Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape Of You’ becomes first song to hit three billion streams on Spotify

nme.com:

Ed Sheeran‘s ‘Shape Of You’ has become the first song to reach three billion streams on Spotify.The song, taken from the pop star’s third album ‘÷ (Divide)’, reached the milestone earlier today (December 22) – after initially being released on the streaming service back in January, 2017.Speaking on the achievement in a video shared by Spotify (see below), Sheeran said he couldn’t be more “chuffed” about the news, calling it, “absolutely insane”, before discussing the origin of the song.“[‘Shape Of You’] wasn’t really meant to make the album,” he explained, “but when I finished making the song, Ben Cook, from my label, said it had to be a single – but I wanted ‘Castle On The Hill’ to be the single.