with Kakao M on March 1, 2021, we are no longer able to provide his catalog to fans and listeners around the world.”
“We have been making efforts in all directions for the last year and a half to renew the global licensing agreement so that we can continue to make the music of Kakao M artists available to fans around the world, as well as our own. 345 million users in 170 different regions ”, they continued. “However, despite this, we were unable to reach an agreement on the renewal of our global license.”
Spotify continued to clear up speculation that the expiration of its license agreement with Kakao M had something to do with the recent launch of its service in South Korea, which put Spotify in direct competition with Kakao M’s own streaming service, Cantaloupe.
The company spokesperson stated: “The issue of our global license agreement is not related to the launch of our service in South Korea.”
“We believe that this situation is deeply unfortunate for many artists, as well as fans and listeners around the world, and we sincerely hope that we can 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 broader streaming ecosystem grow together.”
Since Kakao M distributes a large chunk of Korean music (for reference, 37.5 percent of the 2020 year-end Gaon Chart 400 Top Songs chart were Kakao M releases), the loss of the catalog It is a considerable blow to Spotify and K-pop fans who use the service.
Artists whose discographies have been at least partially affected include 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 many more.
Are you one of the Spotify users who was surprised to see that their K-pop favorites were missing?
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