![[IT큐레이션] IU, who is the villain disappeared stand Spotify?](https://cdn.econovill.com/news/thumbnail/202103/521482_427117_131_v150.jpg "[IT큐레이션] IU, who is the villain disappeared stand Spotify?")
[이코노믹리뷰=최진홍 기자] IU has disappeared from the global source platform Spotify. This is because the domestic music service that Kakao M owns in Spotify has been completely stopped from the 1st.
The industry is paying attention to the aftermath.
“Existing contract expired”
The reason Kakao M’s music service has been discontinued in Spotify is due to the’expiration of the contract’.
Since 2016, before Spotify entered Korea, Kakao M has been supplying music for overseas services, and after that, when the contract expires, it automatically renews it.
It is Spotify’s recent proposal for a new contract. Spotify recently entered the domestic market and proposed a new contract by binding overseas and domestic sound source supply contracts, but it is said that Kakao M refused to do so, resulting in an unprecedented’sound source withdrawal case’.
Kakao M is a big hand that distributes about 37.5% of Gaon Chart’s 400th-ranked sound sources as of last year, and Spotify is the strongest global music platform that requires no words. In this situation, when the two companies stopped contracting for the supply of music sources, the industry is getting worse.
Particularly, the worries of the artists are great. At once, Tablo posted on social media, saying, “Due to the disagreement between Kakao M and Spotify, the new album’Epik High Is Here’ was not available all over the world regardless of our intentions. Regardless of whose responsibility, companies put greed ahead of art. When I do, why are artists and fans suffering?”
Who is the villain
Responsible battles are intensifying over the unprecedented situation in which the Kakao M sound source disappears from Spotify.
First of all, it is said that Spotify will enter the domestic market and check Kakao M, which has melon. It is argued that Spotify unilaterally halted the contract with the aim of reducing the influence of Kakao M, which has Kakao, the number one platform in the domestic music streaming market and an ICT platform company, Kakao as its parent company.
Starting from the conclusion, the possibility is slim. This is because, for Spotify, cooperation with Kakao M is urgently needed to expand its domestic market share. Above all, with K-pop contents as a hub and a blueprint to explore various possibilities, the confrontation with Kakao M, which owns about 37.5% of major domestic music sources, is something we want to avoid from Spotify’s point of view. Initially, the existing contract and the entry into the domestic market of Spotify were a separate matter, and contradicted Spotify’s philosophy of’providing as many artists’ music as possible to as many people as possible’.
For that reason, some point out that Spotify is pursuing an’unreasonable global standard strategy’ with the scenes that unreasonably bundled overseas and domestic sound source supply contracts. It is a criticism that it unilaterally imposes global standards on’powerless domestic companies’ by advocating the presence of a dinosaur music platform that can introduce K-pop contents to the global market. It is similar to the suspicion that Google Korea does not disclose the exact sales amount due to the’global standard’ and is trying to evade tax.
This argument is possible. However, considering that Spotify enters the local market and employs a flexible strategy that suits the local situation, this logic is also somewhat less persuasive. Above all, Spotify and Kakao M’s sound source supply contracts have been discussed for about a year and a half. It is said that if Spotify had forcefully forced the global standard strategy, steady consultation itself would have been difficult.
Meanwhile, it is said that Kakao M in fact induces the suspension of the supply of sound sources to contain Spotify. It is said that amidst the recent saying that Melon’s absolute position is being shaken, it was evaluated that it made a super strong push of’stopping the supply of sound sources’ to restrain Spotify’s expansion of its domestic market share.
Unfortunately, there is a view that it is’significant’ about the fact that Kakao M’s sound source for Spotify has ceased from the 1st when a large entertainment company was launched due to the completion of the merger between Kakao Page and Kakao M. In the end, the essence of this situation is the claim that Kakao M is a check against Spotify.
However, from the point of view of Kakao M, the damage suffered by not being able to supply the sound source to Spotify is more severe. It is less persuasive.
“I will agree soon”
The industry views the catastrophe as “because Kakao M did not accept the new contract terms for Spotify.” In this process, Kakao M and Spotify are laying down a lot of paving stones to keep their opponents in check. In the end, it is said that under the big frame of failure to comply with the new contract terms, a number of’needed wars’ of the two companies overlapped, and that the current catastrophe was combed out.
However, this situation is disadvantageous for both companies. Spotify is inevitable to hit the domestic music market, and if the situation enters a prolonged phase, global subscribers who love K-pop content will likely receive considerable criticism. If the controversy grows for Kakao M, it is expected that the backlash from users as well as artists will reach an extreme. This means that the global pipeline strategy through Spotify will be braked.
It is predicted that the two companies will eventually negotiate. Right now, Spotify is proactive in solving the situation.
Spotify said, “Spotify has worked in all directions for more than a year and a half to continuously provide Kakao M artist’s music to fans around the world and more than 345 million users in 170 countries as of today. The existing license (covering all countries except Korea) expired in the absence of agreement on the new global license, and we realize that this is a regrettable phenomenon for many artists and fans and listeners around the world. We sincerely hope that the situation will be resolved as soon as possible. Spotify will continue to cooperate with Korean rights holder groups including Kakao M, and will continue to do its best to contribute positively to the shared growth of the Korean music industry and streaming ecosystem. I will do it all,” he said.