Despite Taylor Swift removing all her music from Spotify, it seems the number of people willing to pay for music online is increasing as the online streaming music service has reached the milestone of a staggering 15 million paid subscribers.

Spotify

The Stockholm-based company made the announcement on Monday (Jan 12th), while also confirming that by the end of 2014, 60 million people worldwide regularly used the streaming service.

"We had an amazing 2014 at Spotify and owe it all to you, the music fans who listen, discover, share and celebrate music and artists with us every day of the year," the company said on its website. "And before 2014 turned into 2015, we reached 15 million subscribers and 60 million active users! So as we set off into the New Year, we want to send a giant thank you to all of you. We can't wait for the year in music ahead!"

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It was only in May when Spotify announced it had reached 10 million paid subscribers, so the company is rapidly increasing by successfully turning many free users into paying customers.

The company also made headlines last November after Taylor Swift decided to remove all of her music from Spotify in an attempt to spark a debate over the amount of royalty payments artists receive in the digital age.

The streaming service responded by claiming nearly 70% of their revenue is paid directly back to rightsholders in the form of royalty payments, but it only pays artists an average of "between $0.006 and $0.0084" per stream, according to the service's website.

More: 10 Things You Never Knew About Spotify

This extra media attention may have inadvertently created good publicity for Spotfy, which could have resulted in attracting new users.