Hundreds of songs from South Korea's biggest singers and bands have disappeared from Spotify's song library.
The removal of the K-Pop songs came after the audio streaming company failed to reach an agreement with South Korean music distributor Kakao M.
Songs from groups and singers such as Seventeen, Monsta X, Mamamoo, IU, Zico, Gfriend, Apink, Dreamcatcher, Loona, and Sunmi are now all unavailable on Spotify.
The company said that music from all South Korean artists attached to Kakao M will be removed from its global network starting this week. Spotify said that they were removed as the global license for the songs has now expired.
"Despite our best efforts, the existing licensing deal we had with Kakao M has come to an end," Spotify said.
Spotify said that its failure to reach an agreement with Kakao M was "unfortunate" for the company's artists as well as for all K-pop fans worldwide. The company said that it will be working to resolve the issue.
"It is our hope that this disruption will be temporary and we can resolve the situation soon. We remain committed to working with local rights holders including Kakao M, to help grow the Korean music market and overall streaming ecosystem together," Spotify said.
Spotify officially launched in South Korea last month as part of its strategy to make its services available to more than 85 additional markets. The company said that it aims to make its services available to around 170 markets by the end of the year.
The company's launch in South Korea, unfortunately, did not go as smoothly as it had intended. The service had launched without much of the content from Kakao M's library, which were already being distributed by Spotify's local rival, Melon.
Artists affected by the disagreement have voiced their frustrations online. A member of the South Korean hip hop group Epik High asked in a post only why it's always the artists and fans that suffer when companies place "greed over art."
Kakao M said in a statement that Spotify was to blame for the standstill. The company said that it is still willing to negotiate with Spotify to resolve the licensing issue.
