Ed Sheeran

Well, here we go again. This one in particular seems like an attempted money-grab.

Ed Sheeran sued over claims he's ripped off a Marvin Gaye song

The family of the man who co-wrote Let's Get It On says it copies key parts of the track.
Ed Townsend's relatives are asking for a jury to decide if they're owed damages.
"The Defendants copied the heart of Let's and repeated it continuously throughout Thinking," the court papers claim.

"The melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic compositions of Thinking are substantially and/or strikingly similar to the drum composition of Let's," it says. There's been no response yet from Ed Sheeran or his record label.
The lawyer representing the Marvin Gaye estate told Newsbeat they were "aware" of comparisons with the 1973 hit.
Ed's already being sued for $20m (£13.8m) over his single Photograph, which two US musicians say copies their song Amazing.
The Gaye's lawyer, Richard Busch, is also representing Halo Songs who've launched that case.

Thinking Out Loud won best pop solo performance at this year's Grammy awards and was a multi-platinum hit globally.
It was also Ed's highest charting song in North America, reaching number one on the Official Singles Chart in the UK and it was the first song to spend a full year in the UK's top 40.
It was also the first ever song to hit 500 million streams on Spotify.
The song is currently listed as being written by Ed Sheeran and Amy Wadge, part of Atlantic Records and published by Sony/ATV.
If both Ed's team, label and publishing companies don't come to an amicable agreement, the case could go to court.
People have noticed the similarities of the two tracks in the past.

Yeah, I read about this too. I'm not enough of a musicologist where Marvin Gaye is concerned, although again you wonder why it seems to take them so long to bring their case, if it's such a dead cert.

Ginger-haired pop rascal about to release his 3rd album, Divide. He scored big success with his 2nd album, and the signs are that he may well equal or better that this time around. He even wrote the recent winning single for the UK X Factor champ, Matt Terry. Here are a few of his hits so far:

Lego House

Everytthing Has Changed (w/Taylor Swift)

Sing (w/Pharrell Williams)

Thinking Out Loud

Shape Of You

Very surprisingly, Ed has pulled it off. I stand corrected about him being the #2 guy. Well, he always was until now. Still, I'm going to chance inserting foot by saying I think it will be short lived. I do hope I'm wrong, though, in all fairness I still need to listen to them.    I expect one of them will drop rather quickly and "Shape Of You" will only hold the top spot for this week. I don't think we've seen the last of Migos yet, very sadly. Either that or the likes of Drake of will resurface with another 12 entries in one week. Again, I hope to be proven wrong and give him kudos for #1, especially w/o a feature! Given the shape of today's industry and audience, I just don't see it being long-lived. If there's one thing I've taken notice of after years of doing this is that when a song debuts smack at the top, the only way to go is down. That's not to say that one of them won't linger until freaking November given that it's one of the very few songs that actually will fit radio format. They'll get played into the ground as they always do. Cheers~

SO set on the idea of the two records together, it seems weird to see them at #1 and #6. Shape is clearly the song with wider, lasting appeal, whereas Castle in more about Ed's story, so it's astounding how well it has done.

Find out tomorrow whether Migos is headed for the UK heights. Looking at the US Top 40, you can see which music has really got a throttle on the whole thing Not technically a bad thing, but so many of those songs ought to be so much better. 30 years since "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back", and now they're holding themselves back instead.

Ed Sheeran: Live From The Artist's Den
At the New York Society for Ethical Culture, Apr 13, 2013. Ed ran through his hits with gusto to an appreciative crowd. America apparently loves him, and he loves them back. Fair enough.

Ed Sheeran: Day In The Life
Harmless fluff to plug his new album, whilst visiting (and ultimately playing a short gig at) the Coronation Street studios. His friendly rivalry with Example, and work with Rick Rubin, Pharrell and Taylor Swift were of some interest, and there was plenty of his work, either live or in videos.

Ed Sheeran - To Live Music
2/3 of this came from an American radio show (The Bert Show?) which was interesting for some of its repetitive bone-headed questions, nit-picking for absolutely pristine answers where there was no need. There was a section from an interview given to Jonathan Ross around last Christmas (and an amusing anecdote about Ariana Grande), and then a short burst from some Irish radio show. Like Adele, Ed seems popular in the US as the UK, and his future success is in his own hands.

Nine Days and Nights of Ed Sheeran
A capsule look at the build-up to release of his 2nd album, "Multiply". Both Taylor Swift and Pharrell got in to sing his praises, but mainly it was about Ed. Ed back at his old school, Ed back in his old hometown, Ed relating how he made some happy connections in the USA (eg Jamie Foxx), and things snowballed. The immediate success of "Sing" lit the blue touch-paper again, and the rest is already history.

Jumpers For Goalposts - Ed Sheeran : Live at Wembley Arena
A lengthy concert film looking at Ed's 3 nights at Wembley Stadium in July 2015. He was apparently the first person to ever play such a venue solo. Each clip of him doing a song was sandwiched between some backstage skit about his career up to now, views on other countries, support from Example and Passenger, and on the middle date, a special appearance from Sir Elton John. Elton & Ed duetted on "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", and Elton generally put Ed over as a great new talent already, whereas he, Elton, was nearing the end of his own road.

Glad that Ed is back to US #1 (for now). Still bemused at the failure of CotH though, it's not much different to a country song.

He's still rocking it in the UK, though. Thought Jax Jones might get closer, but seems not. I might have expected Train to be too middle-of-the-road to make the top 30, but they've managed it somehow.

Storytellers: Ed Sheeran
Live in some bar in Dublin, Ed performs various songs, inbetween stories about them and their origins, whether Thinking Out Loud, or The A Team. Though he was flattered to work with Pharrell on Sing, he does makes it sound like Pharrell is this egomaniac whose idea of encouragement is to under-rate your existing work and push you to what is his idea of quality.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Ed Sheeran
Ed did three spots of note in a recent appearance. First, surprising some awful kid doing a version of "Thinking Out Loud". Then performing "Shape Of You". Then doing a small chat about his year off without phone (Ellen desperately pleading with her audience not to copy this because her show relies on them), how he injured his foot in Iceland, and delaying the album from last November. So, worth checking out.

misery guts wrote:It's obviously been too many weeks without some crazy stuff, so this week Stormzy's dreary album also cropped up with many entries in the singles chart too. Still, Ed Sheeran will probably be doing the exact same thing next week.

Migos into the UK top 10, although B&B thankfully only peaked at #30.

Looking forward to hearing anything new on the UK side lol. I can honestly say that there is absolutely nothing in our charts that I can even call music. I'm not even feeling. Ed Sheeran I suppose Katy Perry's new single stands out as the closest thing that even remotely sounds like music. Even still, it's quite bland and wouldn't have gone anywhere in an era when music was real. Seems that Ed is front and center due to the fact that he's about the only "current" singer out there that radio stations would even play. I loathe the Chainsuckers. 'Paris' could have been written by a 2nd grader. I still have to listen to Clean Bandit s that's about the only song I'm even interested in hearing for the sake of knowing what it sounds like. While I still enjoy charting the hits, it's like a baaad joke from someone who's been doing this since 1980 (-:

He's basically a lock for #1 album this week with Divide, after mammoth early sales of 400k + already. Just a matter of whether he reaches the 800k region where the record-holders sit.

He's really breaking records this week:

‘nearly breaks Spotify’

Ed Sheeran’s new album has broken the record for most first-week Spotify streams of all time.
The singer-songwriter ‘nearly broke’ the music streaming service this week as his third album, Divide, racked up 283 million streams.
This means that the 26-year-old now holds the global record, having surpassed The Weeknd’s 223 million streams.

When the new UK chart is revealed in a few hours, we'll learn how many other records he's smashed too.

Well, if you missed the chart news... Ed did rather well this week

Ed on Capital
A short session and chat with Roman Kemp. Ed spent longer on this LP than the previous 2. He has size 11 feet. He would do a Bond theme, but not if he was expected to audition. He's willing to collaborate with Sam Smith. He has over 100 small tattoos.

Ed Sheeran - Hangout
Some repetition of anecdotes (although his foot injury is a story worth hearing again, to be fair). He learnt to ski with James Blunt, who also caused the infamous sword injury which was blamed on a member of the Royal Family. He gets requested to sing at weddings a lot, and is willing to do so if he's ever free (which seems unlikely). Originally thought "Shape Of You" might do for Little Mix or Rihanna. Wrote "Cold Water" for Major Lazer. Chose to hold his LP back until the US Election hubbub settled (the right call).

Ed Sheeran singles chart takeover spurs calls for 'drastic rethink'

Ed Sheeran’s record-breaking success has prompted calls for a “drastic rethink” of the UK singles chart as his bestselling album hit No 1 across the world.

The singer-songwriter’s third album, ÷ (Divide), is the No 1 album in charts in the UK, US, Australia and around Europe after becoming the fastest-selling album by a UK male artist.

But while in the UK all 16 of Divide’s songs dominated the Top 20 singles chart, fuelled by the burgeoning popularity of streaming services like Spotify, there were concerns that the dominance of the singles chart by one artist was destroying its credibility.


Ed Sheeran to guest star in Game of Thrones
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Alison Wenham, chief executive of the independent music body Worldwide Independent Network, said there was no doubt that Sheeran was “wildly, incredibly popular” but that the domination of one album had a “certain chill factor in the charts” that drowned out other artists.

“Having Ed Sheeran dominate virtually the whole of the Top 20 is indicative of the fact it is evolving and the rules will need to be examined fairly regularly in terms of the conversion – how many streams equals a download,” she said.

Recently introduced rules mean that 150 plays of a song on Spotify or other streaming services count as one sale, a system brought in to try and more accurately reflect the public taste as single sales declined. Wenham said the singles chart should be changed so that it “has a degree of value associated with it, people have paid to listen to it”.

Streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer, Napster, O2 Tracks, Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Rara and Xbox Music – most of which charge subscribers a monthly fee to listen to unlimited music – provide compilers with weekly data. But the chart also counts plays from non-paying listeners.

Industry experts have also suggested increasing the number of streams that currently equates to a single unit. But Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, said it would not “rush to any kneejerk actions” in light of Sheeran’s success, though it is considering changes to its methodology.

Jon Webster, president of the music managers group MMF, said the singles chart needed as “drastic rethink”. “You should be looking at two different things: what’s happening in streaming, and what’s happening in sales. You can’t mix them. It ends up in two different metrics and that’s the problem,” Webster said.

“When you were a kid and you bought a single, if you played it 500 times over five weeks it was still only one sale. But now we’re having that 500 times over five weeks in the chart. We live in a different world, and we need a different chart for a different world.”

Jeremy Pritchard, the bassist in Manchester indie rock band Everything Everything, said the charts company could introduce new rules about what counts as a single. “Something needs to happen,” he said. “There should be some rules concerning what is and isn’t a single. If we’re still calling it the singles chart, should we be letting in stuff which hasn’t been identified as a single?

Pritchard said the charts were “more meaningful now in terms of a purely populist metric” than ever before due to the waning influence of radio stations. He added: “I think everyone’s only just starting to wake up to the idea that things are slightly skewed since streaming has been introduced to the count.

“It’s indicative of a problem the music industry has been facing for 15 years, which is the old model’s don’t apply to the current culture.”

Mark Mulligan, an analyst at MIDiA Research, said the industry had become caught in “existential angst about streaming” and that the singles chart was no longer fit for purpose.

He said: “Do we want the charts to reflect how popular an artist is? If we do then we do what we’re doing now. Or do we want one which reflects sales and where the revenue is flowing? If it’s that then we need to do something else.”

Sheeran’s album sold 672,000 copies in the UK, 451,000 copies in the US and 97,014 in Australia. It is also at the top of the charts in Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden.

Continuing his domination in the UK, he's been announced as a headliner for this year's Glastonbury Festival, his only festival date this year.

"Shape of You" is now partly credited to the writer's of TLC's "No Scrubs", as after 10 weeks on sale, that song's authors have realised & managed to prove a similarity (must say, it's not occurred to me once, but then I didn't think much of No Scrubs back in the day).

Ed Sheeran - Box Plus Live Sessions
Another short chat, with a few performances, finishing with a cover of Justin Bieber's Love Yourself. He feels "award shows are dead" experiences, which is why he enjoyed working with Stormzy at the Brits. South American audiences are very loud, whilst the Philippines' ones are excitable. He rates the Ryman in Nashville, prefers Suffolk to Los Angeles, because of the anonymity of home.

Ed Sheeran's 13 week-run at #1 looks probably set to end soon, because Harry Styles has dropped his first solo single, Sign Of The Times.

His album is still going great guns, though.

He's had more legal issues, settling a copyright case that his song "Photograph" resembled a 2012 hit "Amazing" from Matt Cardle.

Shape of You is now back up to 14 weeks

Otherwise, the UK saw Kendrick Lamar become the latest act to get lots of silly new entries (although I quite like the lead single Humble).

misery guts wrote:Continuing his domination in the UK, he's been announced as a headliner for this year's Glastonbury Festival, his only festival date this year.

Ed Sheeran - Live at Glastonbury 2017
Closing the festival as headliner on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday night, starting at 9.50pm rather than the advertised 9, he delivered a solid hour and a half, only joined on stage for 1 song by any other musicians. His loop pedal antics confused some of those tuning in for the first time. But he made sure to check off his singles, ending gratifyingly with You Need Me, I Don't Need You. A triumph.

Though he has announced he was coming off Twitter due to overwhelming negativity, and he would use Instagram to impart news now.

Ed's is the headline nomination for this year's Mercury Music Prize, but he faces competition from Loyle Carner, alt J and Stormzy:

Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and the xx feature on shortlist

I'm impressed that The Big Moon made the final 12.

misery guts wrote:Ed's is the headline nomination for this year's Mercury Music Prize, but he faces competition from Loyle Carner, alt J and Stormzy:

Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and the xx feature on shortlist

I'm impressed that The Big Moon made the final 12.

I'd give anything if this were US news