See the bold writing:
Saturday was a huge payday for Simon Cowell and a very good night indeed for ITV, which will have made well over £3million from the 8million phone votes cast.
But the winner, Alexandra Burke, will be taking home hardly enough to pay for the blinging cocktail ring worn by her idol Beyoncé on the show.
As we revealed last week, under the terms of a contract signed by all the 12 final contestants, the winner gets an advance of only £150,000 and is promised a modest percentage of earnings from future record sales and tours.
The £1million figure actually refers to the amount Syco, Simon Cowell’s record company, and parent company Sony BMG will spend on the artist including writers and producers, marketing and advertising.
Supporters say Alexandra could become a global phenomenon like 2006 winner Leona Lewis, who has already made £6million with Bleeding Love, the best-selling single of the 21st century, and a seven-times platinum album. But if, like previous winners Steve Brookstein, Shayne Ward and Leon Jackson, she just has a Christmas No 1 and one hit album then fades away, she will be lucky to earn £250,000.
This contract, in place for the past five years, states that none of the last 12 is allowed to sign a recording deal with anyone other than Syco for the next three months. Some are said to be unhappy about the deal.
But criticising Simon Cowell is explicitly not allowed. Last week a smiling Cowell said: ‘The clause stating that you can’t talk about me is the most useless one in the world because everybody talks badly about me.’ He can afford to joke because he, naturally, is the real winner. He is on a three-year £20million deal with ITV as well as the money he makes via Syco. He is said to have earned £40million in 2007 alone.
The other winner is Sony BMG, which has notched up nine platinum-selling albums
since the show began. (And owns the publishing rights to the winner’s first single,
Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.)
Yesterday Syco announced it would sign Saturday’s three finalists, plus fourth-placed Diana Vickers. Last year winner Leon Jackson, Rhydian Roberts and Same Difference were signed up, and in 2006 only Leona Lewis and Ray Quinn made the grade. The winner receives a £150,000 advance and the runners-up £75,000, £50,000
and £10,000 respectively.
A Syco spokesman voiced limited sympathy for the also-rans, saying: ‘I think what people sometimes forget is that being on the show is an enormous break. If it was not for The X Factor, Leona could still be working as a receptionist.’
Music producer Pete Waterman says: ‘My feeling is that Simon is going soft in his old
age – he’s throwing his money around.
‘I think that a £150k advance is the best deal I have ever heard of. I would not give that to any of my artists.’
Jonathan Shalit, the impresario who launched Charlotte Church, said that complaints over a lack of creative freedom were misplaced. ‘Look, this is a karaoke show. Everyone knows the rules by now.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...on-Cowell.html