Earlier this week, fans and artists were left confused as hundreds of K-pop releases were removed from Spotify globally. Here’s what happened.

Earlier this week, K-pop artists and millions of their fans found themselves in for a shock. 

Overnight, hundreds of K-pop releases, distributed by South Korean music industry giant Kakao M, were removed from Spotify globally, causing confusion among not just fans, but also the artists. 

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

According to an exhaustive list compiled by a fan, artists like MAMAMOO, IU, Monsta X, Oneus, Cravity, CL, Lucy, StayC, Epik High and more had had their music removed from Spotify. 

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At first, fan outrage was directed at the streaming giants, speculating that conflicts of interest and gaining monopoly of the music market in South Korea was at play. After years of concentrated efforts, Spotify finally came to Korea in February 2021, potentially posing a threat to MelOn, South Korea’s most popular streaming service, which Kakao M is also a parent company to. 

Given the situation, fans cried corporate greed as the virtual sphere called out Kakao M — which handled distribution for 37.5% of last year’s Top 400 songs in the Gaon Music Chart — for blindsiding the artists and the fans. While the development wasn’t a big deal in South Korea — since Korean fans much prefer local streaming services over Spotify — international fans were left bereft of some of their favorite releases. 

Some time later, both Spotify and Kakao M clarified that the removal of Korean songs from the former was not due to a dispute between the companies, but because of Spotify’s licensing agreement with Kakao M expiring. This meant that music distributed by Kakao M would not be available on Spotify anymore. 

“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.” a spokesperson from Spotify explained. 

“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,” the statement said. “However, in spite of this, we were unable to reach an agreement about renewing our global license.”

Later that day, however, Kakao M claimed in their own statement that despite negotiations, Spotify had chosen not to renew their agreement. They also clarified that the issue was separate from Spotify’s policies that require domestic and global distribution: “Unrelated to the domestic contract, which we are still negotiating, we separately received notice of the expiration of our license on February 28, and we requested a renewal of our existing global contract.”

“Due to Spotify’s policy that they must proceed with the domestic and global contracts at the same time, our global contract has currently expired,” said Kakao M. 

The development has caused conversations about music consumption habits among the K-pop community, which is heavily dependent on streams. For international fans, streaming services like Spotify are sometimes the only way to access music legally, since Korean streaming services are limited beyond borders.

As of now, it is unclear when the lost songs will be returning to Spotify. In the meantime, some artists –like HyunA and Jessi — have inked new deals with other distributors and are back on the platform, albeit after having lost their streaming numbers. Many have also uploaded their discographies to YouTube. 

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