Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "ED SHEERAN - PLAY"

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

Linktree: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠⁠Join The Normandy For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here: ⁠⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠⁠ Join Analytic Dreamz on Notorious Mass Effect for an in-depth segment on Ed Sheeran’s 8th studio album, Play, released Sept. 12, 2025, via Gingerbread Man/Atlantic Records. This 13-track project, kicking off a new 5-album cycle, blends Indian and Persian influences with dance-pop and classic ballads. Standouts like “Sapphire,” “Camera,” and “In Other Words” reflect joy and nostalgia post-Sheeran’s dark period. Despite some uneven world-fusion tracks, Play sets the stage for chart success, backed by NPR Tiny Desk and The Loop Tour. Tune in for insights on Sheeran’s vibrant evolution! Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Play is the album that's made me fall in love with fun again. Writing and recording subtract was so cathartic, but also so heavy. Going into stereo after mathematics ended, I wanted to start with the polar opposite. Play celebrates love, life, COVID. exploring creativity and techno color. It was actually Technicolor, not TechnoColor, just a minor mistake. I've loved making this record in the last six months have been just what I needed to get back into the swing of things to reheat my love for pop and popping up. Okay, play on words, he may be a rapper. It's an album. I'm immensely proud of

of and just makes me feel good. I hope it does. The same for you. You guys. Thank you to all my insanely talented collaborators and all the fans along the journey who have been at all our pop-ups, more to come. Play is out now. Let me know in the comments what your favorite.

song is. But then, you know what I'm saying? I was like, damn, look at this. So, ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to Ed Schering, you already know, as far as notorious Mass Effect, we dove deep into Ed Scherer's musical offerings

since January 20th, 2020, and now, in 2025, looking at his play album that's out now in all DSPs, safe to say, there's a lot of business behind the scenes, and I'm here to break it down, because of course,

when you look at the first sales the first week sales you would think to yourself at shuren from a public perception a bird's eye view is one of the most popular artists in the world right but then you look at the numbers and it says something different which of course i always say just because you sell the most does not mean you make the best product and just because you don't sell at all does not mean you're making a worst product as you've seen what a lot of things behind the scenes it's a lot of smoke and mirrors at play right So when it comes to Ed Shearing, 2011, he sold 102,000 units first week. 2014, well, that was with the plus album.

2014 with the multiplication album, he sold $182,000 first week. And then the album that quantified and basically defined his career came out in 2017. The division album came out selling a whopping 672. thousand units first week and then of course you had a bunch of other collaborations as far as projects in 2019 that the number six collaboration projects so 125,000 first week and then of course when it comes to 2021 I'm essentially showcasing how his units have been on the downward spiral since 2017 you go from from 130, 139,000 first week from 2021 to 76,000 for this week in 2020 to 62,000 units in 2023 with the autumn variation.

And the main reason I'm bringing that up is because it's very interesting that the bottom of his previous albums as far as for the past three to four years, really four to five years. There's been different labels for every single one. And by different labels, I mean not essentially like a whole different label. But as far as subsidiaries, it's very interesting how with the 10th anniversary edition, at the bottom of the credits, it says Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, which basically is what movie studios use as far as distribution for soundtracks, right?

For example, all of the stars from the fall in our stars. And then, of course, you have Asylum Records that was there for the tour collection and Def Jam recordings. not only that but then you have gingerbread man uh gingerbread man records which is ed shirin's own label that appears on all the albums and reflects his creative control the independent production but he often collaborates with larger labels which brings me to the ultimate major label that all these subsidiaries are under warner music uk. UK limited and Atlantic now honestly don't know how could be under two major labels at the same time as far as Warner. Well, Atlantic's not major record.

My fault. Atlantic's a subsidiary of Warner. So I'll take that back. I'm confused with all the different hands in the pot as far as the subsidiaries and how he promotes his music as far as distribution. So I would be interested to see if this leads to his numbers increasing because ever since, and I just read it off, ever since 2021, it seems like he's been on a down word spiral and like I keep saying because I always have to say this because I covered the

analytics religiously I have to say this all the time just because you sell a lot does not mean you're making the best product and just because you don't sell a lot does not mean you're making a worst product but on the engagement side of things we have to point out for a superstar like ed shoring under all of these subsidiaries ultimately leading up to warner music UK limited I wonder if they are doing enough to promote Ed Scher's album that's out now in all DSPs. That's the main thing I was wanting to say. And of course, as me being a huge Ed Shearant fan, I mean, if you've been any sort of present throughout the podcast journey, you know I've been covering Asurance like it's going out of style. Because I think he's one of the more talented artists that I've seen.

And he definitely made one of the greatest anthems, some of the greatest anthems that I've ever heard. as far as a song being created. I mean, the shape of you, there's a lot of other tracks I could go with as far as him cultivating some people's whole weddings around one singular track, right? So, Asheran's really talented in a way that I can't even put into words.

I can't even describe. Y'all gonna say I'm glazing, but hey, so what? You guys. See, that's the problem. That's why I want to talk about all their subsidiaries. I'm hoping that they actually do what they are labeled to do, and push this man's music because we're going to see what happens

is going to be very interesting to see what the public's reception is to this album but as far as something else I was going to look at I was also wanting to get into I was wanting to get to specific tracks but first I wanted to see with the Ed Scherun fans

what they are gravitating tours so we already talked about Sapphire we talked about that back in June 17th so we were probably probably get into the first track which is opening and then we'll probably get into the track that they're using for playlisting as far as the track camera so without further ado let's hop into actually let's hop into a little more where didn't little more come out let me see a little more came out august 7th 2025 that I don't think I did see so since already came out we probably won't cover that one oh I did cover that see I told you I'm a huge assuring fan I covered that August 8th so yeah we're gonna hop into camera and an opening right now.