#plmae

[poetrydude66]

I disagree with u on the topic about Taylor is the main reason that Ed is so huge right now. Sure it helped but Ed's success is mostly due to his own talent and hard work. I do agree with the point u made about ed being more like Taylor. His song writing skills have been more confessional and personal like hers(such as don't n photograph). Sorry i don't hv a tumblr hence the ask is anon.

Hello anon.  This is the case where we actually agree with each other, and I think I am saying something different than you think I am.  

Ed is remarkably talented.  More than talented, Ed crafted his skill under brutal work conditions for many years, which turned that raw talent into expertise and true craftsmanship.  No one fills Madison Square Garden unless they can deliver the goods and entertain people.   Taylor Swift cannot pass her magic wand over Fred The Squirrel and have Fred sell out concerts.   I get that.   Ed has the talent and work ethic to hold his own once he gets to the top.

Having said that, before he started touring with Taylor, Ed was a major star in the UK, but virtually unknown in the US.  Penetrating the US market and achieving the same level of success here is something that could easily have taken Ed another two or three album cycles (four to six years).  And - at the end of that period - he could easily have ended up being only a fraction as popular as what he has become with Taylor.

What Taylor did is give him enormous amounts of free public relations, exposure to more than a million fans at concerts (who then go and talk to millions more who did not attend the concerts), and amazing amounts (tens of millions of people) of free online distribution by recording “Everything Has Changed” with him and then having performances of that play 24 by 7 on TV, on YouTube, etc.   New fans - who never knew Ed’s work - had the opportunity to be constantly impressed by these performances and to then go and discover his other albums.  That is the way I discovered him, by the way.   I would never have bought an Ed Sheeran album if it were not for my being a Taylor fan.  Now I have purchased every one of them.  Taylor’s tens of millions of fans quickly became Ed’s fans because of these issues.  

Now, don’t make me pull out my calculator, because then everyone’s eyes will roll and you will get me in trouble for being so serious.   But I don’t think you need to use very aggressive numbers to calculate that Ed will realize more than $10 million USD per year of additional album and performance revenues because of what Taylor did here.   It is not any sleight on Ed’s major talent and skill to recognize how enormously valuable are these gifts from Taylor.

If you still don’t believe me, then maybe you will believe Ed Sheeran himself.  Read this short interview where Ed credits his US success to Taylor and even goes so far as to say that she showed him how to be successful in the US market.

[poetrydude66]

Since its obvious you ship sweeran, do you think that they would be dating now if ed didn't hv a girlfriend?

I usually don’t encourage the gossip type questions on my blog, because then you end up getting  full inbox of anon messages and never have time to produce any original content.  But in your case I’m making an exception. :)   I wish Tumblr had a way to answer such messages anonymously back to the anon sender rather than publishing….

I actually don’t ship Sweeran that much.  I like to play with the theme because a Taylor Swift blog needs a little romance. :)    Maybe they get together someday.   Maybe they don’t.   I have no horse in that race.

Who knows what Taylor really wants these days.   Based on her interview in Glamour UK November 2013, I half expected her to get back with Harry Styles.  Unlike the popular press depictions, I think Album 5 will probably show that she cared for him a lot and still does.   Based on Taylor’s comments midway through that interview, she leaves open the possibility that they will get together again someday.   Buy the Glamour UK November 2013 issue.   It’s a decent read.

Regarding Ed and Taylor, here is what I am sure of:

1) Ed and Taylor are good for each other’s business.   Their fan bases strongly overlap, and as a result each of them picks up new customers from the other.    The person who benefits 95% from that arrangement is Ed.  In fact, Taylor accelerated Ed’s career by about four years.   Hey Ed, take Taylor, Meredith, and Olivia out for some Caviar and Catnip. :) You owe one of those females big-time for handing you - for free - about $10M/year of income for the rest of your life.   As a business guy, I think what Taylor has done for Ed is way beyond generous and is one of those life changing moments for Ed that he correctly saw and seized.

2) Ed is in the process of transforming himself into Taylor in important ways.  His personal behavior, his use of swear words inside his music, his public drinking and partying, are all becoming more subdued.   Taylor has become Ed’s role model, and he is carefully studying her and copying her.  It’s an act of respect, but it is also evidence he is sly and is correctly realizing his opportunity to learn from someone whose audience is remarkably loyal - and very large - how he can develop a similar following.

So Sweeran is real, even if “Sweeran” is not.

Now any of you other anons out there who are just dying to get my opinion on something, any chance you could send to me as a non-anon and ask me to answer privately?  Would be glad to do that for you.