Nick Gatfield, CEO of Sony Music UK has admitted that the label has relied too heavily on the X Factor in recent years.

He also admitted that because of the show’s success, artists outside of it have suffered because the label hasn’t been able to put as much time into developing their careers as they have done previously.

In an interview, Gatfield said: "My mandate from my boss was, 'We've got to turn the UK back into a domestic repertoire powerhouse.'

"It had lost its way in terms of domestic A&R. We also needed to become a strong exporter of talent and fuel the Sony machine globally with British talent."

The label has had many successful artists as a result of the X Factor and their collaboration with Simon Cowell’s label Syco including One Direction, Olly Murs and Leona Lewis but Gatfield revealed that last year, Sony was restructured and is now better able to focus on blooming artists.

He said: "We have a whole range of new artists coming to market between now and March 2014.

"We have the most nominated artists in the critics' end-of-year polls for breakthrough success, while Tom Odell won the Brits 'Critics' Choice' award.

"You can't take any of that to the bank yet, but experience tells me that a good number of our artists are on their way to significant sales."

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