Ed Sheeran hits back in war-of-words with Morrissey

British pop star Ed Sheeran has hit back at rocker Morrissey after he slammed music industry bosses for using "overwhelming marketing" to promote new young acts.

The former The Smiths frontman insisted there is a lack of spontaneity in the music business as labels push stars such as Sheeran and Sam Smith onto listeners while ignoring less mainstream performers.

He said, "It's very rare that a record label does something for the good of music. Thus we are force-fed such as Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, which at least means that things can't possibly get any worse. It is sad, though. There's no spontaneity now, and it all seems to be unsalvageable."

However, Sheeran has now hit back at the veteran singer by sending a message to bosses at Britain's NME magazine via Twitter.com branding Morrissey's remarks "absolute b**locks".

The Lego House hitmaker writes, "Even you guys (at NME) should think this is absolute b**locks. Taking me out of the equation, Sam was the least predictable success story of the last year."