Spotify says it now has 20 million subscribers and 75 million active users, up from 10 million subscribers and 40 million actives a year ago.
“That’s an average of one new subscriber every three seconds over the last year. Wow,” it enthused on its website. The service launched 5-1/2 years ago.
The company makes a point in its announcement of discussing payments to artists, a topic of much news coverage and sensitivity for both streamers and broadcasters (as in Spotify’s well-publicized rift with Taylor Swift).
“More people listening on Spotify means more payouts to the creators of the music you love,” it wrote. “As we grow, the amount of royalties we pay out to artists, songwriters and rights holders continues to climb faster than ever. We have now paid more than $3 billion USD in royalties, including more than $300 million in the first three months of 2015 alone.”
The company published the graphics below for four types of artists. “The blue columns show average actual payouts over the last 12 months, which started with 10 million subscribers; the green columns show our projected average payouts over the next 12 months, starting from our new baseline of 20 million paying subscribers.”
