Ed Sheeran says he ''shouldn't bother'' having girlfriends.

The 'Burn' singer opened up about the difficulties of keeping up a long distance relationship and insists it's not worth the trouble if a girl isn't ''OK'' with him putting his career and family first.

He told Spotify: ''You put your family and your friends first, always, and then your career second. But when you date someone, they kind of fall in between the family and friends and career, and you don't really know whether they're more important than the career or whether they're more important than family. You just need to find someone that's OK with it.

''My family understands I had to go away for 12 months last year, but until you find a partner who's happy with that, you shouldn't even bother. Well, you shouldn't bother committing.''

Ed, 23, even penned a song for his latest album 'x' entitled 'Nina' to express the difficulty he faced when trying to find a balance between his career and relationship with his ex-girlfriend singer/songwriter Nina Nesbitt.

He said: ''That's about my ex-girlfriend [Nina Nesbitt], we dated for a year.

''When you're a musician and you date someone, there's always an in-between... so this is a song about that.''

However, the Brit Award-winner - who played at this year's Glastonbury festival over the weekend and will embark on a UK tour later this year - is hoping to settle down in the future and thinks having children will change his priorities.

He explained: ''I think by the time you have kids, that's when your family comes first, and that's where the woman comes, because she's your family now. I think kids change everything, but up until then it's different. ''