He indicated that Songs Music had been pursuing Lorde since before her hit single 'Royals' and following album Pure Heroine were released. Lorde's manager, Tim Youngson, said: "Even before signing her [Sounds Music] were bringing her options for collaborations and introducing her to other songwriters. The decision wasn't made on money."

Read our 'Royals' review.

Songs Music is said to be keen to set up collaborative links between Lorde and other pop acts, including The Weeknd and Diplo with plans also to encourage the young act to write songs for other artists.

The company's president Ron Perry described Lorde, real name Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O'Connor, as "a once-in-a-generation type artist" and vowed that "She's gonna be a really big songwriter outside of Lorde [...] She's going to have a lot of big songs out there as Ella," via The Guardian.