Ed Sheeran plays private shows for less than $2

British pop star Ed Sheeran played a series of short private shows in an Australian city for less than $2 a ticket as part of a comedy stunt.

The Don't singer teamed with Aussie comedy duo Hamish & Andy to put on the "Ed Sheeran $2 Peep Show Experiment", charging customers two Australian dollars for a brief singing session.

However, the stunt failed to attract many customers, and Ed sat in the empty venue waiting for his first show for more than two hours.

"Are they just saying no?" he asked one of the comedians as he sat waiting for customers to pour in. "I think $2 is pretty fair."

The first takers came in after two hours and 23 minutes, and they were treated to a rendition of Ed's hit Thinking Out Loud.

A handful of customers came in during the rest of the day, and Ed later admitted he was grateful not to have been completely snubbed.

"That was easy, I didn't think anyone would come in," he added.

A video of the stunt was published online with the message: "If someone tells you that for $2 you can have Ed Sheeran play for you privately in a booth they're lying. Unless that someone was us last Friday. Not that that really made many more people believe us."

Ed also shared the video on his Twitter.com page, writing, "I was in a peep show."

The news comes after Ed landed a nomination for the Song of the Year accolade at the 2015 BBC Music Awards for his track Bloodstream.

He will compete against artists including The Weeknd for Can't Feel My Face, Ellie Goulding (Love Me Like You Do), Hozier (Take Me To Church), Jess Glynne (Hold My Hand), and Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (Uptown Funk).

The Song of the Year winner will be decided by a public vote, which opens on Wednesday (09Dec15), and the awards will be handed out during a ceremony in Birmingham, England on Thursday (10Dec15).