“It’s funny - my ex-girlfriend, who the whole first album is about, was like, ‘I can tell when you’re not happy in pictures, because you do this fake smile,’ ” says Sheeran with a flash of his genuine smile. With each photo, his face instantly snaps into an identical configuration: a pleasant, if slightly lobotomized, smile. He is friendly and unpretentious, but it’s clear that this kind of day, packed with strangers in need of glad-handing, doesn’t come naturally to him. Sheeran sticks around afterward to take photos with the beaming members of the streaming service’s staff. An hour later, somewhat perked up, he appears onstage at Rockwood Music Hall, a small downtown club, to introduce Lawson, who’s playing a private afternoon showcase for Spotify. Investment has to come outside the major-label system.”įollowing a second promo stop at Buzzfeed, Sheeran takes advantage of some downtime to recharge with a nap in the back of the van. The biggest problem artists have is investment - in their career, as opposed to in a record. Len can help us talk to key players across different industries, from Harvey Weinstein to luxury brands. The joint venture “is about connections and access. “He said a few things about streaming services that I’d never heard anybody say, and I quickly realized he’s a visionary,” she recalls. Stennett met Blavatnik in May at the Cannes Film Festival, where he co-chaired an amfAR Cinema Against AIDS fundraiser. Museum-quality artwork lines the walls of his expansive, largely empty office, which has a startling view of the High Line park and the helicopters that travel up and down the Hudson River. Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born businessman believed to be the richest person in England, bought WMG in 2011 his investments include film (AI and Icon Pictures) and music streaming (Deezer and Spotify). Stennett’s car pulls up to a building in the Meatpacking District, and she goes to the penthouse, where she shares office space with Blavatnik’s Access Industries. Stennett is on the brink of having her own empire, if she can guide her VIP acts - namely Australian pop-rapper Iggy Azalea, British singer Ellie Goulding and One Direction refugee Zayn Malik - through the controversies, pitfalls and other tremors that could knock them from the top of an increasingly unstable pyramid of pop stardom. Stennett has the support of industry power brokers including Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge, Columbia Records CEO Rob Stringer (who calls Turn First “the alpha female music company”) and Warner Music Group (WMG) owner Len Blavatnik, who has formed a joint venture with Stennett, a development she won’t yet discuss in detail because it hasn’t been officially announced. It’s well-rounded, diverse and -comprehensive - OK, fine, “vertically integrated” - as well as thriving and expanding. act Sugababes, has grown to comprise two labels, a branding business and a publishing company, in addition to artist management. Turn First, the company she launched in 2004 after managing U.K. Stennett exemplifies the 21st-century approach to music moguldom. In a moment, from the back seat of a town car, she’ll get on the phone to Sydney, where’s it’s already tomorrow. Today the British lawyer and manager is in New York, a convenient pivot point to an extended workday: Before breakfast she can talk to the London office, and after dinner her Los Angeles staff is still available. Time zones are important to Sarah Stennett, who has 38 employees in three cities. When we got to the actual fans, it was very, very intense.” “We got off the plane in Manila, and there were like 500 people there waiting,” says Sheeran. Sheeran finally realized the need for security after a tour stop in the Philippines. One smallish man, alone onstage in venues normally occupied by such franchises as the New England Patriots, generating Beatlemania-esque pandemonium along the way.Ģ4 Hours With Ed Sheeran: His New York City Whirlwind (PHOTOS) leg of his blockbuster X Tour: a sold-out show at the 80,000-seat Gillette Stadium, outside Boston. (His older brother Matthew is also a musician he composes classical music.) Now Sheeran is in town for a few days following the last stop on the U.S. His parents, art dealer dad John and jewelry designer mom Imogen, still live in Suffolk, and Sheeran recently bought a house nearby. It has been an almost unbelievable rise, from busking in his English hometown of Suffolk to getting gifts from Jay and Bey.
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