Fans disappointed after several popular Bollywood songs vanish from Spotify

Still from Bollywood film ‘Kalank’ (Image by Dharma Productions)

Bollywood music fans have been left disappointed after several songs have reportedly vanished from the music streaming app – Spotify.

According to Spotify, the old agreement with the owners of the songs has expired and it has not been able to reach an new agreement with them yet.

Several popular soundtracks which had millions of plays have disappeared including Malhari from epic romance Bajirao Mastani or Kala Chashma from Baar Baar Dekho, the BBC has reported.

Many users realised that the songs were no longer on the app after they hit play on some of their favourites.

BBC Newsbeat spoke to Bollywood fan Vishma Rai who said, “I’m so upset, this is insane”. She added, “It’s so bad that Kalank songs are gone. One of my favourites was the title track and it’s just so upsetting. I don’t know what I’m gonna listen to now when I want to feel loved up.”

For fans like Rai, Bollywood music plays a huge part of their lives. Several mediocre films tend to perform well at the box office if their songs are a hit among the masses. 

Rai went on, “It is so, so annoying that they’re not on there. They used to be a huge part of my daily anthems to get me going. 

“But now I don’t know what to do. It’s really upsetting and I miss them.”

According to the BBC, another fan named Zeenat has cancelled her subscription in protest. Many users have also expressed their thoughts on Twitter as well as Reddit threads.

Spotify’s website, however, does mention that it does not provide access to all the music and podcasts released around the world and makes deals with the publishers or right owners to get permission to stream those songs.

Spotify has confirmed with BBC Newsbeat that it would continue attempts in “good faith” to arrive at a “creative solution” with Zee Music, one of India’s biggest entertainment companies.