So just what did Ed Sheeran get from Spotify for becoming the first artist on the platform with 100 million followers? In a video posted to his social media accounts, the musician revealed his big prize was a “lousy t-shirt.” The shirt in question is adorned with the statement, “ASK ME ABOUT MY 100 MILLION SPOTIFY FOLLOWERS.”
The 43-second video Sheeran posted to break the news to his followers was captioned “Absolutely mental.” In the video, he walks around backstage, hoping his crew will notice and, in turn, ask him about his shirt. Before the tongue-in-cheek skit, the star remarked, “So I just hit 100 million followers on Spotify, and Spotify has sent me this T-shirt. So I’m going to walk around the stadium and ask people to ask me about my 100 million followers.”
Hoping to find anyone who cares turns out to be a nearly impossible task in the video, in which one crew member even says, “whatever.” Finally, Ed comes across his opening act, Maisie Peters, who tells him, “Well done, Ed Sheeran!” before giving him a big hug.
With so many big names in the music industry, it’s honestly pretty incredible that Ed Sheeran has beaten them all to the top of the Spotify mountain. And when you look at the numbers, it wasn’t even a close race.
The next most prominent star on the list is Ariana Grande, who, as of this writing, has 81.7 million followers. Billie Eilish currently tops out at 66 million followers, just barely ahead of Drake (65.5 million followers) and Justin Bieber (63.6 million followers).