Kakao M has issued a statement in response to Spotify’s own statement regarding the expiration of their license.
On March 1st Spotify released an official statement explaining the sudden mass removal of Korean songs and albums from their platform.
To summarise, Spotify has stated that despite discussions, they have been unable to renew their license with Kakao M. This has caused the music distributed by the Korean label to be removed from the platform completely.
Not long after, Kakao M released their own statement. The Korean label denies the claim that Spotify were unable to renew their license and instead states the Swedish music platform chose not to renew their license. This was even after requests were made by Kakao M.
Kakao M is currently in talks with Spotify and negotiating for their catalogue to be made available for the South Korean version of Spotify. They also clarify the expiration of their global licensing is entirely separate and unrelated.
In the meantime, there does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel. Both JESSI and Hyuna’s discography seem to be up and running on Spotify. Their company has taken matters into their own hands and the two solo artists are now being distributed by P NATION. Their streams have yet to be restored, however.
