How Has Ed Sheeran Tour Chaos Affected Streaming Numbers for Macklemore, Other Openers & Ed Himself?
Categoria: Musica
In the midst of controversy over Macklemore being taken off Sheeran's latest stadium tour, he's seen a major change in his streaming fortunes — as have some artists who've left in solidarity.
Por Billboard | 17/09/2026
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. This week: The biggest story in pop music involves the fallout over Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour , following “Free Palestine” comments made by the rapper at some of his first dates opening the stadium trek. We look at how his streaming numbers have been affected since, as well as those of some of the tour’s other former openers, and for Sheeran himself. Macklemore’s “Hind’s Hall” Has Biggest Streaming Day Since 2024 As much of the attention around Macklemore this week focuses on his continued unwavering support of the “Free Palestine” movement, it’s unsurprising that his 2024 single “Hind’s Hall” — titled after the hall at Columbia University renamed to honor a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces, and expressing his support of the university’s pro-Palestine protestors — would see increased attention. Indeed, the song grew massively in streaming over both Monday (Sept. 14), when news of his removal from Ed Sheeran ‘s Loop Tour broke, and Tuesday (Sept. 15), when Sheeran issued a statement in response, and each of the tour’s remaining openers also pulled out of the dates to come. After posting a little over 5,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on Sunday, that number exploded by 693% to 43,000 on Monday, and doubled to nearly 87,000 streams on Tuesday, according to early data provided by Luminate. That 87,000 number marks the best daily streaming total for “Hind’s Hall” in over two years, since it posted 88,000 streams on June 5, 2024, less than a month after its May 10 release. “Hind’s Hall 2,” the song’s September 2024 sequel featuring Palestinian-American singer-songwriter Anees, Gaza-born rapper MC Abdul, and Palestinian-American author and camedian Amer Zahr, also saw big gains on a slightly smaller scale. After posting just under 2,000 streams on Sunday, that number got 11 times bigger by Tuesday, when it racked up over 22,000 streams. Total Macklemore Catalog Nearly Doubles in Streams While the two “Hind’s Hall”s were the most aggressive movers in terms of percentage gains over the early week, the entirety of Macklemore’s catalog saw major gains as a result of the news cycle. Taken all together, his discography across both his solo work and his work alongside longtime DJ partner Ryan Lewis was up from just over one million official on-demand streams on Sunday to nearly two million streams on Tuesday, a gain of 97%, according to early data provided by Luminate. (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ Ray Dalton-featuring “