Spotify reaches 50 million paid subscribers

Music streaming giant Spotify has reached a major milestone – the platform has hit 50 million paying subscribers.

Since its launch in 2006, the Sweden-based service has risen to become the world’s largest music streaming service, with more than 100 million total users across both its paid and free but advert-supported offerings.

The service has come under increasing pressure in the last two years, however, thanks to the launch of Apple Music, the iPhone maker’s own take on the world of streaming services.So far, that too has been an enormous success, with Apple reporting it had reached 20 million paid users in December last year. Still some way behind Spotify but growing at a much more rapid rate.Since launch, Apple has been aggressive in getting users on board, offering three whole months of the service for free, as well as snapping up artists – most notably Taylor Swift – that have previously withdrawn their music from Spotify. However, Spotify can still point to the cold, hard numbers that show its service has double the number of paying customers.