Spotify CEO responds to Taylor Swift; says artists compensated over $2 billion in royalties

The CEO of Spotify Daniel Ek has finally responded to Taylor Swift's refusal to post any of her albums on the streaming service, revealing that all the talk swirling around lately about how Spotify is making money on the backs of artists upsets him big time.

Ek wrote that royalties paid to Swift, who is absolutely right about music is art, art has real value, and artists deserve to be paid for it, and other top mainstream artists are on track to exceed $6 million a year, the Verge reported.

Ek revealed that the company, which has compensated artists, songwriters, labels, and publishers to the tune of $2 billion, is getting bigger as it's now got 50 million active users, with 12.5 million of those paying for ad-free streaming, which is three times more than the average paying music consumer spent in the past.