Celebrate 10 years of One Direction with Spotify's new platform experiences
Calling all 1D stans! There's a feast of One Direction surprises to be found on the digital music service
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
When five teenage boys decided to audition for The X Factor back in 2010, no one could have predicted just how gargantuan their global impact would be.
A decade on, it’s hard to imagine the last 10 years without the biggest boy band of recent history.
The band members may have started off on their own, but it was when Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne joined forces to become One Direction that the epic, record-breaking and award-winning adventure began in a whirlwind of great hair and pop anthems.
To celebrate this momentous anniversary – five studio albums, 17 singles and nearly nine billion streams later – Spotify has plenty of treats in store for 1D stans across the globe.
Spotify users more than deserve it: since One Direction released their debut single in 2011, they’ve amassed some more than impressive stats on the streaming service.
Not only does the band continue to get more than 19 million monthly listeners, despite having not released an album since 2015, but their tracks are included in more than 65 million playlists on the service – 4.4 million of which are dedicated solely to the music of One Direction.
What's more, in November 2015, the release of Made in the A.M. acquired 106 million streams in its first week of release.
It seems fitting, then, to celebrate 10 years of One Direction with Spotify, which has launched a host of 1D-themed goodies in honour of the anniversary – starting off with a billboard in New York’s Times Square.
Plus, there’s plenty to enjoy on the platform: as well as more than 80 new looping song visuals, you won’t want to miss a new vertical video of What Makes You Beautiful, complete with behind-the-scenes footage.
You’ll also find 10 new storylines with behind-the-song memories from songwriters Jamie Scott, Ruth-Anne Cunningham and Savan Kotecha.
Here’s to 10 glorious years of One Direction!
Visit Spotify’s This is One Direction playlist to join the celebration
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.