Spotify has made an official statement addressing why hundreds of K-pop releases were suddenly removed from the platform. After all the major k-pop releases shockingly disappeared.
On March 1 KST, Spotify users around the globe noticed that many K-pop songs suddenly disappeared from the platform. Some artists entire discographies disappeared without warning, while few others were remaining.
Later that day, Spotify officially announced that its licensing agreement with The Korean music distributor ‘Kakao M’ had expire. Meaning that all music distributed by the label will no longer be available on the platform.
A Manager for Spotify explained that due to their expiration of the original licensing agreement with Kakao M on March 1, 2021. They will no longer be able to provide its music catalog to fans and listeners all over the world.
As Kakao M distributes a large amount of Korean music. The loss of the catalogue is a major blow to Spotify and K-pop fans who use the service.
Among the artists who have been majorly 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, Dreamcatcher, Infinite, BLACKPINK.
Will K-pop songs never be made available again on Spotify ever?
Fans all over the world are extremely worried about whether the k-pop songs will once again be available on Spotify or not. Hopefully this is not true as Spotify has further explained about everything. How they are working on their agreement as fast as they can to resolve the issue.
Well Spotify clearly wants to extend the deal and ensure that many of the missing K-pop tracks can return to the platform. It is hoped that things will be resolved in the future.
However, it is unclear about how long exactly this process will take. So for the time being it looks like Spotify users who are fans of the music genre, will have to find other ways to listen to their favorites till the time!
Stay tuned with Stanford Arts Review for all updates.
