Ariel Publicity

I am delighted to re-post Charlie’s post on me at Well Rounded Radio!  He is featuring an interview we did together back in February at my office and his podcast has been one of my favorites to listen to for years now so I was very flattered…  Take a listen and please sign up for Charlie’s wonderful podcast.  He will be including many more music industry profiles in the future for artists who are interesed in hearing about the state of the “new” music Business – Thanks Charlie!

From Well Rounded Radio Post:

http://www.wellroundedradio.net/episodes/2008/09/arielpublicity.html#more

Thanks again to everyone who took our recent online survey. I learned some great information about who is listening to the show, what you like and what you’d like to hear more of. I was especially surprised to learn from the group that responded that 57% of you identified yourselves as musicians.

I have had fun doing interviews with music industry thought leaders in recent years as it’s obvious that the music business is in a great deal of flux for both musicians and music fans. Truthfully, though, I haven’t heard or read many good interviews about these changes. If you go to music conferences or subscribe to things like the Pho list you get to be on the inside of all these changes, but otherwise, it’s a classic case of being shut out of ideas that are advancing around you.

I hadn’t realized that musicians are tuning in to Well-Rounded Radio as an educational outlet, but that does seem to be the case and this episode, with an interview with Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity, it’s a perfect case of providing some additional insight that I think can be very helpful to musicians.

As Hyatt explains in the interview, she started out doing traditional publicity in the music business, but realized that the world of music marketing was changing and so her own agency changed with it.

Ariel Publicity helps artists and labels get their music in front of the growing legion of citizen journalists or prosumers, as folks like me have started to be called, who are creating text, audio, and video for others to access via the Web.

Hyatt and her team also help to educate musicians through various online and in-person boot camp sessions and seminars and they’re helping to connect independent musicians with independent media outlets like Well-Rounded Radio.

At the same time, music fans are discovering music in a wide range of new ways, from podcasts and audio blogs to recommendation engines, streaming stations, and mobile devices to simply speeding up the word of mouth process that have always happened, but now is happening faster and globally with new technologies.

As print publications cease production, terrestrial and satellite radio tries to evolve, and more people around the world start using these technologies as a matter of course, how will we each discover our next favorite band? I have heard the story again and again how music fans who used to simply listen to what was in the charts or featured on the cover of music magazines now are finding they listen to very little mainstream music and are finding all kinds of niches online that take their curiosity in new directions. The idea behind the Long Tail is very much changing what we consume.

This episode features a number of artists that Ariel Publicity has worked with over the last year or two. You can find links to their web sites below.

I met with Hyatt at her office in mid-town Manhattan back in February to discuss:

* how the agency came to be born and her own experience leading up to it
* some myths about the old music guard that need to be shattered
* how musicians can be smarter and strategic about using social media to advance their careers

If you enjoy this interview, be sure to listen to other interviews I have done with music industry thought leaders. Tell me who else you’d like me to interview and I’ll do my best to get them on the show.

Music featured in the show includes:

1) Le Rug: Gloss (Bleenex) (in preview)
2) Fiskum: The Crossing (Darkness/Fire/Dancing)
3) Kaliopi: Naked (Around the World)
4) Kito Peters: CEO (Stories)
5) Booze Monkey: Solitaire (The Old Way)
6) N Side: Bad Manners (Just a Broke Brotha’ Trying to to Come Up!)
7) Howard Britz: Scatterbug
Dudley Saunders: Take Me Back Home Again
9) Sarah VonDerhaar: It’s Not the First Time
10) Animate Objects: Clive (Riding in Fast Cars with Your Momma)
11) Black Fortress of Opium: Dulcet TV (Black Fortress of Opium)
12) Blood Red Sun: Pray for Rain (A Nation of Saviors)
13) Inga Swearingen: Black Crow
14) The Callen Sisters: Wake Up
15) I/O/I: Compass (I/O/I)
16) Michael Wolff: Solar
17) Yahweh’s People: Oh My Lord (Yahweh’s People)

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I just completed the 5-day World’s Greatest Marketing Seminar in California and it was an amazing amount of information condensed into 5 jam-packed days of fantastic information. While I was on my way back to New York I had an hour long conversation with Derek Sivers about marketing for Independent Musicians…

Mobile post sent by ArielCyberPR using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

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The #1 Technique to Swiftly Increase Your Fanbase

The number one problem I encounter time and time again with musicians is: Creating music comes naturally. Marketing, self-promotion and business do not. Bands want to focus solely on creating music and I speak to many artists who flat out refuse to do more than the bare minimum amount of marketing. The problem is they are not having the same amount of success as my artists who spend time focusing on growing their fanbase and communicating with them regularly.

Content may be King. But, Marketing is Queen

There is no one coming to rescue you from the downward spiral that the industry is facing at this very moment.  It is up to you to empower yourself to succeed. In this issue of Sound Advice I will give away the #1 secret I have seen that really works for meaningfully building a fanbase.

This issue is a long one because I wanted to tell the story that prompted it – to skip to the meat of this article and learn my #1 technique for building your fanbase, scroll down to the section that says: 1% OF EVERY LIST BUYS

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http://www.mevio.com
 

As the premier social media community, Mevio is the only network providing single-click access to the best in new media in audio, video, podcasts, and music to be delivered to your computer, iPod, mobile device, or television.
 

Q: What is the background story of how Mevio came along?
 

A: Mevio was originally Podshow. The company was founded by former MTV VJ Adam Curry and his business partner Ron Bloom.
 

In 2004 Adam had been messing around with audio blogging, before the term podcasting existed. He and Dave Winer were experimenting with adding enclosures to rss feeds and podcasting was born. Soon, podcasters were starting shows and shortly after, Podshow was started. They signed some of the early producers including my show (The Rock and Roll Geek Show), Dawn and Drew, Yeast Radio and some others.
 

Back then, people were playing whatever music they wanted on their shows. Then people started getting worried that the RIAA may not like that so Adam and some other creative minds started a place for bands who actually wanted to be heard on podcasts to post their music and The Podsafe Music Network was born. Shortly after, Adam and Ron asked me to quit my job as a house painter and work with artists on the network. 4 years later, it is THE place for bands, record labels and content creators to connect.
 

Q: What do you see the future of Mevio being?
 

A: I can’t speak for the entire company, since I only work on the music network but my goal is to have every record label, band and aritst on the network. I want independent content creators to have as much power in the music business as radio stations had in the good old days. It is my dream to have back catalog available to podcasters. I can’t speak for everyone but as a content creator, I want to play not only up and coming independent artists but also bands that were a part of the soundtrack of my life.
 

Q: What is your favorite band or favorite genre of music and why?
 

A: I am partial to 70′s rock and punk because that is what I grew up listening to. My favorite bands are still Cheap Trick, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Ramones and Joan Jett.
 

Q: What changes in content laws, broadcasting rights, etc. have affected you most?

A: When I reach out to some of the major labels to try to get their artists on the Podsafe Music Network, some of them still think that posting an mp3 on a website is piracy. The indies have been posting mp3s on their own websites for a few years not but the majors are a little harder to convince. That being said, the majors are now starting new media departments so there may still be hope for the dinosaurs.
 

The Podsafe Music Network now deals with some of the largest digital music distributors and independent labels in the world and I am really proud of that.
 

Q: A recent study found blogs to be more effective than MySpace in generating album sales, do you feel podcasts has the same power?
 

A: I think the labels are slowly realizing that by releasing a song from their artists to blogs and podcasts does more good than harm and can actually help break a band. For example, last year, there was a band from Australia called Airbourne. No one in the US or Europe had ever heard of them. I started playing them on The Rock and Roll Geek Show and listeners seemed to really like them. They emailed the band and let them know they discovered them from my show. Soon after that, got a CD from the band’s management and offered an interview with the band. I interviewed the band and continued to sing their praises. Now that band has taken the country by storm and has released one of the best selling independent hard rock records this year.

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Podcamp Philly ’08 was a blast this year. For those who are unaware of Podcamp, it is a BarCamp-style UnConference dedicated to podcasting, blogging, video blogging and all things New Media. This year Podcamp Philly was held on the wonderful campus of Temple University. I attended on behalf of Cyber PR. The day was quite dreary due to Hurrican Hanna, but nonetheless there were some excellent panels in store throughout the two-day conference. This year’s sessions focused a lot on emerging social networking sites such as Twitter & Plurk, and how they can be used as a business tool for companies. There was also an emphasis on building social communities, and podcasters were able to learn the basics and necessary tools they would need to begin their podcasts.

I was able to meet tons of awesome new podcasters. As well as those that we already work with everyday; we finally had the chance to meet face to face! This year we also held our Music & Podcasting Panel. It was a hit! We brought along two of our artists as well – KaiserCartel and Jim Boggia – who held musical performances at Podcamp. We would like to thank Jersey Todd, Jeff Hinz, Walt Ribiero, Mathew Ebel, Rob Blatt, KaiserCartel, and Jim Boggia for participating in the panel with us this year!

All photos from Podcamp Philly 08 can be found on our Flickr site at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arielpublicitypr

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