ARMYs worldwide are requesting answers and clarification from Spotify after songs including “Left And Right” by Charlie Puth and Jungkook and “My Universe” by Coldplay and BTS were allegedly removed from the group’s streaming totals, leading to changes in their “Spotify Wrapped” results.
Music fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting the release of Spotify’s “Spotify Wrapped,” a feature of the music app that allows fans to see trends in the music they listen to. “Spotify Wrapped” also gives users listener information about the genres they are interested in, including K-Pop.
Originally, BTS’s Jungkook was shared to have been the most streamed K-Pop artist on the app, with over 600 million streams across songs that he released or was featured on. He was also included in the “Top 10 K-Pop Artists” list in ninth place.
BTS was also ranked number one on the “Top 10 K-Pop Artists” list as well as appearing in worldwide lists like “Top Groups of 2022” and “Top Tracks of 2022.”
The day after Spotify Wrapped was released, fans noticed that there were changes to the charts and the total number of streams that BTS had as a group and individually. First, Jungkook was no longer included in the “Top 10 K-Pop Artists” list, and his streams significantly changed. A new most streamed K-Pop solo artist was also announced.
Upon closer inspection, ARMYs discovered that the streams for Jungkook’s collaboration song “Left and Right” were allegedly no longer included in his overall streams. “Left and Right” currently has over 400 million streams and makes up a large bulk of Jungkook’s individual artist streams.
In addition to this, fans also discovered that multiple collaboration songs were no longer included in BTS’s stream totals, including “Bad Decisions,” “Sexy Kukim,” “That That,” and “My Universe.” As a result, ARMYs trended several related topics on Twitter, including “JUNGKOOK MOST STREAMED SOLOIST,” “My Universe,” and “Left and Right.”
While BTS’s group rankings were not affected by this change, fans are demanding answers as to why certain songs’ streams are no longer being allegedly counted:
- 'Left and Right' by K-POP ARTIST Jung Kook has been charting on Spotify's own K-Pop Global Chart for 14 weeks now. @Spotify @spotifycharts @SpotifyCares We are waiting for your explanation on why 'Left and Right' was suddenly removed from Jungkook's streams on Spotify Wrapped.
- we demand transparency and a clear explanation as to why both BTS & Jungkook's streams were removed, and why this happened a day AFTER the stats were announced @Spotify @SpotifyCares #SpotifyCorrupt
- @GeffenRecords please could u look into why @Spotify didn’t count the streams of ‘Left & right’ for Jungkook & My universe/Bad decisions for BTS? In 2020 a song released by a western act which Feat a Kpop Act was counted as a Kpop song + for the total streams of that K act.
- Why are all collabs counted towards Both Artist on Spotify except literally bts and Jungkook….
- They did it to Jimin too on the OST song
- And BTS are also the only artist that gets Most Filters, just to stop them from getting #1... something is fishy, like people behind Spotify are Haters of BTS and they are being paid too by the industries
- This is way too much.... We've been silent for way too long... Ignoring the sabotage towards 875 gonna cost us
- this year, the blatant robbing off of streams and credits is getting prominent. They do it in broad daylight.
