As the first project under the new Syco banner, Fox Television announced (on January 11th) that it will launch the U.S. version of the worldwide hit TV show, The X Factor, in the fall of 2011. Cowell will serve as both executive producer and judge on the U.S. version of the show.

In the brief years since moving out of his mum and dad’s house aged 30, Cowell has worked with artists selling more than 180 million albums and delivered more than 150 No.1 records. In 2009, Cowell was named No. 1 in Hollywood Reporter’s Top 50 Most Powerful in Reality TV and one of Entertainment Weekly’s Top Entertainers of the Year, and has one of the most powerful and influential figures in pop music, having fired literally hundreds of young hopefuls up the pop charts with the perfect storm of his TV format and Sony label tie-in.

The new company consolidates the close relationship between Cowell and Sony, and will doubtless mean more years of gushing, well meaning, easily herded young vocalists being fired out of the high-powered marketing cannon into our faces.

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• ITV Sign Three Year Agreement to Show The X Factor and Britains Got Talent in the UK – October 20, 2010
• Labrint Signs to SYCO Music and Release Amazing Single with Great Viral Video – September 6, 2010
• American Idol Lose 3 Judges But Still Think Jennifer Lopez is Going To Be the Ultimate Replacement – September 6, 2010

Qtrax is a legal P2P downloading service. In January 2008, Qtrax was overeager to announce it’s launch during the Midem conference and misrepresented ongoing negotiations and expired deals with major recording labels as being signed deals.

Qtrax is a very interesting service that has never really lived up to expectations. I’m keen to see how the service grows and if they can actually deliver decent royalty rates for the content providers. Here at RouteNote we are always looking for the next site to take off and Qtrax is definitely in the mix.

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Amazon Mp3 UK has all four major labels signed up, SonyBMG, Universal Music, EMI Music and Warner Music – and leading independents such as Cooking Vinyl, Harmonia Mundi, Beggars Banquet, The Orchard, Concord and IODA.

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• Universal Music Group and Google Partner for Vevo – April 12, 2009