Ed Sheeran's record label asked him not to write for One Direction anymore.

The 23-year-old singer - who penned 'Moments' and 'Little Things' - has contributed a track to the group's forthcoming album 'Four' but admitted he defied Atlantic Records, who had been ''annoyed'' that his best-performing song had been recorded by someone else.

Speaking to Australian radio station Nova's Kent 'Smallzy' Small, he said: ''I wasn't gonna do it...basically, my record label got very annoyed that my first number one was a song that I gave to someone else, and they were kind of like 'don't do it'.''

Following his record label's complains, the 'Sing' hitmaker also admitted he turned down a request from Simon Cowell to write a new track for the group's forthcoming album, 'Four', but changed his mind when inspiration struck in Copenhagen, prompting him to go ''into the shower room, where it's big and reverberative'' to pen a song for the band.

However, Ed doesn't think his label will mind about the song because he would never have recorded it himself.

He said: '''It's one of these songs that I wouldn't have used for myself, it's written specifically for them.''