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Ed Sheeran's new album, No.6 Collaborations Project, feels like a Mad Libs music game. 22 guest singers are distributed, seemingly at random, on 15 songs that resonate through different styles: leaded southern rock and featherweight acoustic ballad, a soft R & B and an awkward tribute to Aftermath Entertainment, a Latin pop and a slender dancehall, like socialites in the middle of shopping.
Sheeran presented this new album as a return to freedom from the time when it was before a big label, before the paperwork and commercial pressure made the collaborations more complicated. At the time, "I did an EP called eight tracks Collaboration project n ° 5 with a group of British rappers whom I was a big fan at the time, "Sheeran said earlier this year during a conversation with famous radio host Charlamagne tha God. No.6 Collaborations Project is also an opportunity for Sheeran to pay tribute to the artists he admires at the moment:For me, it's an artist compilation album of which I'm a fan, "he said.
It turns out that Sheeran shares a label with many artists of which he is a fan; N ° 6 collaborations Sheeran may be a true reflection of Sheeran's broadcast habits, but it's also a clever piece of brand synergy, featuring a wide range of names on Atlantic Records. the The guest list is selected, so that nine of the singers or rappers are linked in one way or another to Atlantic, the industry's leading label, according to a recent estimate of the market share, or its parent company, recently renamed Warner Records. Sheeran is hosting a party and the bar is generously stocked, but the essential alcohol remains in the family.
The Atlantic clan includes Bruno Mars, Meek Mill, PnB Rock, Cardi B and A Boogie with Hoodie, currently the star of the label and the third most popular artist in 2019. The electronic producer Skrillex, which also features on No.6 Collaborations, distributes music through the Big Beat label, also under the umbrella of the Atlantic. The unpredictable rapper Young Thug publishes his music jointly through 300 Records and Atlantic. Stormzy star – who scored her first number one in England earlier this year and then starred in the country's flagship music festival, Glastonbury – signed a contract with Atlantic UK. And Argentine artist Paulo Londra, who has collected more than a billion torrents worldwide, signed another contract with Warner Records, Warner Music Latin.
The Sheeran duo's other partners appear to be roughly evenly split between Warner's two main competitors. Sony Music Entertainment appears on No.6 Collaborations in the form of Travis Scott, Khalid, Camila Cabello and H.E.R., while the Universal Music Group lends to Sheeran the services of Eminem, Ella Mai, Chris Stapleton and Justin Beiber.
For Sheeran's tag mates, especially rappers and Londra, inclusion on No.6 Collaborations is a chance to join the Sheeran fans, who are more adult, more contemporary, who would probably not look for hip-hop or Spanish music otherwise. And it's also a good surprise for their global profiles – Ed Sheeran is the most popular artist on the planet on Spotify, with more than 65 million monthly listeners around the world.
Although No.6 Collaborations Project is a blockbuster pop, it actually shares some similarities with another recent version, The revenge of the dreamers III, by the rappers (and singer R & B) of Dreamville Records. This label relied on the starring power of J. Cole and guests like T.I. and Ty Dolla $ ign to elevate some of their younger, lesser-known acts (Bas, JID). And the strategy seems to have paid off since the album is expected to make its Number One debut with a good margin.
Whether it's his intention or not, Sheeran performs a similar move on a larger scale: putting his label on his back and seeing where he can wear it..
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