Ed Sheeran has left Warner Music Group after 15 years, ending a partnership that delivered eight studio albums and 170 million sales worldwide, the singer-songwriter told fans in a May 22 newsletter, per musicbusinessworldwide.com.
Sheeran said his split from Atlantic Records and Asylum Records in April was “amicable”. “This isn’t a ‘disgruntled artist leaves record label’ type situation,” he wrote. “This is a boy who started as a teenager… to the father of 2 man who exists now, who feels like he needs a shift and change in the way he does things professionally.”
He thanked staff across Warner, adding: “I leave the company with so much love and gratitude for everything we have achieved together. The door is always open for the future.”
Warner Music Group confirmed it will continue to release Sheeran’s catalogue. His eight albums, from 2011’s Plus to 2025’s Play, have generated 126 billion global streams, 38 billion YouTube views and 14 tracks in Spotify’s Billions Club. In the UK, he has secured 13 No.1 singles, nine No.1 albums and 53 platinum or multi-platinum singles.
Sheeran signed with Asylum, an Atlantic imprint, in 2011 after meeting then-executive Ed Howard at a Notting Hill gig in 2009. “I didn’t know at the time he worked at a record label,” Sheeran said. Howard and Ben Cook, who ran Asylum, attended his early pub shows before he signed following No. 5 Collaborations Project.
Atlantic Records UK co-president Ed Howard called it “a privilege” to work with Sheeran. “From the sofa-surfing teenager I met in 2009 to the global music icon he is today… the example he sets as a mentor, a champion for education, a father, a friend… is truly special.”
Warner Music Group said it was “proud to have supported Ed through his discovery and remarkable rise” and would “steward his iconic catalogue into the future”. The company added: “Everyone in the Warner Music family wishes Ed the very best as he embarks on the next chapter.”
Sheeran’s commercial peak came with 2017’s Divide, which set a Spotify first-day streaming record of 56.73 million streams. The 2017–2019 Divide tour became the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. His latest album, Play, released in September 2025 via Gingerbread Man Records and Atlantic, is the first in a planned pentalogy. He is currently on the Loop Tour, running from January to December 2026.
Sheeran, 35, has not announced where future releases will be distributed. In January 2025 he launched the Ed Sheeran Foundation and called for £250 million in UK music education funding. He was also the first artist featured on Warner’s in-development superfan app, revealed in April 2025.
