Music streaming competitors Spotify and Korean distributor Kakao Entertainment, formerly Kakao M, have renewed an agreement to offer K-pop music to fans not only in Korea but all over the world.
Starting on March 1, songs of K-pop artists such as IU, Monsta X, Zico, Seventeen, Epik High, Momoland, Pentagon and The Boyz were removed by Spotify after its licensing agreement with Kakao Entertainment expired.
Tablo of Epik High criticized the removal of songs as corporate greed.
“Apparently a disagreement between our distributor Kakao M & Spotify has made our new album Epik High Is Here unavailable globally against our will. Regardless of who is at fault, why is it always the artists and the fans that suffer when businesses place greed over art?” he posted on Twitter.
Kakao Entertainment is a major music distributor in Korea, accounting for 37.5 percent of Gaon Music Chart’s top 400 songs in 2020.
The two companies are competing in Korea. Kakao Entertainment operates the popular music download and streaming site Melon while Spotify launched its service in Korea on Feb. 1 but without an agreement to carry songs distributed by Kakao Entertainment.
When the K-pop music outage on Spotify happened, Kakao Entertainment accused Spotify of pursuing deals simultaneously for the Korean and global markets instead of having separate negotiations.
Kakao Entertainment said it had been discussing with Spotify about supplying music in Korea separately from its existing overseas music supply contract. It requested Spotify to renew the agreement for the overseas market, which expired on Feb. 28, but because Spotify wanted to have an agreement for both Korean and global markets, the removal of its songs on Spotify was done.
In a statement released today (March 11), Spotify said, "We are pleased that Kakao Entertainment Corp.'s content and artists are back on Spotify. 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,” according to Yonhap News.