Documentary Commission Unit: Idea Development

“The Noughties - A MySpace Generation”

Pitch

The way in which we discover, purchase and listen to music has altered dramatically in the past decade. We saw the introduction of social networking and digital downloads.

My unique selling point is the story of a band called “My Last Mistake”. A band which was directly affected by the social-networking site MySpace during the noughties. Through being able to upload songs, the lead singer, Leah Newcombe, gained popularity in the UK and overseas. As a result, she signed a publishing deal with Universal and went on to sell copies of her E.P online and has received over 4.7 million plays on MySpace (information found on MySpace).

I want to interview an industry expert to demonstrate how the industry has changed where music has become so easily available for free. In 2008, the largest academic survey of young people’s music ownership found that teenagers and students have an average of more than 800 illegally copied songs each on their digital music players as a result of file-sharing from websites such as Napster, Limewire and Pirate Bay (University of Hertfordshire).

And, I also want to talk to the public in a sequence to show how their habits have changed and how they have become used to new technologies offering personalisation, on-demand content and portability. Ultimately, I would have explored the positives and negatives of file-sharing for the artist, the industry and the consumer.

I plan on building up to a gig for My Last Mistake, highlighting conflicts along the way. With the aid of a narrator and archive footage of popular bands, such as Lily Allen, who have used the internet to become successful and footage of My Last Mistake and social-networking sites. The audience will also understand the struggles artists face against TV Talent Shows such as The X Factor, which dominates the music charts.

This film should be commissioned because its new, informative, exciting, stylish and the characters are unique and interesting. I have worked closely with musicians and was one of many young people flooding MySpace, Facebook and other social-networking sites. I have a passion for music discovery and watching talented musicians fight into a tough industry.