Liam Payne reportedly felt "hurt" when he was dropped by his record label.
The tragic One Direction star - who died in Argentina last week after plunging from a hotel balcony - had recorded a follow-up to his 2019 debut album 'LPI' but reports suggested the record was shelved after the first single 'Teardrops' failed to chart in March - and now it's been reported the singer was subsequently ditched by his label because bosses at Universal Music were concerned his new songs would fail to win over the pop band's fan base.
A source told DailyMail.com: "Liam wanted to make the sort of music he enjoyed but his label believed it wouldn't win over 1D fans so there were disagreements about the way his brand should have been marketed.
"The entire music industry is making cuts and restructuring to cut costs so Universal decided to drop Liam quietly and invest in other artists."
The insider went on to add: "He didn't need the money because he was wealthy, but yes it did hurt him because he was under constant pressure to compete with the other guys in the band."
Liam previously opened up about his second solo album at a fan event and revealed all the songs told a story from his life.
He said: "This time, the scariest part is that every one of these songs is a story from my life. And they’re really close to me. I hope people feel that through every song, that I actually felt whatever it is you’re feeling right now listening to this."
He added: “We’ve rewritten a lot of these songs based off the idea of where we’re going with this and also how I’m feeling as a person. "I used to show up to sing a song, then go. Absolutely not this time. We’re going to have fun with this."
