One Direction fans campaign to buy the band after Zayn Malik quits

Directioners have set up a crowdfunding page to "free" the boy band

hardcore 1D fans are pledging their pocket money in an attempt to buy the band (Getty Images)

If you heard the sound of a million teenage hearts shattering last night, chances are you can now hear a million piggy banks being emptied.

Following the news that One Direction member Zayn Malik had quit the band, hardcore 1D fans have been pledging their pocket money in an attempt to buy the band and prevent any further tragedy.

The hashtag #BUYONEDIRECTION has been trending in the UK as enthusiastic supporters promise to chip in. So far, the 'Sixth Alliance: Buy One Direction' page has raised an impressive $1,035 of its $35m goal.

One problem the group may face is that they have set up two pages: "One in British Pounds and one in US Dollars for all the American fans."

The message on the US page reads: "Hi guys! We are The Sixth Alliance and after Zayn Malik left One Direction on March 25th 2015 we believe that something has to be done. So we decided to try buy One Direction!

"We would like to buy One Direction from Modest Management so the boys Harry, Liam, Louis, Niall and Zayn have freedom to chose and have possibilities to decide on their own careers." [Sic]

Other schemes by fans to keep One Direction going have been more successful.

Spotify reports a staggering 1900 per cent increase in streaming of the band’s music in the UK, along with a 769 per cent increase in the US.

Spotify compared a normal hour of 1D streams on Spotify to the 'spike of sadness' (as per attached graph), which we can see was 8-9pm UK time. The results showed that:

Kevin Brown, Spotify's Head of Label Relations for Europe, said: "One Direction are one of the biggest bands in the world, with over 1.4 billion streams on Spotify.

"Looking at One Direction's streams on Spotify last night, we can clearly see the 'spike of sadness' happening around 8pm, when their millions of fans paid tribute to Zayn by listening to One Direction's music together."

The 1D songs which increased the most in the 3 hours following the announcement were:

1. 'Moments'

2. 'Same Mistakes'

3. 'Spaces'

4. 'I Wish'

5. 'Gotta Be You'

Streaming for all of these tracks increased more than 4 times after the announcement.