What Happened to Your Spotify Bollywood Playlist?

Bollywood fans are taking to social media to ask what happened to their favorite Bollywood playlists on Spotify. The answer is a license dispute.

Hundreds of songs from India’s biggest blockbusters have been removed from Spotify. This is because Spotify says it was unable to reach a licensing agreement with the track’s owner. The user opened his favorite playlist and discovered that he could not find soundtracks such as Malhari in Bailao Mastani and Karachashma in Baal He Baal His Deco.

“I am so upset; this is insane,” Bollywood fan Vishma Rai told the BBC of his dismissal. “It’s such a shame that Calanque’s songs are gone. One of my favorites of him was the title his track and it’s so upsetting. Now when I want to feel loved I don’t know what to listen to.”

Spotify was forced to remove its entire Zee Music catalog from its service after failing to renew its license agreement. Zee Music also did not renew its licensing agreement with music app Gaana, cutting ties with the service in 2022. A few months later, Gaana became a subscription-only service.

“Spotify and G-Music were unable to reach a licensing deal,” said a spokesperson. “Through these negotiations, Spotify seeks to find creative ways to reach an agreement with Zee Music and will continue negotiations in good faith in the hope that a mutually agreeable solution will be found soon. Licensing deals are always in flux, but Zee Music covers the vast majority of Indian Bollywood music sounds.

“Streaming is great and plays an important role, but please remember once again that it should not be seen as a substitute for physical collections,” one Bollywood fan tweeted after the deletion. With 93.6 million subscribers on YouTube, it has 239 million subscribers, making it the second most-subscribed channel after the T series.