Case Study- Ed Sheeran

Brief background

Ed Sheeran is a English singer and songwriter who has currently released three albums. He didn't come from a rich family, and he started off performing off the streets and now is performing across the world. 

Audience

Appeal and target audience
Ed Sheeran target audience is made up of a variety of males and females aged between 15-25, however this target audience is not a restriction, Ed Sheeran's audience also consists of much older or younger listeners. This is due to his wide range of different music genres he experiments and thrives in, this includes: rap, pop, indie and mixtures of in-between. Ed Sheeran appeals to his audience through social media, no wonder he has over 16.6 million Twitter followers. Furthermore, Ed appeals to his target audience due to his age, he is only 27, which is quite young compared to his major success the music industry.

Other literal responses
Ed Sheeran's popularity has grown massively due to his outstanding albums and unique singles. In 2011, Ed released the album "+" and it got over 4 million sales world wide, in 2014 his album "x" sold over 14 million copies and in 2017 he released "÷" and he got over 3 million sales. This can be demonstrated through this table below:
  




Uses and gratifications
Ed Sheeran uses social interactions to relate and appeal to his audience, in multiple occasions he has supported and surprised his fans. For example, he has surprised fans at their weddings by singing live at the wedding parties. Furthermore, in one instance he overheard a young girl singing one of his songs at a mall, so he jumped on stage and sang it with her. This presents that Ed loves to be with his fans to surprise and improve their lives.

Industry

Global appeal

As stated previously with information and statistics, Ed is very popular and his global success of an music artist is outstanding and will continue to do so. Furthermore, his popularity is due to the accessibility of his music from CD's to YouTube Videos, audiences are able to get his music anywhere. In YouTube alone he has over 28 million subscribers and his song "Shape of You"has received over 3.3 billion views world wide which is one of the most viewed videos on YouTube.

Marketing and promotion 

Ed has been all over the press; newspapers, magazines and TV. And he has been on countless radio talk shows discussing his newest songs and next plans. Furthermore, Ed Sheeran's music is promoted through his endless amounts of awards such: Grammy Award for Song of the Year and Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act. Some of his awards can be seen below:

In addition to this, Ed Sheeran has his own website to promote his next tour and newest songs: Here. Furthermore, he uses his website to advertise and sell his own branded merchandise of clothes and other products.