Spotify expects to pay rights holders half a billion dollars in 2013.

That’s according to the streaming service's chief executive Daniel Ek, speaking at a technology and media Founders Forum event in LA yesterday (February 5).

The figure that the Swedish company hopes to pay artists, labels, publishers and other copyright owners this year is as much as it has paid out in total since launching in 2008.

Universal Music Group president of global digital business Rob Wells was also ...