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Ed Sharon, we have been celebrating the 500 most streamed songs of Apple Music's first decade.
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The numbers are insane as you can imagine.
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I mean, we're talking billions and billions of streams and the kind of math that neither of us who got into music ever expected to be dealing with. How do you know?
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Cuz you guys never tell the the figures. How do we know?
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Is it how do we know or how do we know?
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Cuz there's a difference. No, no, no. How do How do we know? I know that you know.
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You know, because we're telling you. Do you know what?
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I actually think I actually think that that's the way that it should be.
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I think numbers ruin joy of music.
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I think that it's better.
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Like I like the fact I did a I did a a documentary for a streaming service and I have no idea how it did, but I just bump into people every now and then and they go, "Oh, I watched the documentary." You go, "Oh, cool."
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Like, and that's how you know it did well is it's like reached people.
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But I sometimes think that like putting numerical figures on and saying that that's the success of a song, not what, you know, some of my favorite albums on the other streaming service haven't got like millions and millions of streams, but they're still my favorite albums.
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And for some reason, you look at that and you go, "Oh, it must not have done well."
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So yeah, I think how you guys do it is actually probably the way that uh keeps most artists sane.
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Well, that's the right approach definitely from the artist point of view in my humble opinion.
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you know, as someone who, as you know, makes music as well as tries to support it and talk about it.
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I don't see any distinction between the two and I know that that math doesn't help either of them for me, right?
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And so, at the end of the day, but this is the world we live in.
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And you know, when you're dealing with the kind of numbers, when you're breaking it down to into micro plays and and then it all adds up to one much bigger number, then I guess once every decade, you should celebrate that.
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And like all countdowns, there has to be a number one.
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And that would be you, my old friend, holding down the number one spot with Shape of View. Thank you.
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Yeah, I didn't I I'm I was actually I was actually surprised when I was told.
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I thought it was um Blinding Lights. Number two.
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Blinding Lights is number two, actually.
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Ed, you uh you beat out you beat out The Weekend.
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I'm not going to tell you by how many streams. Apple Music, baby. Let's get it. Apple Music, baby.
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Uh so let's talk a little about Shape of You because it was one of those really important songs for you and that it it was an outlier at the time with only a couple of others that felt um like you had been dabbling into a different dynamic, right?
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People had become accustomed to you as a songwriter building these beautiful songs from the from the guitar out.
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This one was a real shot at at the charts, you know?
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I maybe not consciously, but when I heard it the first time, I was like, this is an undeniable pop song. Yeah.
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I mean, do you know what?
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When I wrote it, I didn't even it didn't even cross.
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Like, I know this sounds weird, but I've written so many songs like that.
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I mean, obviously not like that, but hundreds of times where you're in the studio and you're just like, let's create a vibe and then let's just get through it, make it, move on to the next one.
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At the end of the day, we'll survey the five or six songs we've done and see if there's a good one in there.
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So, we would just me, it was the first day I'd worked with Steve Mack.
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worked with Steve Mack. Uh me and Johnny had gone in, we just powered through and we just went song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song song and at the end of the day we looked back and we were like this one's all right and then I
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went to uh we were doing drums on a track on Dubai called Eraser that night so me and Johnny went to Rack Studios and then I played it to Ben Cook and Ed Howard who were the head of Asylum Records um who they basically on their
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label they had me Charlie X and Marie and Rudimental yeah and I said to them I was like this could easily be a Rudimental song that you could get Rihanna on and they were like, "You're mental. You should keep this one." And I
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You should keep this one."
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And I was like, I don't know.
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Like, I'm just hearing in a drum and bass rhythm now. I'm just hearing Yeah. You know what I mean?
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It just It just felt like it might have fit in that.
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And then um uh yeah, but my my record was like perfect.
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Uh Castle on the Hill, Happier, like it was very much in one in one genre.
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So, um I yeah, it it felt it felt like, as you said, like a like an outlier.
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But yeah, I'm really glad it I put it out.
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glad it I put it out. It's only really now looking back um I s I sort of wish I'd realized how special those moments were cuz at the time I was just comparing it to everything else and like Kendrick's Dam had come out and I
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remember just being like that culturally has mattered way more than Shape of You and so I I was sort of like felt like I don't know I I felt weird about it the whole the whole time but now it's sort of like eight years on I still play that that song everywhere in the world. I can
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I can go anywhere in the world, even if it's like remote jungle in Cambodia and they know that song.
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And it's really like it's permeated some some mad places.
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And I wouldn't even say it's the song that I say this all the time to my brother because we my my brother's a classical musician and all classical musicians, all the old ones, they're all known for like one thing, like one, they've obviously done like hundreds and hundreds of pieces, but they're known for one thing. One movement. Yeah. Yeah.
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And they go, "What's the Beatles one?"
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I actually What do you think the Beatles one song is?
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That's the one the one that in the one that in 400 years time someone go and I think it's yesterday personally.
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Yeah, it's probably yesterday or it's uh maybe it's was Hey was Hey Jude Beatles or was it McCartney? That was Beatles.
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Yeah, maybe it's I mean I think about the one like if the Beatles were around today.
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This is why I ride for McCartney, man, because all of the ones that people say are all McCartney songs. All of them. Yeah.
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My point is I've never seen Shape of You as that song for me as the song that like uh I will be remembered for.
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But it's like weird everywhere I go in the world because we we travel everywhere and we play everywhere and we you know we we went to Bhutan recently and that song like kicked off there and you know me and CHZ have been to remote places in Antarctica or Cambodia or like you know outback Australia and that song just finds its way everywhere.
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just finds its way everywhere. Well, because you you you've got this great hook in there which I think is kind of it it it it it crosses trans it crosses um language barriers but the the rhythm as well cuz the rhythm I I originally when I was making it I was like this is a dance hall rhythm but then when I was
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in India they were like oh no this is a Punjabi banger rhythm and then like I would be somewhere else and they'd be like oh no this is that it's a sort of rhythm that like like I play shape of you with yoga who are Irish trad band as well and it really works with Baron as well and so it's just a rhythm that I feel is a universal rhythm. Basically, it must be nice to
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Basically, it must be nice to know you can have both.
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Both things can be right at the same time.
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You can have a song which is the the number one most streamed song of the last 10 years at Apple Music that has traveled to every corner of the world.
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And yet in your heart, you know, it's not the song that that that is your yesterday.
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And I think that must be really lovely to get to this point in your life to know you're not defined by your success anymore.
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that you probably haven't even you may not have written that song yet that they'll play in your obituary when you die at 99.
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I quite like the idea that I haven't written it.
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I think probably I have and it's perfect.
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Um because I think that that that those two songs permeate which is at number eight by the way in this chart just in case you great great but um but no I think that um what I've realized about a discoraphy or like a a set list is you need all of these songs.
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If I had two and a half hours of me playing slow ballads, it's boring.
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You have to I love where Shape of You is in the set.
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I love where Azizam is in the set.
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I love where Hearts Don't Breakound is in the set or Afterglow or Castle Hill.
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That it creates a really interesting tapestry of a gig where you can whip out things depending on the mood you're in.
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We just played in Marseilles and I could just tell that they were mental.
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So, you can just throw in more upbeat mental songs and Yeah. it. Yeah, it's it's good. Congratulations, Ed.
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Look, we talked a little bit about the beginning of this short conversation about math and and it doesn't drive you.
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It doesn't drive me, but it used to though. It definitely used to.
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Yeah, I definitely like I got I got like mildly obsessed with it when cuz I was never good at anything that I got mildly obsessed with it when I was like, "Oh, this is working for me."
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But I think that I've kind of kind of gone full circle.
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I think releasing Subtract as an album broke me out of it.
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And it's I've kind of like I can now look back on all of it and be like that was a part of my life.
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But yeah, and I think anyone that says that they haven't ever felt like that is lying.
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Everyone at some point even like the most indie indie artists that you and I would know like I know just because from through mutual friends I know a lot of these really indie artists they all want at some point to have a moment like that of numbers. It is it is a thing.
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It is a thing that everyone at some point in their life craves.
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But what a beautiful place to be at at your life to be able to acknowledge this number right now and know that to your point, you've got beautiful music to make and different ways to make it and and no one can take away the song like Shape of You exists and I'll be able to play it forever and I will continue to keep writing music and keep releasing it.
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But I'm just grateful that I have songs like that that you know, you could be anywhere in the world and someone gives you guitar and you can make someone happy with it.
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I'm just grateful it's the number one most streaming song in the last 10 years, baby. Just want to say that. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Apple Music, baby. Let's go.
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I'll see you in the summer.
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Have a great last couple of days. I'll see you. Thank you, man.
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I'll see you in the summer. Lots of love.