Ed Sheeran is an English singer-songwriter signed to Asylum Records, which is owned by Warner Music Group (WMG). WMG uses various strategies to promote Ed's music across media platforms. For his third album ÷, WMG utilized a heavy streaming strategy that helped Ed break streaming records. The album's 16 tracks dominated the UK Top 20 singles chart, demonstrating streaming's impact on charts. While there was no synergy with WMG films, Ed's song in The Hobbit and cameo in Game of Thrones show cross-media convergence that benefits both Ed's music career and the other media franchises.

2. ED SHEERAN
• Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran Ed is an English singer-songwriter
He was born 17 February 1991 in in Halifax, West Yorkshire but moved
to Framlingham, Suffolk as a child.
• He now has 18.2M followerson twitter and 10.2 million instagram
followers.
• His record label is Asylum records which is a subsidiary of Warner
Music group.
• The fact Warner own Asylum is conglomeration; record labels being
taken over and integrated into a huge organisation that deals in other
media industries.
• WMG have partnered with Spotify to try and reduce the their customers
from pirating music. Spotify will allow their users to listen to WMG's
music free of charge with an optional payment. This helps combat
piracy as customers don't have to pay for the music and can access it
easier on Spotify.

3. WARNER MUSIC
• It is horizontally integrated because WMG distributes and produces
films, music and TV. This benefits them as they can work through the
different medias so they don't pay extra top have music on a film. Also,
this gives each sector a chance of advertisement so again making them
money.
• Warner music group uses the internet to promote and advertise the
music they produce. For example, they have a facebook page with
44,771 likes in which they share links to their music that they produce.
They also share publicity links about the artists in their labels to draw
attention to them and promote them.
Warner music also has a twitter page with 372K followers. They do the
same on this as they do on facebook and use it to promote their music.
• The record labels that Warner Music Group own all record and produce
music. This shows that they are vertically integrated.

4. • On 26 April, Sheeran appeared on the TV music show Later... with Jools
Holland – where he performed Holland his debut single "The A Team".
Six weeks later, "The A Team" was released as a digital download in the
UK. The release served as the lead single from Sheeran's debut studio
album, entitled ’+’. "The A Team" entered the UK Singles Chart at
number three, selling over 58,000 copies in the first week. It was
congratulated on being the best selling debut single and the overall
eight best selling single of 2011, shifting 801,000 copies. The lead single
also became a top ten hit in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Japan,
Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands.
• During a headline set in the BBC Introducing tent at Glastonbury
Festival 2011, Sheeran announced that "You Need Me, I Don't Need You"
would be released on 28 August as the second single from the album.
The second single peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart.

5. FIRST ALBUM
• Sheeran’s first album, ‘+’ was released in September 2011. It features
songs written and recorded from January 2011. Singles from the
album such as ‘The A Team’, ‘You Need Me I Don’t Need You’ and ‘Lego
house’ reached number 3, 4 and 5 on the UK Singles Chart. Three
further singles—“Drunk", “Small Bump", and “Give Me Love"—were
released throughout the year, all charting within the top 25 of the UK

6. SECOND ALBUM
• Ed Sheeran released his second album, ‘X’ in June 2014 after recording
all of it’s songs from 2013/2014
• It has become an international success, peaking at No. 1 in fifteen
countries, while topping both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard
200. ‘X’ also reached the top 5 in seven other countries and was the
best selling album of 2014 in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the
United Kingdom.

7. THIRD ALBUM
• Third album, ÷ ("divide"), was released in March 2017 The first two
singles from the album, "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill", were
released in January 2017.
• According to the Official Charts Company, Sheeran’s third studio record
has moved 432,000 copies and sits comfortably at No. 1 on the Chart
Update. The most popular format for the LP by far is physical, at 63%,
with digital accounting for 31% of all sales and streaming equivalent
sales making up the remainder (just 6%).
• Ed Sheeran is on spotify and Warner now own spotify.

8. MARKETING FOR ÷
• At the centre of this approach is a ‘be everywhere’ streaming strategy which
saw Sheeran clock up over 68 million Spotify streams in 1 day (a record for any
single artist). Though, the 1 billion views he clocked up for ‘Divide’ on YouTube
shows where the real streaming audience of scale resides. But what makes
Sheeran’s ‘Divide’ campaign stand out is what it has done to the charts.
• Ed sheeran as previously quit all social media in late 2015 and then returned in
2016 with only blue photos wich hinted the idea of a new album
• As of March 13th, Ed Sheeran’s ‘Divide’ album accounts for 9 of the UK top 10
singles, while all of the 16 tracks on the album are in the top 20. If there was
ever a sign that streaming is breaking the charts then this is it.
• As Ed Sheeran himself said during his last album promo cycle, for him it is all
about live. Indeed, for most successful artists, recorded music revenue is just a
small part of the revenue mix. So at its most extreme, streaming is a marketing
campaign that pays you instead of you paying for it.
• ‘Divide’ is an exceptional album in terms of commercial performance and
audience reach, as is its impact on the charts. But in the latter respect, it is
simply a trail blazer for the way in which big albums are going to play out on
streaming. ‘Divide’ might not be the hair that breaks the camel’s back but it has
certainly fractured it.

9. CONTINUED…
• As of March 13th, Ed Sheeran’s ‘Divide’ album accounts for 9 of the UK
top 10 singles, while all of the 16 tracks on the album are in the top 20. If
there was ever a sign that streaming is breaking the charts then this is
it.
• As Ed Sheeran himself said during his last album promo cycle, for him
it is all about live. Indeed, for most successful artists, recorded music
revenue is just a small part of the revenue mix. So at its most extreme,
streaming is a marketing campaign that pays you instead of you paying
for it.
• There was no synergy as Warner did not promote any of Ed’s albums in
any other format other than TV adverts and social media, the only time
any of Ed’s songs have featured on a film was in a 20th century Fox film
– The Fault In our Stars- and not a Warner film.
• Ed Sheeran does not use cross media convergence other than the
example above.

10. WHAT DID ED SHEERAN MANAGE TO ACHIEVE
WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF A RECORD LABEL?
He has proven to the label that we could do it on our own, that all we
needed was help and support and finance, getting us to more people
and being able to pull the strings when needed to get us on a TV show.
This also led to the label taking quite a hands-off approach when it
came to the recordings, as Gosling and Sheeran had proved what they
did already worked which is harder to do when you're a bit more
independent. Gaining a fan base before being approached by labels,
record deals tend to be much more advantageous than the old type of
contracts. Some artists retain ownership of their music and some, as in
Sheeran's and Labrinth's case, get their own label imprints.

11. CROSS MEDIA CONVERGENCE AND SYNERGY
• Ed Sheeran released a song called "I See Fire" which features in the
film The Hobbit- the Desolation Of Smaug which shows cross media
convergence because his song is featured in a range of different types
of media; music and film. It is also synergy because Warner music will
benefit because people will be more willing to buy the song because it
features in the film and it benefits Warner bros Pictures who distributed
it because people will &more likely to see the film if Ed Sheeran's song
features in it; in summary, Warner as a conglomerate get more money.
• Ed Sheeran is also featuring as a cameo in Game Of Thrones which is
cross media convergence because although Ed's music product isn't
present but the representation of the product- Ed- itself is present
therefore encouraging people to either watch Game of Thrones or listen
to Ed's music, which is also synergy.