Spotify: Why are Bollywood songs being removed from the streaming service?

Spotify is a popular music streaming app used by people all over the world

Spotify is known for having lots of different genres of music from all around the world.

The popular music platform is home to a huge range of tracks, giving fans of all types of songs the chance to listen to their favourite tunes.

However, one recent change has left lots of people upset.

It's all because Spotify has removed hundreds of songs made popular in Bollywood movies from its app.

Varun Dhawan (centre) stars in the Bollywood film Bhediya which recently had a popular track removed from Spotify

It's because Spotify failed to reach an agreement with Indian record label Zee Music Company, which owns hundreds of Bollywood tunes, after the old deal between the two companies ended.

"Spotify and Zee Music have been unable to reach a licensing agreement," Spotify said in a statement sent to Billboard, an American music magazine.

"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."

The change has affected lots of people's playlists, with many not realising what had happened until they tried to play some of their favourite tracks.

Spotify has said it hopes to reach a solution with Zee Music Company soon.

How do music platforms like Spotify work?

Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and Spotify are all examples of digital music streaming services.

Music streaming services don't actually own the music on their platforms and they operate by entering into agreements with the people or companies who do.

These are known as copyright holders and might be massive record companies, or individual artists who release their own music.

Music streaming platforms don't actually own the music people listen to on them

The contracts between music streaming platforms and copyright holders are called licensing agreements.

These set out the terms and conditions under which a platform like Spotify can keep certain music on its app and and means it can then stream the music legally.

Licenses can last for a specific amount of time, or they may only allow music to be streamed in certain countries.

Licensing agreements also set out how much the owners of songs will receive from streaming platforms every time their music is played.