Entertainment
Netflix brings Makoto Shinkai’s ‘Weathering With You’
Apt for the rainy season!

Prepare your hearts and bring out the tissues! Netflix brings Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering With You (Tenki no Ko) to the Philippines.
The streaming giant announced on its social media last July 25, a few weeks after its hit 2016 film Your Name (Kimi no Na Wa) was added to Netflix’s catalog.
Alexa, play She Changes the Weather. 🌦
Get ready to be blown away because Weathering With You is coming to Netflix on July 31! pic.twitter.com/sCNMWsBUnz— Netflix Philippines (@Netflix_PH) July 25, 2020
Weathering With You is a film about a high-school boy who runs away from his rural home, and befriending an orphan girl with the ability to manipulate the weather in Tokyo.
The film follows their adventures throughout Tokyo with heart-wrenching scenes told through a beautiful, narratively engaging animation. It was produced by Genki Kawamura, with remarkable music composed by RADWIMPS.
Weathering With You arrives at Netflix Philippines on July 31, coinciding with The Umbrella Academy‘s Season 2.

Entertainment
Hundreds of K-Pop songs by KakaoM removed from Spotify
Including songs from IU, LOONA, Dreamcatcher, GFRIEND, SEVENTEEN, MAMAMOO, and more

K-Pop has been making waves both in South Korea and outside their homeland. And with the recent launch of Spotify Korea, international fans are expecting it to be recognized by major Korean music shows as an additional attempt in making more underrated artists and groups succeed without totally relying on Korean streaming platforms and Korean fans alone. But the recent feud between KakaoM and Spotify put everything to a screeching halt.
What is KakaoM?
KakaoM is a large co-publisher of K-Pop albums by Korean artists. Other than being a music publishing house, they’re also a music and concert production house, events management agency, talent agency, and even a record label. This basically means they can handle everything from handling K-Pop trainees and talents, up to pre-production, production, and post-production phases of a single, EP, mini album, or even a full album.

Image by GadgetMatch
Other than KakaoM’s in-house artists like IU (under EDAM Entertainment), Apink, VICTON, and Weeekly (under PlayM Entertainment), as well as non-KakaoM talents such as LOONA, Dreamcatcher, MAMAMOO, GFRIEND, SEVENTEEN, HyunA, and (G)-IDLE, this long Twitter thread shows the full list of K-Pop groups, duos, and soloists that are handled and/or whose albums were published by KakaoM:
artists that had their stuff on spotify deleted, a thread
wei
kim wooseok
the boyz
d1ce
bibi
minseo
iu
victon
pink fantasy
epik high
cherry bullet
oneus
e’last
cravity
giriboy
june
kim sunggyu
bae173
moonbyul
dpr live
wh3n
woo!ah!
hyolyn
code kunst
drippin
jannabi
jukjae— ً (@lemonphobic) February 28, 2021
Explaining the fiasco

Image by GadgetMatch
In an article published by the Korean site NAVER, Spotify has informed that KakaoM was unable to extend the validity of the agreement. Thus, effectively ending the contract today, March 1, 2021. Spotify also reported that they’ve been keeping in touch with KakaoM for a year but to no avail. They even said that KakaoM never informed the artists nor their respective agencies prior to the cancellation.
KakaoM isn’t totally a stranger in such issues. This already happened in 2019 when KakaoM failed to mass produce LOONA’s “[X X]” albums despite the large volumes of album pre-orders. That hindered LOONA from getting their first win in a music show. It even came to a point where they failed to renew LOONA’s songs listed under them in Spotify.
FIRST YOU RUIN LOONA’S SALES AND THEIR CHANCE FOR A FIRST WIN IN 2019, NOW YOU REMOVE HALF OF THE SONGS I LISTEN TO ON SPOTIFY……THIS IS IT…….YOU WILL NEVER SEE THE END OF ME KAKAO M I WANT YOU GONE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!
— nina! (@jeonsbits) February 28, 2021
This also has a massive effect among international K-Pop artists and fans in general. With the large number of groups and artists alone, Spotify not only helps them get on a larger scale outside Korea, but it also contributes records to music charts such as Billboard.
Streaming charts have always been a big deal among K-Pop fans. With Spotify’s recent entry in the Korean music industry, fans have speculated that this unsettled agreement between Spotify and KakaoM was due to the fact that they don’t want to lose Melon, which is Korea’s top and largest music streaming platform with 28 million subscribers.
Other than the reliance of chartings and rankings by music shows such as Mnet’s M Countdown, KBS’s Music Core, SBS’s Inkigayo, MBC’s Music Core, and more, the streaming platform is owned by none other than KakaoM. This is a speculation all along but the fact that Spotify has 345+ million subscribers in 170 markets dwarfs Melon alone.
Stan Twitter memes everywhere
Some fans were able to make humor out of this controversy.
kakao m: removes their artist’ songs from spotify
kpop stans: lets boycott spotify
spotify: pic.twitter.com/029yZmZVBU
— ً (@jjkpremacist) March 1, 2021
With KakaoM’s Melon ownership, international fans have joked around that signing up to Melon will never happen.
Lmao Kakao M thought people gonna go to Melon after they remove their content from Spotify but instead we all went to YouTube music and apple music pic.twitter.com/lAQe330xgt
— ☁⁷ ¦ SEOKJIN’S VOCALS ARE HEAVEN ITSELF (@millkygyuu) March 1, 2021
The fury of the K-Pop international fanbase might have made KakaoM realize their wrong action.
Kakao M after realizing removing songs on spotify is a stupid move: pic.twitter.com/6oT9zDWXbu
— minwon ; \⁷ D-2 (@Meaniethepooh) March 1, 2021
Orbits aren’t late to the meme party
Orbits KakaoM
thinking removing
this week 2 #LOONA
is albums from
finally over: Spotify: pic.twitter.com/iKCZRadiQ1— TEAMLOONA (@loonateams) March 1, 2021
It seems like every K-Pop fan is transferring to YouTube Music (not even Apple Music)
Spotify and Kakao m issue
~
Meanwhile youtube music: pic.twitter.com/QEtPv0D9EL— JunHoshi 1+🐯 (@YeyHuihuiii) March 1, 2021
KakaoM as Thanos, anyone?
Kakao M, which holds the streaming rights to many South Korean artists (and owns Melon), have pulled out of their license agreement with Spotify causing many Korean songs and artists to be unavailable on Spotify worldwide.
When you can’t handle the competition … pic.twitter.com/no13lEpUb6
— Nuice Media (@nuicemedia) March 1, 2021
Memes aside, Spotify has re-assured fans that this issue is temporary and can still be resolved once KakaoM reaches a new global deal. Fans (like me) are hoping that KakaoM will settle this as soon as possible or this might be a huge loss not just to them, but for fans, artists, and their respective agencies as well.

Last year, Virtual Hangouts brought you music festivals, concerts, youth summits, K-fan meets, and esports tournaments with the #OLTogetherNow. Well, strap up because they’re back.
Globe launched their Virtual Hangouts return with a virtual 360-degree view launch event last February 18. They, of course, had to tease us with sneak peeks of GoJAM, GoCAMPUS, GoKOREAN, and GoESPORTS this year.
GoJAM
Jumping off of last year’s GoJAM, Virtual Hangouts partnered with Karpos Live to bring a concert series featuring local and international acts from Paradise Rising, a music collective born out of Globe and 88rising’s partnership. Talents such as Jason Dhakal, Claudia Baretto, Leanne and Naara, and more are in this year’s line-up.
In light of circumstances last year, GoJAM brought you virtual Wanderland Music Festival 2020 and the Double Happiness: Winter Wonder Festival. So, tune in and wait for any new updates on this year’s events. While on the wait, GoJAM is stepping up their virtual immersive experience with virtual 360 concerts and choose-your-own-adventure interviews in this year’s plans.
GoCAMPUS
GoCAMPUS is bringing in another virtual youth summit and Future Reinvented. Students will be challenged to put theory into practice through a 5G Hackathon where teams make real-life applications of 5G technology.
With these events, GoCAMPUS hopes to reinvent school and learning experiences for students. While, empowering them to eventually bring to life real-world applications of 5G technology in society, industries, and smart cities.
GoKOREAN
Globe and K-Pop sensation BLACKPINK’s partnership and the recently concluded THE SHOW virtual concert aside, GoKOREAN has even more in store.
With GoKOREAN, K-fans get to enjoy interactive activities, like the design-your-own cup sleeves event as a way of celebrating the birthdays of BLACKPINK members. Virtual Hangouts will be having the Kmmunity Fest where fans can have a safe space to mingle and share their love of all thing K-Culture. Kmmunity Fest will be new platforms such as SHOOR, Upstream, as well as Vlive and VLive+.
GoESPORTS
Globe’s ongoing efforts to improve the Philippine esports scene by developing and discovering new esports talents and athletes was loud and clear with their VH UltiCup last year. How? Well, they opened both professional and amateur gamers to the competitive scene and giving them the opportunity to represent the country at the SuperGameFest 2020.
With its recent partnership with Riot Games Southeast Asia, it is no surprise that Globe is paving way for new opportunities for local gamers and enthusiasts. GoESPORTS has a few tournaments on their line-up for this year so keep your eyes peeled for any announcements.
If you’re interested in music, campus learning, K-culture, and esports, you can be part of these upcoming events on Virtual Hangouts simply through the GlobeOne app. On the app, just click on the Virtual Hangouts tab to view the events and join.

The wait is over. Disney+ is now finally available in Singapore.
If you’ve been longing to stream Disney classics, new shows like The Mandalorian in the Star Wars universe, or just want a feel good flick from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you can now do so via the streaming app.
The subscription costs SG$ 11.98 per month or SG$ 119.98 for a year. With it you’ll have access to a library of 500 movies and over 15,000 episodes of some of your favorite shows from Disney Channel.
You’ll also gain access to content by other major entertainment companies like Pixar, National Geographic, and Star.
To sign-up, users need to go to the Disney+ website and you’ll be asked to input your email address so they can keep you updated on how to subscribe. A subscription plan lets the user stream on four different devices at the same time. There are also different profiles for each subscription just like Netflix. However, instead of just five, Disney+ gives you up to seven profiles.
GeekCulture put together a list of supported devices so check them out to see if you have any of them.
-
Accessories2 weeks ago
OPPLE Smart Desk Lamp now available in the Philippines
-
Gaming2 weeks ago
AcadArena announces its first PH Esports scholars
-
Gaming2 weeks ago
Blizzard announces Diablo II remaster for this year
-
Gaming1 week ago
SteelSeries unveils its new Tusq in-ear gaming headset
-
Gaming2 weeks ago
Square Enix is bringing back Legend of Mana
-
India2 weeks ago
Lenovo launches Smart Clock Essential with Google Assistant
-
Gaming1 week ago
Lenovo Legion Slim 7i review: How light can you go?
-
Hands-On1 week ago
OPPO Reno5: Ideal upper midranger