CASE STUDY: Ed Sheeran

CONTEXT

• Moved from Suffolk to London in 2008 and played gigs in small venues.
• Went to Los Angeles in 2010 and played open mic venues. He met Jamie Foxx who gave him use of his recording studio (eventually also met Elton John).
• Was signed to Asylum Records; produced 'The A Team' which was released as a digital download in 2011, entered UK Singles Chart at number 3 and sold over 58,000 copies in it's first week. 
• Alongside Ed Sheeran, Atlantic Records has signed artists such as All Time Low, Charli XCX, Charlie Puth, Kehlani, Meek Mill, Wiz Khalifa and Trey Songz. (www.atlanticrecords.co.uk)

• ALBUMS
• '+' - Released on 9th September 2011.
• LABEL: Asylum Records & Atlantic Records
• SINGLES: The A Team, Drunk, Lego house, Small bump, Give me love and You need me, I don't need you.
• PRODUCER: Jake Gosling
• 'The A Team' is the best selling debut single of 2011; sold over 800,000 copies.
• 'X' - Released on 20th June 2014
• LABEL: Asylum Records & Atlantic Records
• SINGLES: Photograph, Sing, Thinking Out Loud, Don't and Bloodstream.
• PRODUCER: Benny Blanco
• 'Thinking Out Loud' is the 18th most viewed video on youtube - 1.5 billion.
• '÷' - Released on 3rd March 2017
• LABEL: Asylum Records & Atlantic Records
• SINGLES: Shape of You, Castle on the Hill and Galway Girl.
• PRODUCER: Benny Blanco
• 232,000 physical and digital copies in the UK in it's first day of release. This is more than 'X'. 
• The album sold 61% in physical, 31% in digital and 6% in streaming.
• 56.7 million streams worldwide on Spotify - on it's day of release. This broke the previous record of 'The Weeknd's Starboy' which was 29 million. 

AUDIENCE - TARGET

• Fans of the indie genre.
• Fans of Ed Sheeran - both genders but mainly older teenage girls (referred to as Sheeranators)
• Young people of have been alerted of him through social media.

In an article from 'The Guardian' newspaper, Sheeran said "I dress like them, I'm not in a wig and a load of glitter, I speak like them, use the same slang words, watch the same TV programmes..."

He highlights that his relationship with his fans are positive and have similar interests.

AUDIENCE - RESPONSES

• LITERAL
• The amount of people who have purchase Ed Sheeran's music across a range of platforms.
• Fan sites
• Awards - has won 3 Brit Awards and 2 grammys (Song of the year - Thinking out loud).
• THEORETICAL
• Song lyrics and themes enable the audience to identify personally with Ed, this can lead to escapism to the audience due to involvement with Ed. 

INDUSTRY - MARKETING & PROMOTION

• Ed Sheeran and his producer Jake Gosling recorded EPs together and made success on in the iTunes charts and on SBTV Video with one of his singles from 'X' (You need me, I don't need you).
• Ed got onto the playlist of Radio 1 and 1 Extra.
• Wrote the '2016 X Factor Winner Song' for the winner - Matt Terry.
• Due to make a guest appearance in the 'Game of Thrones' (2017).
• Appeared on 'The tonight show starring Jimmy Fallon' on 17th April 2017 alongside Anne Hathaway and Tony Vale. Similar to Adele who also appeared on the show but on November 23rd 2015 alongside Kelly Ripa.
• Website allows his fan base to submit their pictures via instagram with the hashtag #dividelyrics - visitors to the site instantly see the posts and purchase the album either digitally or physically.
• Fans/visitors can subscribe to get updates from Ed by inputting their email address. 
• Fans and visitors can watch music videos, buy merchandise, view photos and news all related to Ed Sheeran. This is similar to Adele's website which also enables fans/visitors to access tour information/buy tour tickets, merchandise, music videos, photos and links. 

SOCIAL MEDIA + FIGURES

• TWITTER: 18.3 Million Followers
• FACEBOOK: 16 Million Likes
• INSTAGRAM: 11.1 Million Followers