Spotify Officially Explains Why K-Pop Releases Were Removed

Who loves Spotify and miss to listen to Kpop song on spotify? Well you are not alone. Thousands of people all around the world felt confused and wonder of what is happening in the Kpop and spotify industry.

However, the good news is that Spotify eventually made an official statement addressing why hundreds of K-pop releases were suddenly removed from it’s playlist catalogue.

On March 1 KST, Spotify removed many K-pop songs and it makes all spotify user especially kpop lovers, no longer able to hear the K-pop they like on the platform. Some artists’ entire discographies disappeared without warning, while others saw some of their songs remain.

What really happened is that Spotify and Korean music distributor Kakao M license aggrement had been expired, it means that all music distributed by the label would no longer be available on the service. 

As quote from the spokesperson of Spotify, “Due to the expiration of our original licensing agreement with Kakao M on March 1, 2021, we are no longer able to provide its catalogue to fans and listeners all over 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 could continue to make Kakao M artists’ music available to fans all over the world, as well as our 345 million users in 170 different regions,” they continued. “However, in spite of this, we were unable to reach an agreement about renewing our global license.”

Spotify explain further to clarify the speculations that the expiration of it’s licensing agreement had anything to do with the recent launch of Kakao M’s own streaming service Melon.

As It stated, “The matter of our global licensing agreement is unrelated to the launch of our service in South Korea.”

“We feel that this situation is deeply unfortunate for many artists, as well as fans and listeners all over the world, and we sincerely hope that we will be able to quickly resolve the current situation,” they continued. “We will continue to do our utmost so that we can keep working with Korean rights holders, including Kakao M, and help both the Korean music market and overall streaming ecosystem grow together.”

Kakao M Melon distributes a huge share of Korean music industry, just to say about 37.5 percent of Gaon Chart’s year-end top 400 Songs chart from 2020 were actually Kakao M releases. No doubt this sudden loss of korean music playlist catalogue is a really low blow to Spotify and K-pop lovers who use their service.

As Kakao M distributes a large share of Korean music—for reference, 37.5 percent of Gaon Chart’s year-end Top 400 Songs chart from 2020 were Kakao M releases—the loss of the catalogue is a considerable blow to Spotify and K-pop fans who use the service.

Some of the artists who have been at 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 many more.

How do you think about it? Which one do you use to listen to K-pop? Spotify or Melon by Kakao M?