Spotify Survives Taylor Swift's Departure, Climbs to 15 Million Subscribers

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Millions subscribed to Spotify after Taylor Swift pulled a disappearing act

Can a streaming music service survive without the likes of Taylor Swift and her latest 1989 album? The answer is a resounding 'Yes!' as evidenced by Spotify's latest head count. In a blog post this week, Spotify announced that it's up to 60 million active users, 15 million of which are paid subscribers. The last time Spotify revealed user numbers was in November of last year after Swift decided to yank her music off the service.
At the time, Spotify was sitting at 50 million active users, 12.5 million of which were paid subscribers. In other words, Spotify added 10 million active users, including 2.5 million paid subscribers, since the tiff with Swift over royalties, or lack thereof, as far as the country-turned-pop artist is concerned.
"As we set off into the new year, we want to send a giant thank you to all of you. We can't wait for the year ahead in music!," Spotify said.
Swift called Spotify a "grand experiment" while voicing disparaging opinions about the streaming model in general. In response, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek penned a blog post in which he revealed that the streaming service has paid out more than $2 billion to labels, publishers, and collecting societies for distribution to songwriters and recording artists to date. At the same time, he was careful not to attack Swift, saying that it's a "big problem" if the money services like Spotify are shelling doesn't end up in the pockets of the creative community in a timely and transparent manner.
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