Digital jukebox X Factor
Last week saw the return of ITV flagship music programme The X Factor. This, the ninth season of the Simon Cowell brainchild, began on Saturday as judges Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger, Tulisa Contostavlos and Louis Walsh started to sift through the thousands of performers vying for a record deal.
There are high expectations surrounding the new series and, in an attempt to freshen up the format, an Olympic-themed episode is promised (with medal-winners Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah and Chris Hoy reported to be guest mentors for one of the live shows), while the final itself will be held in Manchester; the first time the last episode will be hosted outside of London.
However, it wasn’t all good news for the series as the first episode launched to its lowest rating since 2006, pulling in an average of 8.1 million viewers (down 2.7 million from the previous year).
Of course, there’s an undeniable attraction to The X Factor. While we’ve questioned the decline of the format in the past, there’s no question that the series has the potential to propel a song back into the public consciousness. Over the past nine years, we’ve seen the show dramatically influence the charts in our digital jukeboxes; Alexandra Burke’s rendition of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’, Marcus Collins’ cover of ‘Seven Nation Army’ by the White Stripes and Little Mix’s take on Damien Rice’s ‘Cannonball’ are just some of the examples of the tracks that have returned to the digital jukebox top 20. The influence of the show on the music chart is undeniable.
So, as a result, over the coming weeks, Soundnet aim to playlist all the tracks performed on live episodes of The X Factor; on the Monday following each show’s broadcast, our digital jukeboxes will be updated with the original and the cover versions of each track. Get in touch with one of the Soundnet team to discover more about unlocking this exciting feature.
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