I'd heard of Ed Sheeran because he was already successful in the UK. There is no question though that his association with Taylor helped him massively to get exposure in the US. Don't forget the US is the biggest and most important market and many UK acts are successful domestically but try and break into the US. Most fail (like Girls Aloud, Take That, Gary Barlow), although quite a few have managed it in the last decade or so (Coldplay, Amy Winehouse, Adele, now Sam Smith)
Ed himself gives credit to Taylor for his success in the US.
Quote:
Ed Sheeran has said his success is America is down to Taylor Swift for inviting him to support her on her sold out Red tour.
The Sing hitmaker told MTV's Zane Lowe, "[Taylor] owns the US pop scene. She knows how to do it. In England I was a commercially successful artist, but I came to the US as an alternative artist playing shows with Snow Patrol.
"She not only opened doors for me in the pop world but told me how to do it. You have to do all radio shows at Christmas and do all those sessions. The key is not to lose that."
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http://www.rte.ie/ten/news/2014/0717...is-us-success/
The US (and global) media are obsessed with Taylor. So if you talk about Taylor or she talks about you, if you are pictured with her, or duet with her, you are gonna get a lot of media attention in the US. Of course you then have to leverage this and show off your abilities. Ed has talent and so this enabled him to capitalise on this publicity to showcase his own music and this has accelerated the growing of his US profile and fanbase.
