I’m slightly pissed and also devastated about what’s going on with Spotify and Kakao M. For those who haven’t heard about it or are simply not affected by it, here a short summary.

Spotify’s global license for Korean music with Kakao M has expired. For whatever reason, it wasn’t renewed. Which means that hundred of kpop songs were removed from Spotify.

Here a screenshot from one of my playlists.

Sadly, I can’t even tell which songs are gone. Anyways, as always it seems to be a matter of money and power. Who has to suffer? Fans and artists. I read that Kakao refused to renew the global license, because Spotify wants a Korean license, which would make them a direct competitor for Kakao M who owns Melon, the biggest streaming service in Korea. But Kakao M says, that Spotify didn’t want to renew or at least not to the same price. Of course this is all hear say, I don’t know the truth. I just know it sucks on so many different levels.

I hope they can solve this asap and that we can get back our beloved artists and songs.