Team player: ‘Incredibly ambitious’ Ed Sheeran enters new era with global hits | Talent

Ed Sheeran’s enduring global success is because the UK singer-songwriter “sets himself the highest of standards”, his label boss has told Music Week.

As Sheeran prepares to launch a new era with the Play album (September 12), Atlantic co-president Ed Howard has spoken about the “fun” campaign and reflected on his 15-year working relationship with the British superstar. 

Howard signed Sheeran to Atlantic’s Asylum imprint, where he was then head of A&R, in early 2011.

“It would be hard to imagine somebody with more of a firm plan for his future than Ed had at that time, or more ambition, focus and drive to get to that place,” he said.

“He had a plan for two sets of five albums,” said Howard of their meetings in late 2010. “I think he told me that actually [at the time]. So this is a man that thinks in the very long term.”

The rest, of course, is history as Sheeran became one of the biggest artists in the world, so far amassing 14 UK No.1 singles and eight No.1 albums on the way. 

As well as being crowned the biggest artist of the 2010s by the Official Charts Company, he is joint No.1 with Sabrina Carpenter for most weeks at the singles summit (23) in the 2020s.

To date, Sheeran’s scored 43 Top 10 singles, including new hits Azizam (No.3 peak, 443,367 sales to date – Official Charts Company) and Sapphire (No.5, 188,495 sales to date). His dozens of hits have spent 323 weeks – six years – combined in the Top 10 since 2011. 

“It’s unbelievably rare,” said Howard of Sheeran’s hitmaking prowess. “He says it stems from a ridiculous work ethic when it comes to the writing. In my opinion, he’s extremely gifted as well – but he probably writes more songs than everybody else.”

Azizam, the lead single from Play, was a bold launch for the campaign. Co-written with Savan Kotecha and regular collaborator Johnny McDaid, the Persian-influenced track was recorded with Swedish/Iranian producer Ilya Salmanzadeh.

“He’s always been willing to take risks and push himself outside of his perceived comfort zone,” said Howard. “That’s also why he’s still here after all this time. That [single] is not the safe option at all in terms of this album, but it’s absolutely amazing as a record – I think it’s going to be around forever.”

For the Play era, Howard said the singer-songwriter from Suffolk is “bringing musical cultures and musicians together in a way that I don’t think anybody else can credibly do”. 

“That’s also a hallmark of his career, he can blend styles and work with musicians from across the piece,” he added. “It’s been a wonderful thing to see the reception from the Persian community. A positive outcome already in this campaign has been seeing that new energy from different parts of the world.”

Following more introspective albums Subtract and Autumn Variations, both in 2023, Sheeran returned to his traditional collaborative writing process for Play, bringing in Blake Slatkin, Cirkut and Amy Allen, among others.  

“He’s finding new people to work with, and new ways of expressing himself after all this time,” said Howard. “I think that’s the biggest success of the record.”

Howard credited the “amazing collection of talented people” behind Sheeran, including Stuart Camp, Gaby Cawthorne and their new team at Grumpy Old Management.

“They’re amazing partners to a record label because they do their job very well, but they also allow us to do ours,” Howard said of longtime manager Stuart Camp and his team. 

Howard continues to A&R Sheeran, a role which might see the pair discussing potential collaborators or single choices. 

He also acknowledged the wider team – including Warner Music UK CEO Tony Harlow, Atlantic co-president Briony Turner, MD & president of promotions Damian Christian and Sam Spencer, EVP – and former Warner leaders Max Lousada, Lyor Cohen, Julie Greenwald and Ben Cook, among others.

He’s always been willing to take risks and push himself outside of his perceived comfort zone

Ed Howard

Sheeran remains driven following the conclusion of the Mathematical albums era.

“The man sets himself the highest of standards for everything that he does, and is incredibly ambitious, and that seeps into the whole team,” said Howard. “But at the same time, he really cares about people. That’s why they continue to want to support him all around the world, and he’s still in the game and doing as well as ever after 15 years.”

Tracks from Play have made a global impact and put Sheeran back into Spotify’s Top 5 artist rankings with 99 million monthly listeners.

Azizam broke airplay records in Germany, while Sapphire secured a No.1 breakthrough in India, where it was the first international track to top Spotify’s local chart in three years.

“It’s off to a really good start, expectations for the album are extremely high in the UK and globally,” said Howard.

As well as anticipating multiple hits, Howard said the album “stands up incredibly well as a body of work”.

“When people get to listen to it in September, they will see a level of quality in terms of production and innovation on the sonic side, and also a level of songwriting aptitude that they, hopefully at this point, have come to expect from Ed,” he said.

The campaign has seen a build-up throughout the year with multiple singles, global performances and also three nights at Ipswich Town’s Portman Road last month, where Play-branded tuktuks provided fans with a ride to the stadium.

Howard described the gigs as a “huge homecoming moment”, with Sheeran performing four songs from Play.  

“We took the view that we wanted to have multiple tracks out ahead of the album, which would allow us to explore the musical cultures, and the different places around the world that it could speak to,” explained Howard. “We wanted to have a summer of being able to have fun with those things in the most genuine, least kind of marketing way possible.”

As well as a “beautiful” BST Hyde Park duet with Olivia Rodrigo, Howard hailed Sheeran’s pop-up pub, which went to Coachella and featured Shaboozey and Alex Warren.

“It felt really fun and different,” said Howard. “You should expect more of the same playful attitude in the run-up to the album.”

Sheeran set a high bar with 2017 blockbuster Divide (4,420,972 sales to date). The opening week’s streaming consumption has still not been surpassed in the UK.

“I think about the advent of streaming and the growth in DSPs globally that we’ve seen with Spotify, and his career aligns with the start of that,” said Howard. “He’s a real original streaming-era artist.”

Sheeran recently secured his 50th week at No.1 in the albums chart, as the +-=÷× Tour Collection returned to the summit. Only The Beatles, Elvis Presley and ABBA have spent more weeks at the top.

“His catalogue is so big and being consumed all the time by a vast mass of people around the world, it’s a really interesting position to be in, because you’re competing with yourself – your new music is competing with your own catalogue as much as it is with anybody else,” said Howard. 

“It’s a high-class problem with Ed and the catalogue – maybe the biggest streaming catalogue of all time,” he added. “The challenge is simply making sure that the new music has enough space amongst all the Ed music that’s being listened to all the time.”

Play arrives as Atlantic is seeing success for Charli XCX and Fred Again.., as well as US acts Alex Warren, Ravyn Lenae and Teddy Swims.

“We’re enjoying seeing the resurgence of British music, across the board,” said Howard. “Our own, of course, as well as others that we are seeing in the charts from other labels. That to us is really important, that music from this country continues to be heavily consumed here and abroad.”

Howard said he and co-president Turner want to help UK talent to grow.

“We’ve had so much fun doing that over the past almost 20 years at Atlantic, both of us, and it’s been five since we took over running the company,” he said. “It’s also a good moment in terms of American artists – so these are really good times for Atlantic and there’s lots more to come.”