Spotify removes Bollywood songs in licensing dispute | Bollywood

Music app Spotify was forced to remove its entire catalog of Bollywood songs from Zee Music Company last week after negotiations to renew its licensing agreement failed. Users and fans of Bollywood music have expressed their dissatisfaction with the move on social media. Some even threatened to cancel their subscriptions on the app. (Please also read: Spotify Focuses on India: ’13x Increase in Indian Artists on Platform’)

Zee Music also did not renew its licensing agreement with music app Gaana, which ended in 2022. A few months later, Gaana became a subscription-only service.

As reported by Billboard, the music app said in a statement: We will negotiate in good faith in the hope that a mutually acceptable solution will be found soon. ”

The music app website has a disclaimer stating that it doesn’t offer access to all the music and podcasts in the world. to allow their music tracks to be played online.

Fans took to Twitter to complain about the move. One user wrote: “Nagada Sang Dhol and a string of Bollywood songs have been removed from Spotify, ruining my girlfriend’s week,” wrote another user. Another user told other music listeners: “It’s a crime to delete all my Bollywood bangers,” added yet another Twitter user.

Songs like Maiyya Mainu from Jersey (2022), Makhna from Drive (2019) and Zaalima from Raees (2017) have all been removed. The soundtracks to the romantic comedy Veere Di Wedding (2018), the award-winning His Gully Boy (2019), and the period drama Kalank (2019) have also been removed.

Zee Music has 93.6 million YouTube subscribers. This puts him second on YouTube after the T series with 239 million subscribers.