London, Nov 19 (IANS): One Direction band members are furious as their new album “Midnight Memories” was leaked online a week before its official release.

The band, which consists of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, took to Twitter to express their anger.

“That’s annoying,” Horan, 20, tweeted, reports dailystar.co.uk.

Malik reminded his fans of the album’s official release date.

“‘Midnight Memories’; who’s getting it ? It’s out on November 25th,” Malik posted on Twitter.

Some fans assumed that the early appearance of the songs was a well-staged publicity stunt. But record executives said it was a security breach which could affect their sales in a negative way.

There was a problem in shutting down a chain of links as millions of fans shared the tracks for free online.

Record company Syco, owned by “The X Factor” mogul Simon Cowell, 54, claimed to have taken “unprecedented steps” to keep the 18 new songs under wraps.

The source of the leak is unclear, but some fans claimed it was caused by an error on iTunes.