Ed Sheeran reaches new feat of half billion streams

English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran's soulful ballad "Thinking Out Loud" has accomplished a new feat -- the first song to be streamed half a billion times on Spotify.

The streaming site estimated that one in four Spotify users had a Sheeran song on his or her playlist.

Spotify found that he is especially strong in English-speaking countries and Scandinavia, with Denmark streaming Sheeran's music most frequently among countries with Spotify service.

For his entire catalogue, Sheeran has enjoyed 2.9 billion streams, behind only Eminem, Spotify said.

Sheeran in a statement called reaching the 500 million-stream milestone for his 2014 song "amazing."

"Thanks to all the people who use this as a wedding song, soundtrack to a date, and as a way to woo someone into a Netflix and Chill situation," he said, using Internet slang for inviting a romantic partner home.

Spotify -- the leading site in the vastly growing industry of streaming, which provides unlimited music on-demand online -- has cited Sheeran as an example of an artist who has broken through thanks to the new technology, whose detractors say it insufficiently compensates artists.

Sheeran, 24, flew to Los Angeles in 2010 with little network but quickly built a following and was invited to be the touring opening act for pop superstar Taylor Swift.