Tuesday, July 7, 2026

Pop: Zayn’s “Better” Couldn’t Have Done Worse Over the Weekend as One Direction Fans Ignore His New Single

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It wasn’t a good weekend for Zayn Malik, formerly of One Direction.

His latest single, “Better,” couldn’t have done worse.

On Friday and Saturday, “Better” sold just 1,700 downloads. It’s currently number 61 on iTunes.

With streaming, “Better” sold an equivalent of about 15,000 copies. Luckily, “records” nowadays are just in the air, they’re digital, no one had to pay for the manufacturing and shipping of a physical single. Otherwise, Zayn would have been out of business.

I guess One Direction royalties are big enough to keep Zayn going, especially since he’s a new dad. Because “Better” is costing him money.

We’ll keep an eye on it at the end of the week.

 

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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