Why are there covers but not the original songs?

[TimTheGinger]

I've been trying to find some songs from various genres but I can't seem to find the original artist's version of the song or sometimes even the original artist, but I see many other covers of the same song. Does anyone have any clue as to why this is or am I just weird? One example of this is the song "Re:Re:" by ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, but the artist has no listed songs, yet if you search Re:Re:, the first 8 songs listed are covers of the same song. Any help?

[jfert]

Hey TimTheGinger,

Since artists have to agree to have their music on Spotify, sometimes Spotify can't get the rights to their actual songs.  Even some big artists like Taylor Swift don't have their music on Spotify or other streaming services.  However, sometimes Spotify can get the rights to have songs performed by different artists that were originally made by others.  I know it's not ideal, but it's really just a personal preference of the artist.

Hope this helps!

[MattSuda]

Spotify tries really hard to get music available on their service, but in the end the availability of music on Spotify is up to the artist and their music label.

This thread by Spotify staff explains why some music is not available:
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Content-Questions/I-want-an-artist-song-on-Spotify/td-p/1136005