At midnight KST, K-pop contents distributed by KakaoM were removed from global music streaming service Spotify. According to foreign media such as NME, Spotify and KakaoM failed to reach a new license agreement on the contents.

Spotify previously launched its music streaming service in Korea on February 1. Spotify Korea, which no longer has a license agreement with KakaoM, is finally unable to provide K-Pop songs from artists such as IU and Zico. KakaoM has quite a big share in the K-pop music distribution market. About 35.7 percent of songs in the Top 400 Gaon Music Chart in 2020 were distributed by KakaoM.

Spotify Global Service explained that K-pop contents distributed by KakaoM are no longer available because the license has expired since March 1, 2021. Spotify also added, “We have been working to renew the global license agreement with KakaoM since last year. Despite our best efforts to renew the existing license contract with KakaoM, we did not succeed in reaching an agreement so the contract ended as the original agreement (March 1).”

The license contracts previously signed by Spotify and KakaoM are valid in countries around the world, except in South Korea.

Spotify said, “Our failure to reach a new agreement (with KakakoM) is something that is very unfortunate not only for the artists but also for the fans. They also stressed, “We hope to resolve this situation immediately.”

As a result of this happening, many companies involved, artists, and music fans also voiced their discomfort through the social media Twitter.

(Source: Digital Today via en.kepoper.com)