Spotify has removed the songs of Zee Music after negotiations for a renewal of their licensing agreement fell through. As a result, the platform no longer has several really popular tracks. For instance, ‘Apna Bana Le’ from Bhediya, which had been the top song on Spotify in India for the previous two weeks, has been taken off.
Speaking of the matter, Spotify told Billboard, “Spotify and Zee Music have been unable to reach a licensing agreement.” The music streaming platform further added, “Throughout these negotiations, Spotify has tried to find creative ways to strike a deal with Zee Music and will continue our good faith negotiations in hopes of finding a mutually agreeable solution soon.” On the other hand, Billboard also mentioned that the chief business officer at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Anurag Bedi, declined to comment on the matter.
It is worth mentioning here that Zee Music had numerous tracks on Spotify’s Daily Top 200 Songs chart for India. The list includes songs such as ‘Maiyya Mainu’ from Jersey, the title tracks from ‘Kalank’ and ‘Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas’, ‘Makhna’ from Drive, ‘Namo Namo’ from Kedarnath and ‘Zaalima’ from Raees. But due to the ongoing dispute, all these tracks will remain unavailable on the platform till a new agreement comes through.
On the other hand, Spotify dropping all ZEE Music Company’s catalogues has created confusion among music listeners. A few of them have even raised the issue on Twitter. Besides the above-mentioned tracks, many noticed that music albums of films like Piku and Sairat are also not available on the platform.
With that being said, it is worth mentioning here that Zee Entertainment Enterprises is the second-most-subscribed-to Indian music channel after T-Series.
