Taylor Swift might not like Spotify, but that’s not stopping millions from using the streaming service. In just a few months, the number of paid subscribers has jumped by 5 million.
Back in May, the company said that it had 10 million subscribers paying for its $10 monthly fee. That gives users unlimited access to stream music without advertising.
Today, Spotify announced that it reached 15 million paid subscribers at the end of the year. Overall, Spotify has 60 million active users, including those who don’t have a problem with hearing ads.
Spotify had an interesting 2014, which finished with a war of words between CEO Daniel Ek and Swift, who thinks Spotify isn’t paying artists enough. Ek disagreed, but Swift’s music is still not available on the service.
Overall, streaming has helped the music industry survive a rough year. Billboard notes that sales were at its lowest since 1991, but on-demand streaming skyrocketed by 54 percent. Nielsen Music said that 164 billion songs were streamed by music fans in 2014.
In addition, Billboard is now including album streams on its Billboard 200 album chart. That has helped albums stay on the chart, particularly Ariana Grande’s My Everything, which was at No. 10 last week.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com