One Direction Announces Break, Sony Music Courting Harry Styles for a Solo Career?

One Direction's Harry Styles might be the next member to go solo.

According to the latest rumors, the 21-year-old singer is being courted by Sony Music after One Direction announced that they would be taking a break sometime next year. The band stressed that they were not breaking up.

The rumors are claiming that Sony Music is focused on Styles over Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson because they believe that Styles has the best chances of building a solid solo career. Styles also has the most Twitter followers out of everyone else in the band with 25.4 million.

"Harry has always been One Direction's most popular member and it's obvious that we want to secure him - he's a global superstar," a source allegedly told Dan Wootton of The Sun.

If Styles chooses to pursue a solo career, his album will be in competition with music put out by Zayn Malik, a former member of One Direction. Malik announced that he was quitting the band to become a normal person. However, a few months later, Malik signed a solo deal with RCA records, which is another Sony label.

"Zayn will get to release an album first, as he left the band earlier, but the most excitement is about what Harry is going to do," the source added. "Everyone wants to know what his solo material will sound like, there's also a lot of pressure to get it right."

The Daily Mail, however, reported that there have been no talks about a solo deal with any member of the band.

 "No discussions about solo deals are happening with any members of One Direction currently," a band representative said. "Sony are fully committed to all of One Direction and are looking forward to the release of the group's new album."

The band confirmed their break via Twitter.

Horan tweeted, "Ok so Lots of rumours going round. We are not splitting up, but we will be taking a well earned break at some point next year...Don't' worry though, we still have lots we want to achieve! Can't wait for you to hear all the new music we have for you...Love you all xx."

"Your support is truly indescribable! It's just a break :) we're not going anywhere!!" Tomlinson added.

Payne tweeted, "So glad everything has been cleared up today and ur support with it is amazing not that we could ever expect anything less your amazing... Thank you so much for everything you have done for us it's been the most amazing five years and there's so much more to come."

One Direction is signed with Simon Cowell's label Syco, which is also a division of Sony.