Ed Sheeran reaches 2bn Spotify streams

Ed is the first British artist to reach the landmark

Published 21st Apr 2015

Ed Sheeran has become only the second artist to reach two billion streams on Spotify.

The ‘Thinking Out Loud’ hit-maker, who was also the most-streamed artist in 2014, follows in the path of Eminem - who has eight albums compared to Ed's two.

He also becomes the first British artist to reach the landmark.

Kevin Brown, Spotify’s head of label relations for Europe, said: “Breaking the two billion streams barrier on Spotify is evidence – were it needed – of Ed Sheeran’s enormous popularity among the 60 million music fans on the service.”

He continued: “Ed Sheeran is quite simply one of the best loved artists on Spotify globally, and we are thrilled that he has achieved this milestone.

“Ed and Atlantic truly embrace the power of the Spotify platform with the launch strategy for ‘X’. That it continues to be enormously popular with our users almost a year later and is still winning new fans is testament to the quality of the album and the enduring appeal of Ed as an artist.”

Mark Mitchell, general manager at Atlantic Records UK has described the singer’s achievement as “phenomenal”.

Meanwhile, it was also recently revealed that Ed Sheeran is the most popular artist to help people sleep.

According to Spotify, seven of Ed’s tracks are in the top 20 most popular songs on sleep-themed playlists – with ‘Thinking Out Loud’ topping the list.

Credit: PA Photos