Spotify confirm hundreds of K-pop releases removed from platform worldwide

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

*A follow up to this post*



“It is our hope that this disruption will be temporary”


Hundreds of K-pop releases have been removed from Spotify worldwide as the streaming platform continues to try and reach an agreement with distributor Kakao M.

Spotify launched in South Korea on February 1, 2020, but did so without music from artists with licensing deals under Kakao M, including IU, Zico and more.

Now, releases distributed by the Korean label have been removed from Spotify around the world. Kakao M distributes a large share of Korean popular music, with 37.5 percent of the songs featured on the 2020 Top 400 Yearly Song Chart from Gaon Music Chart under the company.

In a statement given to NME, a spokesperson for Spotify confirmed that Kakao M’s catalogue would no longer be available to users around the globe from March 1, 2021 “due to the expiration of our licence”.

“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.

“The fact that we have not yet reached agreement on a new global deal is unfortunate for their artists, as well as for fans and listeners worldwide. It is our hope that this disruption will be temporary and we can resolve the situation soon. We remain committed to working with local rights holders including KakaoM, to help grow the Korean music market and overall streaming ecosystem together.”

Kakao M’s parent company also owns and operates the MelOn streaming service, one of the top digital music platforms in South Korea. Epik High’s Tablo suggested on Twitter that a disagreement between the Korean company and Spotify had led to the issue.

“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?”

When Spotify launched in South Korea, a spokesperson for Kakao M told the Korea Herald: “We are still talking with Spotify [about distributing our songs through their platform].”

Twitter user @lemonphobic has compiled some of the artists affected by the issue, including IU, Cherry Bullet, Cravity, GFriend, Mamamoo, CL, Nu’est and many more.

Artists signed to SM, YG, JYP and BigHit Entertainment (excluding BigHit Labels) are unaffected by the removals.

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.

Meanwhile, earlier this month SM Entertainment found Lee Soo-man said he believes that K-pop needs to expand into the Chinese market in order to continue growing. The Korean music industry’s influence in China has been muted in recent years due to a ban on South Korean culture in the East Asian nation that stemmed from a political dispute.




source: nme

Comments

[imahurricane.livejournal.com]

it better be temporary :(

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

kpop being covered by NME is a trip. really hoping the pressure artists and labels put on kakao has them being more open to negotiating.

[shittysoup.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing re: NME. I kind of wanted to do an ONTD or Omona Original about how western media has changed its tune recently on Kpop now that there's money to be made and clicks to be had.

Because I remember when they couldn't give two fucks and reported major stories sloppily like this: https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/108930086.html

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

yesss omona original pleaaase! that would be so interesting to read. even though there are a few good reporters on kpop out there, personally i am often frustrated to see reporting on kpop because it's often inaccurate or veryyyy western-centric/essentialist (especially in local newspapers in my home country)

[popchyk.livejournal.com]

I would love to read such Omona Original!

[camouflagecat.livejournal.com]

Yes this Original sounds 🔥🔥🔥

[chaotic-n.livejournal.com]

That would be such a good read. Do it!

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

Yes the change has been wild
First no fuck given to kpop stories, then fucks given only when talking about idol suicides or to make fun of fans, and now regular updates, think-pieces and documented deep dives into kpop.

[vanilla-09.livejournal.com]

Honestly though, I think the kpop hype will die once vaccination + confinement will end. SO much of the popularity kpop gained was because people were stuck inside and with the online coontent being produced but now with the whole issue with spotify, kpop being so saturared and people being eager to socialize again, I do wonder if it will go the way of how there was a huge reggaeton surge 2 years ago that kpop basically took over.

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

one difference is that kpop is based around idols and their personalities as much as it is the music. people who just got into it for the music might leave, but anyone who checked out the artists and got invested in them will probably stick around

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

Label and artist must be pissed
This is losing them a tone of money

Did kakao do that with apple music?
This is ridiculous

[belintuchiha.livejournal.com]

They didn’t do it with Apple Music prob cause almost no one uses it lol

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

lol, probably
but by doing so they now have zero excuse for doing it with spotify (and spotify can use that to their advantage if they need to go to court)
Looks to me like someone on he legal team is getting fired cause this is gonna get intl traction and some major backlash
Not to mention labels are artists are gonna be PISSED to lose so much intl money

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

It's two different contracts. Their licence agreement expired march 1st and they didn't get a renewal done. They have to negotiate with each DSP so they're all different.

[aimajo.livejournal.com]

Same thing happened to Apple Music and I think it took them about three years to kind of work it out, plus Apple Music needed a verification process for explicit content. From what I hear no one uses Apple Music in Korea because it took so long to grow their Korean Music catalogue.

[tigerburst.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how it is now but I did hear in the past that Spotify pay their artists much less than other platforms, so maybe Kakao simply wanted to negotiate higher pay-outs for the artists? Just speculating here...

I personally use YouTube music since I got YT Premium to get rid of the ads and everything seems fine over there :)

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

They pay less than other platform but they also provide more exposure + better access

My friend is on spotify, he said for smaller artist, it means little money,but for big nameq who gets tones of streaming it's quite a lot

[tigerburst.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get this, I was just thinking aloud as to what could be the possible causes of disagreement between Spotify and Kakao

[rainstormraider.livejournal.com]

MelOn just got hit with a fine for stealing revenue from artists. I highly doubt Kakao M would be interested in negotiating on behalf of artists. It’s a cool thought but I highly doubt they are anything but greedy and petty.

[tigerburst.livejournal.com]

You're probably right 😅

[ty.livejournal.com]

This fucking sucks

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

according to this soompi article, kakao m is pointing fingers at spotify... https://www.soompi.com/article/1456887wpp/kakao-m-releases-statement-explaining-that-spotify-was-the-one-to-end-their-licensing-agreement

everyday, i am reminded how much i hate capitalism!!!!

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

it's still dumb on both part
If they wnt to protect Melon that bad, make it regional restriction, youtube does it, so can they

edit: I can see how spotify could be trying to pressurring kakao M to get it all though (they know with shit gettig that public artists and labels are gonna be pissed
But if they were able to reach an agreement with apple music, they should be able to work this out.
1year and a helf means you have bad legal council on both sides

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

oh totally! it's stupidity from both sides. i was trying to (very ineloquently) say that these companies are pointing fingers at each other while obscuring that they only have their own interests in mind, not the interests of their users (artists and fans/listeners)

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

spiderman_u.jpg

[timetobegin.livejournal.com]

I am so mad. SO MAD. Fucking capitalists

Music is all the joy we really have in this world and they just cut us off like its 2012.... Do I need to go back to illegally downloading everything ugh

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

right?? i am so angry too. like, i could go back to illegal downloading, but i want to support my faves, it just sucks that especially artists of smaller companies are so dependent on exploitative capitalist giants

[nefertitii.livejournal.com]

spotify and kakao engaging in he said she said nonsense

just give us our songs back

[tsubaki874.livejournal.com]

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.
Honestly it should be illegal for this to happen, they need to inform labels and artists before this happens.

[theweebdream.livejournal.com]

Ngl the fact that they had been negotiating for a year and a half and still couldnt come to an agreement and thus this shit show makes me nervous we might not get it back :/ I feel like I heard people say the selection of kpop on Apple Music isnt as vast, is that true? Might need to make the switch over to that instead if that’s not the case.

[nha2licious.livejournal.com]

it's true. I tried apple music last night, and let's say, I'm exhausted.
But the good thing is Apple music has old kpop stuffs, like DBSK (OT5) korean and japanese albums and singles /cries. I realize spotify only has newer kpop songs, while old me want to listen to older kpop songs, like FTTS, CSJH the grace, Lee Hyori old stuffs, and more.

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

So they released a statement first and can claim Kakao M are the petty ones, even though both companies are probably in an arm wrestling fight. Meanwhile, artists and fans are left struggling.
Spotify should have definitively notified the companies/artists that their music wasn't going to be available from March 01, first because it's the DECENT thing to do ffs, second because it would have given them a leg up in the negociations against Kakao M (imagine companies getting a message saying "hi we're Spotify! we couldn't reach an agreement with Kakao M so all your music is removed from our platform all around the world! we're so sorry!" lmao).
I'm guessing that Kakao M want to keep the music they're distributing region-locked, so they can try to keep MelOn's monopoly in SK, while Spotify want it to be available no matter where. Now that they hit a wall with Kakao M, they're asking companies whether they want to be distributed in SK only through MelOn or all over the world through Spotify. Evil

[countthesaints.livejournal.com]

Ah, so this is why my playlists look an absolute disaster now.

I guess I'm thankful that I still purchase physical mediums/have the occasional illegally downloaded track here and there, so I'm cancelling my Spotify subscription – between the bullshit the company pulls and now this, I'm finding myself spending more time in iTunes.

Anyway, thanks capitalism. These companies don't care and the fans, artists, labels, etc are the ones that suffer.

[xoxkenzxox.livejournal.com]

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

i'm starting to get worried tbh. it was bad enough yesterday when i checked my playlists and half the songs were unplayable, but now the actual names of the artists and songs are missing. i'm hoping this is just some weirdness with the app because if they're actually deleting material, even if it comes back later... lord that is gonna be so much work to put my playlists back together.
after google play music was killed, i finally got used to spotify and i'll be so pissed if i have to use something else.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

Some artists are back again. Hyuna & Jessi are now distributed by PNation (their label) but they lost ALL their previous streams. Some of their songs were close to 100 mio. streams.

[xoxkenzxox.livejournal.com]

I wonder if spotify would restore the streams? The thing about BTS losing a billion streams is crazy. I don't care much about it, but that's how artist make money with their music on spotify. So it would really suck to not restore it.

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

some songs that were just greyed out yesterday are blank spaces today....i thought it would be a case of Spotify pulling them so that the companies would lobby against Kakao but....now i'm not so sure

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

I would have screenshotted my playlists and downloaded the songs had I known this was going to happen. went in today to start doing that and they're all blank now :(