To celebrate the upcoming release of his new album, Play, singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has partnered with TikTok to host an exclusive LIVE streaming performance.
The performance will be filmed in New York City on Saturday (September 13), a day after the artist’s eighth studio album drops. The album will be released through his record label Gingerbread Man Records and Atlantic Records under license to Warner Music.
It follows his seventh studio album, Autumn Variations, which was released in September 2023 via Gingerbread Man Records.
Play was supported by four singles, which already dropped: Azizam, Old Phone, Sapphire and A Little More.
The TikTok LIVE campaign will see Sheeran performing in front of an audience of his superfans in New York. For those unable to watch live, the whole performance will be streamed on TikTok LIVE from @edsheeran and @tiktok, starting at 6.20pm ET on Saturday.
“I’ll be playing lots of new tracks from Play on the night, and I’m very happy that I get to mark the release of the new album with my fans across the world.”
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran said: “I’m looking forward to getting back to New York – a city I love – to play this show with TikTok. I’ll be playing lots of new tracks from Play on the night, and I’m very happy that I get to mark the release of the new album with my fans across the world. See you on the 13th x”
In addition to the TikTok LIVE performance, the platform will also launch an exclusive in-app experience for the new album called The Play Album Experience, which will from Friday (September 12) let fans find exclusive Ed Sheeran content, unlock digital rewards, and explore the album.
TikTok users can complete a series of in-app tasks like following @edsheeran, saving his music to a music streaming app or posting a video with the #EdSheeran hashtag to get an exclusive Play profile frame.
Fans can access the experience by simply searching “Ed Sheeran” on TikTok from Friday.
“Ed’s songs have soundtracked millions of TikTok moments around the world, and this event is all about bringing that energy to life with some of his biggest fans, as well as millions more watching LIVE globally.”
Toyin Mustapha, TikTok
Toyin Mustapha, TikTok’s Head of Music Partnerships in the UK, Ireland & SSA, said: “We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Ed Sheeran to celebrate the release of his latest album, Play, with this very special performance in New York.”
“Ed’s songs have soundtracked millions of TikTok moments around the world, and this event is all about bringing that energy to life with some of his biggest fans, as well as millions more watching LIVE globally. It’s a chance for our community to connect with the music they love, together with the artist who created it.”
An exclusive video of Ed Sheeran will also be available for fans to view, but only if 100,000 fans use the ‘Add to Music App’ feature to save the track to their preferred music streaming app.
This comes as TikTok continues to promote the new feature after launching it in the US and UK in November 2023. The ByteDance-owned platform has rapidly expanded both the countries where the feature is available and the platforms integrated with it.
In July, Tracy Gardner, TikTok’s Global Head of Music Business Development, said the ‘Add to Music App’ feature has fueled “billions of streams” on music streaming services.
Gardner’s statement backs TikTok’s Music Impact Report released in February, in which the company said the new feature had already resulted in a billion track saves as of that time.
The Play Album Experience arrives as TikTok continues to serve as a platform for artist campaigns supporting album releases. The platform had previously hosted similar campaigns for artists including Taylor Swift, Jin of BTS, Damiano David of Måneskin, Post Malone and Coldplay.
Music Business Worldwide
