Your Favorite K-Pop Songs Are Finally Returning To Spotify Thanks To New Deal With KakaoM
On March 1, fans worldwide were surprised to receive the news that thousands of K-Pop songs became unavailable on the audio streaming and media service provider Spotify.
The reason for the worldwide removal of songs from Spotify was due to continuous disagreement with South Korean music distributor Kakao Entertainment Corporation since its launch in February 2021. Some of the songs removed from the music streaming platform are by artists and K-Pop idol groups such as IU, Sunmi, SEVENTEEN, Epik High, The Boyz, Cherry Bullet, ONEUS, Cravity, Moonbyul, Hyolyn, Punch, STAYC, GFriend, Weki Meki, Weeekly, Loona, KARD, SF9, Cosmic Girls, Hwasa, VIXX, Golden Child, Astro, Lovelyz, and many more.
Almost two weeks after, fans received an announcement that Spotify and Kakao Entertainment had come to an agreement.
Starting March 11, songs under Kakao Entertainment will return to Spotify and will be available for streaming in South Korea and the rest of the world.
In a statement, Kakao Entertainment Corporation, which is previously called Kakao M, announced that it entered into an agreement with the music streaming app Spotify. Furthermore, based on the agreement, the South Korean music distributor said that it would sequentially present music content to Spotify for service in Korea and beyond the country.
Additionally, Kakao Entertainment hopes through its partnership with Spotify, listeners around the world can simply reach its music and artists' content to appreciate K-pop.
Kakao Entertainment announced, "Kakao Entertainment remains committed to the Korean music ecosystem and its growth and will continue protecting the rights of artists, labels and local rights holders going forward."
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Spotify stated that its mission has always been to "connect artists to their fans all over the world and to give listeners access to all of the world's music."
The representative from Spotify shared their delight for the reached aagreement saying, "We are delighted that our Korean listeners will now also be able to enjoy this local music alongside our 70 million+ songs and 4 billion+ playlists. We remain committed to making a positive impact on Korea's music streaming ecosystem through our partnerships with artists, labels, and local rights holders."