Louis Tomlinson is starting an artist management company so he can develop new talent.

The former One Direction star, 29, announced his plans on Twitter, saying he had always wanted to found a record label and help budding artists grow.

Tomlinson launched an imprint, a kind of sub-label, of Simon Cowell’s Syco Music in 2015 called Triple Strings.

But he said he had found it a challenge to require someone else’s blessing in order to sign artists he liked, some of whom were not making “traditional” pop music.

He wrote to his 35.5 million Twitter followers: “I always dreamed of having my own label, having an imprint never really worked for me because I still had to have someone else’s blessing to sign people.

“People I believed in massively but unfortunately didn’t fit the traditional pop role hence never doing the deals….

“So I’ve decided to put it out there in the world today. I’m going to start my own music management company to help develop new artists. Watch this space.

“I just wanted to take the first step of actualising the idea but at this stage that’s all this is. An idea! P.s. a management company not a label.”

In July last year, Tomlinson said he had agreed to part ways with Syco Music and that he was working on new music.

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Simon Cowell (Giles Anderson/PA)

Cowell and Tomlinson have had a long association together after the singer appeared on the X Factor in 2010 with One Direction.

Alongside Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan he came third in the singing competition.

The band were also previously signed to Syco Music.

Tomlinson later became an X Factor judge alongside Cowell in 2018.