If Matt had said something like that during the show he would have been hung, drawn and quartered on here, let's face it.

........and we would have been told it was made up by the press.

Well he tried to pave the way for the credibility tag but he was hung for it ..a man before his time or BES as popsmartz said

Well if he wins and achieves those he will still be doing better than last years winners

Comparing Matt and James is like comparing Jahmane and Frankie C lol. What an insult to James

I've gotta give this thread credit where credit is due: it has made Matt and James fans agree over one thing, and that's that Matt and James shouldn't be compared.

how did people predict great things? everyone i talked to when he was on the show said he would be the next brookstein if he won... also james already has more twitter followers than him

Matt is stuck in the 80s and his music doesn't sell because his co-written songs are dreadfully dated. I've mixed feelings about James but no wonder he would take exception to being likened to Matt!

I'm not going to criticise James or Matt for interviews because the press and journalists might exaggerate what they said in interviews. Unless they say it in a spoken interview on camera then I'm going to take it with a pinch of salt.

Matt has managed to sell 34,000 copies of The Fire and without the luxury of promoting the album on X Factor. Not bad for an Indie label. What are the figures for Little Mix? His record company were happy to keep him as a song writer, but Matt walked away in order to produce his own album allowing him total control. It is not in the interest of the major record companies for him to succeed. When he was on X Factor, Rhianna requested to perform with him. With regards James Arthur, who is dueting with him in the final? What are their record sales and more importantly what is their long term history? Are they an International Act or just breaking through?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRak9hSPb64 Matt Cardle playing with The Ronnie Scott Band for Children In Need 2012.

I honesty think twitter followers are a very grey area when it comes to selling music ..of course if you are up there with the bigs names like adele with millions of followers who have followered her just because of her music it does show her appeall..and the more followers you have you have a instant way of advertising ..
Jake bugg who achieved a no 1 album recently ..last time i looked had only 30,000 followers..this may have increased by now
People follow x factor acts because of there so called celeb status at the time of the show .
This goes for matt as well as james and orher acts that come from x factor ..it does not always translate into sales .although overall it not a bad thing

He was promoted during the X Factor Saturday night broadcast though with prime time adverts. That's expensive promotion and unusual for an "Indie" performer. It didn't make any difference it seems. His fan base obviously is small and rapidly getting smaller.

One advert was shown in a couple of regions, the week his album launched and sorry, but that is not excessive marketing. My comment was relating to him performing on the show. Despite winning in a strong year he has been banned from appearing on X Factor or the kiddie show that follows, as they have tried to erase him from memory. I stopped watching or supporting the programme after the stupidity of the media manipulation of 2010. Now I just pop into the results show as and when for amusement.

Labrinth works for Cowell for God's sake and James is Cowell's favourite.

Makes it easier for them to work together, don't you think?

Well said

It does indeed. It also kind of undermines one's glowing reference to the other though, don't you think?

Matt Cardle is an utter failure. I remember his fans on here saying he would be the next big thing and he has tanked. Thank God- he was dull as shit.

James will go the same way.

But then Emeli sande, Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora etc do not work for Syco, they've all endorsed him as well.

You mean in threads like Columbia: In it for the long haul with Matt Cardle?

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...ardle+columbia

Ha ha ha... who told you that? You've been following Matt on twitter haven't you?

So tell me, who were Columbia gonna have Matt (who's writing skills they had so much faith in they brought in co-writers to write his album) writing for? Bruce Springsteen? Beyonce? Billy Joel perhaps? Oh deary me. That's just utterly, butterly tremendous!

Columbia all in red.

Oh right. Maybe they're all angling for an invite onto the... oh, hang on a minute

They have all performed on the x factor thou..

I can't win. We'll just have to wait and see.