Bollywood songs removed from Spotify
Spotify says it’s not been able to reach an agreement with the track owners of some ‘Bollywood’ artists after previous contracts had expired, hence the removal of certain tracks.. Soundtracks with millions of plays, like Malhari from epic romance Bajirao Mastani or Kala Chashma from Baar Baar Dekho, along with other fan favorites, were among the deleted hits.
As Spotify explains on its website – it doesn’t provide access to all the music and podcasts in the world. Like any streaming service, it makes licensing deals with publishers and rights owners, allowing it to provide its tracks. Follow SpotLife ASIA for the latest news and updates.
It’s a similar system to apps like Netflix, where titles will disappear before popping up on a rival service. The majority of titles removed are associated with those from Indian record label Zee Music Company’s catalog after negotiations for a renewal of their licensing agreement fell through.
On March 14, the last day its releases could be streamed on Spotify, Zee Music had over two dozen tracks on Spotify’s Daily Top 200 Songs chart for India. These included long-running Bollywood hits such as “Maiyya Mainu” from Jersey (2022), the title tracks from Kalank (2019) and Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas (2019), “Makhna” from Drive (2019), “Namo Namo” from Kedarnath (2018) and “Zaalima” from Raees (2017).
The label’s catalog also includes soundtracks to films distributed by sister company Zee Studios, such as the 2018 rom-com Veere Di Wedding and the 2019 hip-hop-centric Gully Boy.
Zee Music Company, which is part of the Zee Entertainment Enterprises media conglomerate, is one of India’s largest domestic record labels. Its YouTube subscriber base of 93.6 million makes it the second most-subscribed-to Indian music channel after global leader T-Series, which boasts 239 million subscribers.
