A frugal life is an easy life!

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8355611.stm

On Saturday night I was halfway through posting about some of the things Sting is talking about. I didn't post it mainly because I couldn't really explain myself properly, plus I didn't want to be guilty of exactly what other websites online are doing.
Is the Y factor damaging our music industry?
I think it is and I agree with much of what Sting is saying about the Y factor, mainly because of the huge sums of money involved on the Y factor:

• Money is raised from telephone voting public - the Y factor will not release the results of these votes, how do we know they are accurate and fair? How much money are they making from this? Not much is known or revealed by the people behind the Y factor!
• It is all very well stating that the winner gets "a one million pound record deal" - but how much license do they have to work in the industry without any Y factor staff involvement? What about the millions that are made by the record company and the company behind Y factor, and of course off the back of young people?
• It is clear that Y factor is no more interested in "talent" than it is making money - the "judges" didn't judge at all, they left it up to the "public voting figures" for the bottom two contestants, which did not have anything to do with talent, the contestant with the most votes stayed, regardless of their comparative "talent"

Music is a fantastic medium, as old as time itself, each piece of music differs to each different listener. The self proclaimed judges have no formal qualifications to state what is and what is not "talent" as there is not now, nor will there ever be, any way to judge this, it is all opinions and nothing more.

Normally I would say that this is completely fair and proper, but when there are millions of pounds to be made from shows, votes, advertising, sales, etc, then ethics must play a part.
Are children under 16 of sound enough judgement to be spending their money texting and ringing in, to vote for one of the contestants?
To them it is just a text, dress it up as they like, but a text costs money, it is no different from them handing over 30p (for example) in the street. These children then pester their mums and dads for tickets to go to see the contestants in shows, they buy record releases, etc.
We as adults, can clearly spot money making schemes, but how is a child to judge this?

The most telling thing about the Y factor for me is the performances themselves.
Singing live on stage into a microphone is not as difficult as you would think!
The microphone is tuned into the singer's voice, it is perfectly possible for people with experience in the industry to tune a microphone into anyone's voice to help them with sharpness, key, etc.
With this in mind and the vast amounts of money spent on "professional" sound engineers, how is it that one or two contestants sound out of tune when it comes to their singing on stage?
We all know they rehearse, so why is the tuning of contestants such an issue?
I know why I believe this is the case!

I am questioning the ethics, of not just the Y factor, but on strictly come dancing, big brother, I'm a celebrity, something about maria, etc, all shows where the public vote and the results are kept from public scrutiny, until months down the line and in some cases, permanently!
I have used the term "Y factor" as I do not want to add to the online discussions regarding the show's correct title, which in turn will generate more links to its title, which in turn generates more revenue for the show and independant websites which spring up, proclaiming to be experts on the show and it's latest contestants.