Spotify Announces It Has Reached 75 Million Active Users

Spotify has announced that the number of its active users has increased from 40 to 75 million and its paid subscribers have risen from 10 to 20 million over the course of the last year.

The Swedish company’s announcement comes shortly after Apple launched its own streaming service, Apple Music, on Monday (June 8), and unsurprisingly so, considering Spotify recently raised $526 million in funding -- sourced from investors that include Goldman Sachs and GSV Capital, among others -- to go head-on with the latest platform to enter the fray of streaming rivalries.

What is perhaps even more interesting, Spotify also drew attention to its royalty payments (via Spotify):

And, more people listening on Spotify means more payouts to the creators of the music you love. 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.

In two charts, Spotify laid out what royalty payments looked like over the course of the past year and what it estimates they will look like over the next 12 months, breaking it down between “niche/indie” and “heritage” artists:

The figures certainly could be interpreted as Spotify’s response to the intense criticism it’s received from artists who have been vocal about the platform’s inequitable wages.