Singer Ed Sheeran, a longtime proponent of music education, has announced the launch of The Ed Sheeran Foundation with the goal of supporting children’s access to instruments, studio time, and instructors to properly help young artists navigate the music industry.
Listen to Ed Sheeran Radio and more on the free Audacy app
Revealing the news on social media on January 9, Sheeran explains he set up the foundation, "because recently there’s been less and less importance being put on music education. Even when I was in school it was seen as a ‘doss subject’ and not taken seriously."
"There’s a misconception that it’s ’not a real job,’" he adds, "when the music industry accounts for 216,000 jobs in so many different fields, and bringing as much as £7.6 billion ($9.3 billion dollars) in a year to the UK economy.”
Sheeran also touched on the power that music has in bringing "joy" to every corner of our lives saying, "It’s something we should be proud of and championing in the UK, not sweeping under the rug and pretending we are just bankers (no offence to bankers obvz). It was incredible for my mental health as a kid, feeling a sense of purpose and achievement, even just learning piano or cello at a young age way before songwriting.”
Aside from performance and songwriting help, The Ed Sheeran Foundation aims to help steer students with a variety of skill sets. "I employ 150 people on tour," he explains, who each fill a number of crucial roles -- from record labels and management, music publishing, event promoters, and more. "Music is such a key part of our society. The more I do travelling around and visiting schools and grass roots projects, the more I see there’s passion and inspiring people, who are being undervalued and underserved. I’m hoping this foundation is a start to giving them the support they need to keep going, and show them they are hugely important to us."
Related
New music from Ed Sheeran is also on the way in 2025, revealing recently that “It feels like I’m getting back into big Pop for the first time in a long time... It’s quite exciting.” He's already got the yet-to-be-named project ready to go, with two music videos in the can and plans for more shoots in the coming months.