RockDomain

Michael Jones, co-president Jason Hirschhorn, co-president MySpace, subsidiary of NewsCorp Beverly Hills, California March 24, 2010

RockDomain
Created by Kurt Zimmerman

Dear MySpace, This is an idea for a website for kids designed to support the education of music through tutorials, downloads, and games.

Overview
This website will draw kids’ attention to the music industry and the way an aspiring musician can make a living in today’s market. Most of music today is distributed online, and the kids and teenagers who visit the site will have an opportunity to showcase their music to other users on a social networking platform. This network will be like MySpace, but re-vamped and marketed exclusively to kids. The target age group would be 13-15 year olds who are interested in recording their music and showing the world their talent. The only requirements for the site would be a microphone or built in recording device provided by most computers in distribution today. A girl or boy who visits the site will have the opportunity to create a profile and record and list their songs on their own homepage for anyone who wants to log on and listen.

Why Join?
Because this site, designed specifically for kids, is like no other site that hosts music. Kids will enjoy sharing their songs with friends while learning about music through programs designed exclusively for RockDomain.

Marketing
Our goal is to promote this site by designing programs and assemblies throughout elementary and middle schools. We will give away merchandise with our name such as T-Shirts, Caps, Kazoos, Whistles, and Toy Guitars.

This site will feature a central membership page explaining the way kids can join. On this page they will be able to choose a username and password. Then they will be given a profile and their own domain where they will be able to access their songs from any computer. Kids can choose from a variety of themes for their homepage including a variety of color formats. They will be able to upload a picture of themselves and create a banner for their stage name or personality. There will be a site search mechanism where anyone can search by genre, name, or personal preference of existing bands that are similar to the sound the kids create. They will be able to link their page to their friends’ pages and have a list of their names at the bottom of the screen.

Kids will be able to upload songs they create using RockDomain’s software provided on the site. There will be two versions of this software: a basic version which will be able to easily provide MIDI capabilities on a virtual keyboard and percussion instruments including a virtual drum machine. The second version will be a premium version: where kids can download a fully designed program that enables them to edit their songs and create professional recordings. The premium version will be provided for a fee.

Once they upload their music, there will be a variety of genres to choose from to categorize their songs, and profiles that choose more than one genre will be listed under both on the main website.

Also on the main site will be a polling system where there will be a list of the top 10 songs as voted by RockDomain members. Kids can vote for their favorite song by rating them out of a ten-point system on the individual profiles. After a year the best song will win a prize, including having the artist’s best songs developed by professional producer and released as a CD.

Our site will appeal to music outlets and recording studios who will benefit from advertising on our site. Stores such as Guitar Center and online downloading sites such as the iTunes Music Store are viable opportunities for advertising banners and resources.

The site will appeal to parents because there will be a learning element to the site. Kids will learn to upload their music and showcase it to the online world through tutorials provided on the main site. They will be on the first step to becoming famous and successful in the music industry.

The main site will feature famous personalities in the music industry who will give advice for kids who want to learn about the music industry’s ups and downs.

This website will appeal to kids because it is designed for girls and boys, including design themes for the profiles based on professional artwork made specifically for music.

Sample Profile
Jason is a boy who likes to listen to classic rock music. He hears about this site in a presentation at his school. Right away when he gets home he logs on to **rockdomain.com** and creates his profile:

Jason Dee, or JD

Influences: AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, Queen, Van Halen

__JD’s band__ Sample Songs: “We like to rock”

Jason’s band includes rockdomain members Alvin, Michael, and Joney. Click on their names to visit their profile.

Thank you very much for your attention. Sincerely,

Kurt Zimmerman equinox6z@temple.edu