This is no country for old men.
At 34 years old, Ed Sheeran is learning that lesson.
His new album, his eighth, called “Play,” had very soft sales in its debut week.
“Play” is sold 71,000 copies this week, two thirds of it physical CDs and downloads, the rest from streaming. That’s about half of what should have sold.
To be honest, Sheeran hasn’t had a major hit since 2017. He had a great run with four “math” albums that were titled Divide, Plus, Times (X), and Equal, all using their numeric signs.
Those albums had lots of hits including “Shape of You,” “Perfect,”
“The A Team,” and so on. He was unsuccessfully sued over his Marvin Gaye-ish “Thinking Out Loud.”
But the album sales started taking a downturn recently, and “Play,” is the latest example.
The biggest problem with “Play”? No big radio hit like the ones mentioned above. The album is full of good songs, but so far nothing that’s broken out.
It may be at this point that Sheeran doesn’t care about hits. That’s reasonable. Most pop stars have a five year span of hits before their audience grows up and moves on. But it might be nice to give it a go, whether or not the single goes top 40.
The irony here is that Halsey, another pop star, gave an interview this week saying her record company wasn’t pining for a new album since her last one sold 200,000 copies. It debuted with 100,000. That’s a lot better than “Play.”
Halsey tells Zane Lowe that her label won’t allow her to release another album after ‘The Great Impersonator’ failed to meet their commercial standards. pic.twitter.com/uNyHSOSGGz
— Buzzing Pop (@BuzzingPop) September 18, 2025
