Artist research

Ed Sheeran

Artist research

This is the album cover to his latest album +

Keeping it plain and simple he chose to have a portrait and the album name + on the cover, the colour orange is representative of his hair colour and his first album was even called orange. He constructs a star image out of this feature of himself to make himself stand out. HE also celebrates the one thing people like to mock; his ginger hair.

This is a promotional photo spotted in HMV and over the internet. This constructs a playful image with him looking away from the camera with a cheerfull look on his face, eyebrows raised, tongue sticking out and a little message stuck on the end saying hi! . This is supposed to be fun likable and playful. Gelled hair and a hoodie constructs an image of youth and refers to the fasion of his target audience.

Official website

http://www.edsheeran.com/

Ed keeps in contact with his fans through regular updates through social media. Social media has become the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to promote yourself. Updating fans with regular tweets, facebook updates, youtube videos, myspace page and a sound cloud, access to his music is at his fans finger tips. Also this shows him to fans as a down to earth person who also likes to tweet, go on facebook and youtube and this connects to fans on a personal level.

News updates, concert dates, pictures and even lyrics to his songs are available on his website, bringing his fan base little closer to him, being loyal to them and in turn they buy his music and enjoy the songs he creates. Even if he does not have a relationship personally with each his fans he delivers a kind of fan service and this seems to keep them happy.

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Also he has a facebook link so you can like his page, a twitter feed and a live Ustream so he can perform live and talk to fans via webcam.

Links to buy his album and single are available on his site too this all promotes his music, personality as part of his star image and portraits him as a down to earth person.

YouTube.

With many YouTube videos out of Ed Sheerans songs and live performances he spreads his music through different platforms and can also get direct feedback through comments and gains publicity and a wider ranging audience. Who ever stumbles on his music and likes it will be a fan rather than marketing himself to a certain audience. He also promotes his videos as related searches to similar artists.

With over 5 million views on his new single lego house he can be classed as a YouTube hit. The like bar is almost all green and his comments from fans are mostly positive.With all his songs reaching millions of views Ed Sheerans fan base love him.

Secondary audience research

Only bad feedback I could find in his comments about him. (comment on the official you need me I don't need you video, Im not a fan of the concept of video either.The rest of the comments directed towards him are positive and everyone seems to show him support on YouTube.

When you think of what style an Ed Sheeran video will be like, you wont find any consistency as each song tells a different story and the video usually has a narrative but not always. He usually shows up in the videos but he is only the main focus in his acoustic videos that are not official music videos.

In two of his videos he has had a narrative and he appears in them as a cameo and the narrative usually plays over the song with a loose illustration of the lyrics. Eg, lego house is about a stalker who thinks Ed is singing to him and he is obsessed down to having dolls of him and stalking him, even chewing on his discarded gum.

In a-team we have an illustration of the girl he is singing about. In you need me I don't need you the lyrics are signed out in sign language intercut with objects to illustrate the lyrics further. Other videos are acoustic covers to other songs or original songs he hasn't released in the charts, he either sits or stands in front of a camera with a guitar or a loop pedal and a mic and performs his song in studio or on location, emphasis on the music in these videos are the main point rather than a narrative.

For our groups song, a garage/dance/chill out track would have more emphasis on instrumental, vocals and atmosphere of the song so the video will need to reflect that or put a spin on it.

I am researching one third of the trio that makes up this version of the song could just be the basseline Feedback on the chosen track by Ed Sheeran, Kal Lavelleand Artful Mark is as followed.

Mainly positive with one bad comment.