The truth behind the Spotify / Kakao M music dispute
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- Опубліковано 26 чер 2024
- The Spotify and Kakao M dispute made huge waves in the K-pop world. On February 28th, 2021, hundreds of K-pop songs went suddenly missing from Spotify. A slew of international K-pop fans were angry, especially towards Kakao M for this.
The dispute would end in only 12 days, with an agreement formally signed on March 11th. With that, all of Kakao M’s songs would return to the Swedish music streaming label.
While Kakao M definitely played a big part in the songs missing, Spotify wasn’t an angel either. The truth is a bit deeper than “Kakao M, this is your fault! Where are my K-pop songs?”
The Kakao M and Spotify dispute is an interesting case of K-pop business, how cutthroat it is, and how companies try to win the court of public opinion.
Let’s break down this dispute and the truth behind it.
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TIME STAMPS:
0:00 Intro
1:22 The disappearance of K-pop from Spotify
4:37 Everyone gets hurt by this
5:43 Music streaming is a big deal
7:26 Kakao M vs Spotify in Korea
9:16 The truth of the dispute
12:20 Kakao M and Spotify sign an agreement
13:02 Now over to you
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TAGS:
#spotify #kakaom #melon
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SOURCES:
► www.koreaherald.com/view.php?u...
► www.koreaherald.com/view.php?u...
► www.thecrimson.com/article/20...
► www.sportskeeda.com/pop-cultu...
► newsroom.spotify.com/2020-02-...
► / spotify_removes_hundre...
► news.yahoo.com/spotify-k-pop-....
► www.statista.com/statistics/6...
► / list_of_5300_songs_del...
► www.statista.com/statistics/1...
► www.koreaherald.com/view.php?u...
► www.republicworld.com/enterta...
► www.musicbusinessworldwide.co...
► newsroom.spotify.com/2021-02-...
► / kakao_m_comments_on_sp...
► www.bbc.com/news/entertainmen...
► / bhnd1oxabys
► aminoapps.com/c/btsarmy/page/...
► m.pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?ye...
► www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...
► / 1253310209050636294
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I'll say this again that your channel is so important to the Kpop community. There's no other who talks about in-depth business issues AND has knowledge of the Kpop, Jpop, and the Western markets. You deserve 10x the subscribers and more!
Thank you for the kind words. Means a ton and really keeps me going that the videos help you (and hopefully others) out! I'm trying to make in-depth K-pop business and analysis videos the new cool thing in K-pop.
@@Popsori I think you're a trailblazer. Now that HYBE acquired Ithaca Holdings (Ariana Grande, Bieber), you're point of views are even more needed in Kpop!
Kakao is fighting with the wrong company. UA-cam Music is now the 2nd most popular music streaming service in South Korea, according to Yonhap News.
There's no way kakao will fight youtube. If they do there music will be pulled from youtube main site meaning all the views and kakao's main label channel will be shut down, kakao lost youtube music because that deal is already been made plus I feel like youtube has better payment toward kakao then what spotify had tried to enter with
I wouldn't mess with UA-cam either. It's quite popular in Korea, UA-cam has a deal there (as Kerron said), and UA-cam's deal is better than Spotify's standardized, all countries deal.
Spotify, on the other hand, is new in Korea, missing features that Koreans are used to having on their music apps (such as live lyrics), and are seen as a monopoly by some Korean music labels.
Love your content because it raises other interesting things.
Will Spotify Korea be included on the Gaon Charts thereby being included in Music Show calculations for results?
Will we be seeing the first Spotify Daesang at a Spotify Award show which is common with other major Korean Awards?
You really bring up a good point if Spotify Korea will be included on the Gaon Charts and music shows. I'm really curious to see if Spotify Korea will be calculated in those shows.
Same with seeing a Spotify Daesang at a Spotify award show, since Spotify is big enough to host their own show.
Thank you for the kind words and watching my videos. Although business and in-depth analysis videos on K-pop aren't really popular, hopefully more people become interested in the genre in the future.
Fact: same crap happened when Apple Music launched in Korea.
Fact: Melon has localized features that Spotify does not (and most likely will not) have. Its success is not quite guaranteed domestically.
I know what you mean with Melon having localized features. For instance, I just starting using Melon and I like it's live lyrics feature (I know all Korean music apps have them) while the song is playing. I think Korean listeners are used to having the lyrics option on their music app.
So I agree that Spotify's success isn't guaranteed in Korea.
@@Popsori my wife uses Melon and always goes back after trying out different services like UA-cam Music, Apple Music, Spotify, etc. It's more tailored to the local users and already has a big community built up. Netflix, for example, offered something truly unique. Spotify does not.
Agreed. Spotify Korea really has to offer something unique and have features that other Korean music apps already have to take off.
Interesting analysis. I don't see such things happen when Spotify entered Japanese market. Any ideas why?
I'm actually not sure, as I'd have to do more research on the Japan side.
But if I had to guess, I say that Kakao M thought they had a lot of leverage because of K-pop's popularity. Streaming is huge in Korea. Japan, on the other hand, was still in its infancy in streaming when Spotify came in 2016. Perhaps the Japanese companies also wanted Spotify in the country as well.
@@Popsori or companies didn't care about it. Seems like Japanese music companies at that time were still stuck in the past, they probably thought, "Meh, consumers will still buy CDs so who cares about these streaming services."
@@p3arl38 That makes sense too. I can Japanese labels saying exactly what you said: "Meh, consumers will still buy CDs anyways."
@@Popsori Considering that streaming services started to get popular in Japan from 2018 onwards, this isn't a surprise.
But one interesting phenomenon that I saw lately is existence of digital exclusive releases. That might be also a factor since that having one more digital distribution platform means better exposure for digital exclusive releases.
In Japan, their Music Providers sign exclusive contracts with Japan based Artists which is the sole reason that people living in Japan have to sign with different services for their Japan based Music as there is no centralisation. As International Artists are readily available for all those Platforms it means that Spotify doesn't have any advantage.
So perhaps it's due to the Japanese Music Market being solely sufficient with people living in Japan that they create such a bubble
Glad they sorted it out, or else I was going to be on the road, or I guess river? to the high seas. At least for the songs that were missing
I'm glad too! If the dispute lasted any longer, I can see K-pop fans going crazy that their K-pop songs are missing.
Great video, as usual. If I could, I would donate right away, but sadly I can't.
No worries at all! I appreciate you even considering donating, but honestly, you even watching my videos makes my day. Thank you so much and I think you'll like the next video.
I also wanted to ask: which artists do you listen to these days?
@@Popsori Thanks to you for making high quality videos! Regarding your question, I really liked Astro's and Onlyoneof's latest comebacks. And of course I also got into the Rollin Rollin train. On the Jpop side, I keep up with what JO1 and AKB48 release. And I'm also watching P101JP so I like their songs though I'm not sure if that counts as something I'm listening to.
I wish you can upload more.
You're telling me! You bring up a good point and one I'm really working hard at.
I'm currently doing a full-time career, so it makes it extremely tough to find time. I actually do UA-cam as my 2nd job. Unfortunately, UA-cam doesn't pay all the bills like my job, so I have put more time on the career for now.
Also, videos take an average of 30-40 hours to do. Hopefully, I can find more time and speed up my video production. I'll try my best to get them out faster 😀
@@Popsori I see, well post whenever you can then.
@@vincenzo8239 Thank you again for even saying what you did. It's humbling that people watch my videos and care so much. It really is.
I just wanted to be upfront and tell you the truth, rather than a BS excuse or reason. I want to shoot for one video every two weeks and increase it to once a week once I hire an editor. But the channel has to grow a bit more, so I'll work on that.
I do also need to upload more, like you said. I'll find some more time and see how I can do this!
People love to villanize Korean music companies. At the end of the day, it's just business.
I agree 100%. It really just business, but I think a lot of fans sadly don't understand that or want to ignore it.
@@Popsori looking forward to reply my questions in your channels thanks..
I wonder how many subscribers Spotify lost. I personally cancelled my Spotify and switched to Apple Music.
It would be interesting to see the actual numbers on this. I think overall, Spotify probably still gained more subs than lost (due to non-K-pop fans joining or K-pop fans staying), but I think Apple Music is the big winner in this.
Is that krunk in the right? 🤣
It is!
Both companies are shit, both pays peanuts to the artists or even don't pay them (looking at you Melon). But also Anghami could hold its own against Spotify in the Middle East (correct me if I'm wrong) so why can't Kakao do the same in Korea. Just provide better service methinks.
For sure, both companies have their hands dirty. The artists' payment could be a lot better too, especially with Melon.
As with Anghami, that's great if they can hold their own against Spotify in the Middle East. I don't know too much about Anghami myself, so I'll take your word for it.
You do get a good point in "provide good service Kakao M." I do think their app is pretty good thus far (just started using it), but I think competition is good to raise the quality of services, such as music apps.
If Spotify is providing that great quality and getting more paying customers, then others should step up their game.
@@Popsori I too don't know much about Anghami, but I learned from Middle East and Indian ARMYs it's their main music streaming platform there. Quick Google search also gives me news that Anghami is going to be listed on Nasdaq so I guess they're really doing quite well.
On another note, as you can probably already tell, I'm ARMY. Have you heard about the major bombs HYBE just dropped today? A deal with/investment from Warner/HBO and acquiring Scooter Braun's company (Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande becoming labelmates with Bangtan? 😱). Maybe you could do a future video on it. What's your take and what it could mean for HYBE, BTS and other groups, or the Kpop industry as a whole.
Yeah, I'm keeping up with HYBE these days too! There's a lot of big news on HYPE, of course BTS, and K-pop in general, so it's very exciting to see. As for BTS upcoming videos, I want to do them when I have something that's a bit different and people will learn from. The other reason is as much as BTS is great, I don't want to overly spam BTS videos, as I know it's easy to do.
As for the renaming of Bit Hit to HYBE, I think I'd be very interested in doing that kind of video. Heck, I'd like to do a HYBE/Big Hit video on their business model, as I think there's a ton of BTS videos out there already.
With that being said, if there's a ton of demand for BTS and there's a cool angle, I'll do one.
maybe, spotify tried to colonise korean local streaming spot and crush kakao m
It could be a possibility, as Korea is one of the only major music markets it doesn't have a big share in... yet...