You’d have thought that winning his copyright trial would have been a publicity bonanza for Ed Sheeran. On the stand he played his guitar, welled up with tears and carried on, charming the jury. They agreed he did not lift “Thinking Out Loud” from Marvin Gaye’s “Let Get It On.”
Then Ed released a new album, called Minus, or “Subtract.” That was last Friday.
Today sales were counted for this week’s albums, and Minus sold only 111,000 copies. It debuted at number 2 behind Morgan Wallen. On iTunes, the Jonas Brothers are number 1 and Ed is number 2.
Did the trial hurt him? It looks like it might have done some damage. Usually a new Ed Sheeran album with a mathematical symbol debuts at number 1.
Minus did sell 80,000 albums or paid downloads, which is great. Ed is not a big streamer, so far. This album opened at just about the same level as Sheeran’s last one in 2021, His last actual hit album — over 1.5 million copies, was :Divide,” in 2017.
Ed Sheeran is just 32 years old. The record business is crazy now. Wow. Also maybe it’s time to move on from the symbol titles. The next album should not be called “Fractions.”
(And why was he on Live with Kelly and Mark? Not cool, Ed, no cool factor.)
