KakaoM, Spotify back on global licensing agreement after spat

Spotify logo / Courtesy of Spotify

By Park Ji-won

Now people can listen to K-pop through Spotify, after a brief suspension. Korean music label Kakao Entertainment and Spotify have announced that they reached a music-sharing agreement.

The agreement came after the month-long dispute between the two over signing the licensing deal, after hundreds of songs owned by Kakao were removed from Spotify following the expiration of the deal.

“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,” a Kakao Entertainment spokesperson said in a joint statement of the two.

“We are pleased that Kakao Entertainment Corp.'s content and artists are back on Spotify, allowing our 345 million+ global listeners across 170 countries to once again enjoy the music they love. Spotify's 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. 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,” a Spotify spokesperson said in the joint statement.

Since the expiration of the deal and the launch of the Swedish music streaming platform in February in Korea, the two companies have been in talks of deciding the details of sharing their content.

Due to the differences over the licensing terms, the two failed to reach an agreement and Spotify has not been providing access to music belonging to Kakao Entertainment since March 1.

Kakao M, the precedent of the entertainment company, has been distributing some 37.5 percent of the music out of the Gaon Music Chart 400, one of the largest music charts in Korea which includes popular musicians such as IU as of last year.

Kakao, the parent company of Kakao Entertainment and also operator of Melon, the leading streaming service, has been defensive of the launch of the global service. Rumors spread that Kakao M had been refusing to sign a deal with Spotify.