Seventeen, Mamamoo and other Kakao M artists back on Spotify after renewed deal

Around a week ago, many Kakao M artists like Mamamoo, Seventeen, Monsta X, IU, G I-DLE, Zico, Gfriend, Apink, Taeyeon, VIXX, Sunmi, were removed from Spotify following a failed negotiation between the two companies. However, as of yesterday March 11, Spotify and Kakao M have announced their agreement after renewing their global license. Now, the thousands of songs of the Kakao M artists who vanished from the app would be back on the streaming service as soon as possible. 

Seventeen, Mamamoo and more K-pop groups back on Spotify 

As of March 11's press release, a Kakao M spokesperson stated, "Kakao Entertainment Corp.(previously Kakao M) has entered into an agreement with Spotify and will sequentially provide its music content to Spotify for service in and beyond Korea. Through its diverse partnerships around the world including Spotify, Kakao Entertainment hopes that music lovers around the world can easily access its artists’ and music content to enjoy K-pop. 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."

Kakao M is South Korea's leading streaming platforms just like Melon and Genie. Spotify is a direct competitor to Kakao, and the recent dispute between them arose due to some negotiations issues. 

About K-pop on Spotify

As of now, many K-pop songs are already on the streaming platform, however, artists like HyunA and Jessi decided to shift to Psy's label P Nation during this time, as well as Epik High, who also moved to Ours Co, according to geekculture. So, these artists could reupload their songs on Spotify. Currently, as the dispute has settled, the K-pop songs which were disabled on Spotify will be available on the platform again.

Spotify was launched in South Korea just a month ago. Now its new agreement with Kakao ensures that the same content would be available on the app in South Korea, in the hopes to reach out to more Korean listeners. Currently, some songs and albums of the Kakao artists have already returned to the platform, while most are unplayable at the moment.