I don't believe it is and never has been.

Its for people who want their 15 mins of fame and are prepared to sell their soul to the devil to get it!!

As long as it has viewing figures and influences and generates music sales, the answer to that question is always going to be 'yes' - in the pop field of the industry'.
For the rest of the industry it's always been totally irrelevant.

Most popstars only last for 15 minutes, with or without X Factor

It is relevant, that's why people like Jay James who used to have record deal, come to the show to get second chance.

The problem isn't the contestants but the music industry.

The industry has become so risk averse that it wants to create an image before it even contemplates signing an act.

Kylie only got a record deal because she was on Neighbours, as did the whole of the Neighbours cast of the time, Michaela Strachan, Zig & Zag, Mr Blobby, Sam Fox etc

Move forward 25 years and the pre-packaged formulaic dross of the 1980s is replaced by the pre-packaged formulaic dross of One Direction, Little Mix, Ella H, Sam Bailey.

The only difference is that major labels use the tv show to create the image so that they have complete control of the singers. This means that they will only hype acts that will tow the line. As soon as they start to push for creativity, the record labels will drop them.

But, the music industry has also blocked most other avenues to media exposure. Where are the tv shows to launch independent music? There aren't any. BBC Introducing is a joke hidden away in the middle of nowhere. The only way is for artists to do the pub circuit for little or no money.

This means if an independent artists wants to expand their profile the most obvious way to do this is through TXF.

They can always then leave the show and try to forge their own career path in their own right. However, the show has become aware of this and more likely to put through a cheese-infested boy-group member than a talented singer song-writer.

Even worse, once a talented singer-songwriter does go on the show, the whole of their career is likely to be derided due to the X Factor tag no matter how small a part it was of their career.

No longer relevant.

Even that doesn't work like it used to, of course.

It used to be possible to make a living (although not perhaps a great one) on the massive pub circuit - and the college tour circuit . And break through it - A&R men pretty well relied on the pub circuit for many of their artists.Now it's a few venues here and there, and putting together a meaningful tour on less than stadium level is almost impossible. Artists living outside the obvious big cities have a hard time of it in terms of live exposure

It's the most talked about UK show on social media - A platform that is huge in attracting the attention of the key demographics. From this perspective, yes it is. X Factor is responsible for 1D, who are, by a long shot, the biggest group in the world. Again, this leads me to the same answer: Yes. Whilst 1D were created four years ago, today, Ella Henderson is the #1 up and coming artist of the year. She'll be huge... Watch out for the album. The show is incredibly prominent in today's media culture, for sure.

This is the most accurate comment i have seen on this forum, you are absolutely spot on.

Not always a good thing though is it?

Not for the right reasons this series.