Spotify tops 1 million paid subscribers in the U.S., more than 5 million worldwide

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek announced at a press event in New York City on Thursday that the company’s music streaming service has more than 5 million paid subscribers and 20 million active users worldwide, TheNextWeb reported. The latest numbers are an increase from July when the company said it had only 4 million paying members and 15 million active users. Ek noted that Spotify has been “growing like crazy” and that 1 million paid subscribers are located in the United States. As of today, the company has paid out more than $500 million to copyright holders and its users have created more than 1 billion playlists, 4 million of which have been titled “Love,” that have streamed 80% of Spotify’s music catalog. Earlier reports indicated that the music streaming service wasn’t living up to its hype since arriving in the U.S., although the most recent numbers seem to counter that argument. The biggest news of the day wasn’t the statistics, however. Spotify also announced that anti-sharing rock band Metallica will be joining the platform and making its music available for streaming.