HITS' HIGH FIVE:
IT'S AN ED, ED, ED, ED WORLD

Between Ed, Nicki, SXSW and getting the Carafa malt/roasted barley ratio correct for our homemade St. Patty’s Day brew, we had to delay our Trump University spelling class. Still, we’re confident we got all the wordz spelled right in this week’s edition of HITS’ High Five.

One thing’s for sure: Sheeran is British for spectacular success. His ÷ is the fastest selling album by a male artist ever in the U.K., it broke Justin Bieber’s 101-million Purpose streams to become the most streamed pop album in its first week of release and his tour has been expanded to cover the world.

Spotify has acquired an analytics firm to improve song recommendations and get songwriters and composers paid more properly.

New music arrived from Nicki Minaj, while Drake and Frank Ocean have us waiting for announcements.

Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries are heading back to the drawing board after their deal to sell dick clark productions falls through.

HITS President Karen Glauber is hosting a panel in Texas next week. There’s music, too.