Fans enraged after K-Pop songs distributed by Kakao M removed by Spotify

K-Pop distributor, publishing house, and record label Kakao M has reportedly had a falling out with Spotify over distribution. It has led to the removal of all K-Pop and other artists that flew under its banner from Spotify's platform.

Fans and artists alike are distraught over the news after learning that their favorite K-pop artists are missing from their Spotify feeds.

Spotify removes a ton of K-Pop songs distributed by Kakao M

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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?

— 에픽하이 타블로 | Tablo of Epik High (@blobyblo) February 28, 2021

Artists under the Kakao M banner are heartbroken over the deal. Emerging artists will be hit the hardest as Spotify was a source of exposure for up-and-coming artists looking to develop a fanbase.

Kakao M's distributed music was not available on Spotify when it launched locally in Korea. Kakao M is also in charge of a popular Korean streaming service Melon. Now, fans around the globe cannot access any of Kakao M's music on Spotify either.

Here's a list of artists that are going to be affected by this announcement:

• MAMAMOO
• SEVENTEEN
• IU
• MONSTA X
• GFRIEND
• The Boyz
• LOONA
• Sunmi
• (G)I-DLE
• BtoB
• Apink
• P1Harmony
• Dreamcatcher
• Epik High
• SISTAR
• CRAVITY
• Cosmic Girls

Fans are devastated over the news and have overrun Twitter with calls of dismay.

Here are a few responses from fans on Twitter:

Me getting arrested after i burn down kakao m’s headquarters for removing exo’s osts and solo songs on spotify pic.twitter.com/kk6tq2Wx8Z

— rudy⚘ fireworks soty🏴‍☠️ (@yungiism) February 28, 2021

artists that had their stuff on spotify deleted, a threadweikim wooseokthe boyzd1cebibiminseoiuvictonpink fantasyepik highcherry bulletoneuse'lastcravitygiriboyjunekim sunggyubae173moonbyuldpr livewh3nwoo!ah!hyolyncode kunstdrippinjannabijukjae

— ً (@lemonphobic) February 28, 2021

Kakao m and Spotify woke up and decided to ruin everyone's day for no reason pic.twitter.com/sKfS2iM3sy

— myg simp⁷ | BLM (@TanniesTinyFan) February 28, 2021

me listening to finding out that kpop last night it’s all beenand vibing removed bc of kakao m and spotify pic.twitter.com/9drProLDwE

— brenda ‧₊✜˚. ⁷ (@jjuniesphobuddy) February 28, 2021

kakao m fucking thanos snapped half of k-pop from spotify, thereby creating the villain origin story of millions of stans

— skrrtified freak (@goodbambam) February 28, 2021

spotify kakao m coming to removing half of korea kpop from spotify pic.twitter.com/zftADlJz7G

— Milly 🕊 (@smileytaeil) February 28, 2021

Idc about the disagreement between kakao m and Spotify! You can’t just remove artists music globally against the artist’s will all because of money greed... pic.twitter.com/Kq6Zz5oMU5

— bayan ⁴ˣ⁴ ❖ (@lamcIeopatra) February 28, 2021

kpop stan Twitter woke up today and saw kakao m ruined all of our Spotify playlists and chose violence pic.twitter.com/CwYeBVZGN0

— lenlen & dongju bffs 🌙 (@ddongcore) February 28, 2021

society if spotify and kakao m weren't beefing and being toxic pic.twitter.com/ZEbsUwDbsp

— b🧚🏼‍♀️ (@sundazebean) February 28, 2021

criminal: kakao m crime: deleting many songs from spotify sentence: life pic.twitter.com/9aS3QmD06E

— Stay Jail Department (@staysinjail) February 28, 2021

While licensing and distribution rights have always been contentious, the people who really suffer due to corporate greed are the artists and fans.