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1D’s big pay day comes at end of three year contract, according to Sun

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 9 January 2013

According to The Sun the big pay day for members of the ‘X-Factor’ created boy band One Direction – so Harry, Louis, Zayn, Rufus and Giles (maybe) – won’t come until the end of their first three year contract with the ‘X-Factor’ owning Syco empire, and if any one member was to bail on that contract before that date everyone would lose out.

So while, as everyone seems to reckon, the long-term plan may well be a Robbie Williams-style solo career for Mr Harry Styles (though whose plan exactly – Syco, management, the UN – is rarely revealed), the 1D franchise isn’t going anywhere for at least another year, and not even if the One Direction boys all fall out (which, while the group remains the global cash cow it currently is, is the only foreseeable reason for it to all tumble down any sooner).

Says The Sun’s source: “It’s a really clever contract that the boys have signed up to. It means they have a real incentive to tough it out and stick together. The formal length is for 36 months and an album a year – but the clever part is they get the big pay day after the three years. If one of them walks away before then, then all five miss out on the money. They don’t miss out on a few quid either, we are talking millions. They all get on really well, but it would be the kind of deal that would see them through the worst aggro possible”.

So that’s nice. Talking of 1D, for those keeping count, Styles and Taylor Swift are currently off again, something The Sun decided was front page news yesterday. Though that’s not to say ‘Styles/Swift reconciliation’ won’t be the lead story by Friday.