So what? (Nice name for a record company, that.)

The X Factor needs artists like Emile Sande and Ed Sheeran far more than artists of that calibre need exposure on the X Factor. It's not as if they're in thrall to Simon Cowell because they appear.

Humm ..the x factor has a history of great exposure in music
Its losing its pulling power a bit ..but even today on buzzjacks they talk about the ..x factor effect..ie artists who have performed on the show or had their song performed on the show..emile sande has for a number of years been employed by syco to write songs ..and ed sheeran is heavily involved in ID.. Performing on the show is in their interests for sure you can never have too many sales

True. High twitter follower numbers reflect a youger fan base, nothing more. One Direction and Cher had a higher social media profile than Matt yet didn't get close to him in the voting. In fact, they didn't get close to Rebecca in the voting and her social media profile was virtually non-existent. Matt did have a lot of twitter followers though and it appeared that few of them bought his albums.

Cher's was based on the 1st audition mainly & lots of her followers/fans were American, hence she struggled in votes.

One Direction's huge following helped them get where they are today. Call me crazy but James Arthur is a lot more voteable to older people than one direction

I would agree with that totally. My point, as made on the other thread is that twitter figures alone will not give an accurate picture of popularity in terms of voters. James has the broadest appeal of the finalists for certain but Jahmene I suspect has bigger appeal to the 30+ demo and that is the most important. Either of them could win. Chris? Well he is much harder to analyse as his appeal appears to be very complex (part genuine fan/part sympathiser/part protest) but importantly for him, his following does appear to be solidly and overwhelmingly 30+.

well something makes them appear and it's not altruism.

The XF seems to think there's only half a dozen recording artists in the world, 1D, Emeli, Ed, Coldplay & Rihanna...i forget the 6th it's one (of many) reasons why the show has become a repetitive :yawn:fest

Buble

I am waiting to hear James own music. So far it has been a well guarded secret.

Not very well guarded - http://jamesarthurband.bandcamp.com/ . Suffice to say it didn't convert me to his cause.