Spotify: We've Paid $150 Million to Record Labels

Spotify says it has paid back $150 million to the record industry since it started three years ago, quashing speculation that the music streaming service paid artists poorly.

Company co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek said at a New York news conference Wednesday that Spotify is second only to iTunes in creating revenue from digital music in Europe, and that the company adds 20,000 songs per day to its catalogue.

"It would take someone 100 years - literally a lifetime - to listen to all the music in the Spotify catalogue," Ek said. "We want music to be like water, available everywhere, available seamlessly."

The news of paying out handsomely comes just weeks after some 200 independent record labels announced that they would be leaving the music streaming service since the revenue it pays them is apparently negligible.

Since Spotify teamed up with Facebook in September the company has added more than 7 million users to its books and the music service now boasts more than 500 million playlists made by its users, a number that has doubled since July.

Ek also announced that Spotify now offers developers the opportunity to write applications for the programme, and names such as the Guardian newspaper, Rolling Stone magazine and music service Last.fm.

The application system, known as Spotify Platform, is available to download as an update to the music programme now. "We believe that Spotify is creating the history of music today," Ek said.