Straight after his announcement that he is returning to Australia for another tour, it has been revealed that British singer Ed Sheeran has become the second person to reach two billion streams on digital streaming app Spotify. Rapper Eminem was the first person to reach two billion streams, getting the honor earlier this year. Sheeran also took to his Twitter account in order to express how he felt about reaching two billion streams.
Coming back to Australia and NZ in November to play stadiums, that’s crazy. Tickets go on sale in a week or so x
— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) April 21, 2015
2 billion streams on spotify is nuts too. Well chuffed with that
— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) April 21, 2015
While many singers and musicians, Taylor Swift especially, have been openly critical of the digital streaming service, Sheeran has said that it has benefited his career, opening him up to fans who many not have heard him otherwise and enabling him to play in countries that he may not have been able to had he not had his songs up on Spotify.
“I’m playing sold-out gigs in South America, I’ve sold out arenas in Korea and south-east Asia. I don’t think I’d be able to do that without Spotify. For me, Spotify is not even a necessary evil. It helps me do what I want to do.”
According to The Telegraph , Sheeran was the most-streamed artist of 2014, with Spotify listeners tuning in 860 million times. The popular singer/songwriter released his second studio album, X , that year which would go on to be nominated at the 2015 Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year.
Also noteworthy is that Ed Sheeran’s next video will be Photograph , from his hit album Multiply , and Sheeran took to Twitter himself in order to break the news to his fans. The announcement has since been met with excitement from his 13.4 million fans.
My next single from multiply is Photograph. Wait til you see the video, it’s a special one. Very excited
— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) April 22, 2015
Sheeran hit the headlines several days ago during a Q&A with his fans, during which he was cheekily asked whether or not his song Little Things was about One Direction’s private parts; he replied that Harry Styles was extremely well endowed, before continuing on by stating that Styles had leaked his own nude photo several years ago.
“Did you know Harry leaked that picture himself? He leaked his own picture. I think that’s amazing. He was just like ‘no one knows, so I’m just gonna tell them.’”