THE music industry might well be saturated with X-Factor wannabes and self-publishing artists but one Brentwood teen is determined that his new website will be the place to go for unsigned bands.
Matt Edgley, 17, of The Tyburns, Hutton, this week described MySpace as "a shadow of what it used to be" yet, despite his ambition, he says he doesn't want to the next Simon Cowell.
"We are an alternative to the X Factor route," he said, "so I don't see myself as a Simon Cowell-like character.
"At the moment it's all about site traffic. I would rather have 1,000 views than £1,000 but I am not ruling it out."
Matt believes his site, Sukora, has the edge over the established competition.
"I wanted a site where people could find unsigned bands, all in one place," he said.
"At the moment it is very fragmented but our site makes this process simple – it's all there in front of you.
"We want to be the one place to go to discover new music.
"I wanted bands to be able to link to one site where all their music, gigs, videos and information could be found."
He is dismissive of the sites already out there, saying: "Myspace is a shadow of what it used to be – it seems very outdated and took ages to actually try to adapt."
He believes his site, which focuses around a chart on the homepage, has the potential to grow into more than just a way to discover bands.
"We are aiming to work with record companies to get our bands signed and we hope that will be the main attraction of our site," he said.
"People can come onto our site and vote for the bands and songs they like – this will give great feedback for the bands and record labels."
It has been said that all good ideas aim to solve a problem that people face.
For Matt, it was his annoyance that "great" musicians were going unnoticed.
"I have many friends in bands and the music they were throwing out was really good. It was much better than any of the stuff you could hear in the charts," he said.
"But they couldn't get signed, no matter what they tried.
"So that is how I came up with the idea of Sukora."
As with all online enterprises, Matt needed a name.
He said: "Every popular social website has a short snappy name, this name doesn't have to tell you what they do.
"Bebo, Facebook – if you didn't know these sites you wouldn't know what they did.
"Sukora is short, snappy and stands out.
"It comes from the Japanese word for blossom – sekora."
Sukora offers bands a selection of packages, some paid for and some free, and currently hosts artists as far afield as Australia and the US.
Sukora is supported by a group of three entrepreneurs, namely the founder Matt, developer Dean Perry, 19, from Southampton, and designer Phil Stringfellow, from Liverpool.
Visit www.sukora.com
