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EXCLUSIVE

Kpop songs removed from Spotify

Many people have noticed this by now that many of your favorite K-pop songs have been removed from Spotify. We're here to tell you why.

Spotify's global license with Kakao finished TODAY

KakaoM is a huge distributor of Korean music. 37.5 percent of the songs featured on 2020 Top 400 Yearly Song Chart from Gaon Music Chart under the company. It is also one of the largest co-publisher companies in South Korea. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management, concert production company, and music publishing house.

A spokesperson for Spotify confirmed in an official statement that the reason for hundreds of songs being removed is because of the ending of their global license with KakaoM.

“We have been working with KakaoM over the last year and a half to renew the global licensing agreement so that their artists’ music would remain available to Spotify’s 345M+ listeners in nearly 170 markets around the world,” they said. “Despite our best efforts, the existing licensing deal we had with KakaoM (which covered all countries other than South Korea) has come to an end.

Another big reason for KakaoM to not renew their contract with Spotify was because of their parent company's new launch, MelOn. MelOn is South Korea's largest music subscription service, with over 28 million users. Users can stream and download music and music videos and create custom ringtones. The name Melon is an acronym of the phrase melody on.

Epik High's Tablo also tweeted, “Apparently a disagreement between our distributor Kakao M & Spotify has made our new album Epik High Is Here unavailable globally against our will,” he wrote. “Regardless of who is at fault, why is it always the artists and the fans that suffer when businesses place greed over art?”

Fans have reported artists losing massive amounts of streams on Spotify due to the removal. A fan account dedicated to SEVENTEEN’s Spotify statistics and updates said the group, who are signed to Pledis Entertainment, had lost nearly 1billion streams after their music was removed from Spotify. Although artists signed to SM, YG, JYP and BigHit Entertainment (excluding BigHit Labels) are unaffected by the removals.

Spotify had been trying with KakaoM through the last year and a half to renew their contract but to no avail. 

KakaoM's statement said, Unrelated to our pre-existing global licensing agreement with Spotify, Kakao M has been separately negotiating with Spotify regarding a domestic contract for the supply of music. We separately received notice of the expiration of our license on February 28, and we requested a renewal of our existing global contract.

In Spotify's official statement, they said the kpop artists they know were 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.

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See you when the stars twinkle,
-Reporter Beanie.