Spotify removes hundreds of K-pop songs from its platform after license expires

Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, is facing backlash for unexpectedly purging music owned by mega Korean music distributor Kakao M on Feb. 28, affecting thousands of personal and public playlists.

The two companies are at odds over licensing for both Spotify’s launch into South Korea and globally. Kakao M also functions as a publisher and runs the country’s largest streaming service, making it a direct competitor to Spotify.

The removal affects multiple current and past artists who have either been deleted by Spotify completely or have had their discographies impacted. In a Twitter list compiled by a fan, LOONA, SEVENTEEN, GFRIEND and Epik High are among the dozens — if not hundreds — of artists impacted.

Who’s responsible for the agreement issues is also drawing confusion. According to a Spotify spokesperson, the global licensing agreement expired despite the company trying to renew it.

“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” a Spotify spokesperson said, according to a translation by Soompi. “However, in spite of this, we were unable to reach an agreement about renewing our global license.”

According to Soompi, Spotify did later clarify that the global agreement issue is not connected to its South Korean launch. However, Kakao M is pushing back on Spotify’s statement saying that they’ve requested the global agreement be renewed, and that it is Spotify’s policy to “proceed with the domestic and global contracts at the same time.” Kakao M has asked the streaming service to separate the contract negotiations.

“Unrelated to our preexisting global licensing agreement with Spotify, Kakao M has been separately negotiating with Spotify regarding a domestic contract for the supply of music,” Kakao M said, according to a translation by Soompi. “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.”

The issue of streaming services pulling artists from platforms without notice has created another issue: Billions of streams are now gone. That means K-pop artists are losing out on royalties and records of their successes; it’s also damaging their fan base.

Frustrated by the streaming drama, fans took to Twitter with the hashtag #SpotifyIsOverParty and have called on both companies to find a solution. Some are finding alternate places to listen to K-pop and canceling their accounts, while others have joked about reviving their CD players to ensure they don’t lose access again.

For now, Kakao M said it’s continuing to work with Spotify, according to Soompi, but it remains to be announced when the affected artists will have their entire discographies recovered. At the time of this article’s publishing, the artists IU, HyunA, and LOONA, amongst others, are still missing portions of their discographies on Spotify.