Music app Spotify was forced to remove its entire catalog of Bollywood songs from the Zee Music company after talks to renew their licensing deal fell through last week. Bollywood music users and fans are taking to social media to express their displeasure over the move.
Zee Music also did not renew its licensing agreement with music app Song and cut ties with them in 2022. A few months later, Ghana became a subscription-only service.
As per the report by Billboard, the music app said in a statement, “Spotify and Zee Music have been unable to reach a licensing agreement. Through all of these negotiations, Spotify has tried and will continue to find creative ways to reach an agreement with Zee Music. A mutually agreeable solution is coming soon.” Our good faith discussion in hopes of finding out.”
The music app has a disclaimer on its website that it does not provide access to all the music and podcasts in the world. Like streaming platform Netflix, it negotiates to license deals with publishers and rights owners to play their music tracks online.