Artists launching their own labels isn’t a new trend, but Ed Sheeran is going about his in a characteristically-digital way. He announced the launch of Gingerbread Man Records with a YouTube video – and, indeed, its own YouTube channel. “I’m going to be posting all the videos of all the artists that I sign,” he told fans. “There’s going to be different ways that we’re going to be getting involved with you, so comment, subscribe, do all of that, and I hope you enjoy everything that we put out… Say something nice.
Or nasty! There’s a lot of internet trolls out there on YouTube, but I’ve never met them. Have you?” He followed it with a sit-down interview with first signing Jamie Lawson, as well as official and acoustic videos for Lawson’s first single. A day after the launch, the Gingerbread Man Records channel has more than 21,500 subscribers – a decent start for an indie imprint, even if it’s only a small sliver (0.3%, to be specific) of the 7m+ subscribers to Sheeran’s own channel. The latter will also play its part though: Sheeran ‘liked’ a lyric video by Lawson three months ago, and it’s since been watched more than 255k times.
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