Ariel Publicity

Internet Radio Magazine reports on trends happening online in the Internet Radio space. They feature an artist every week.
http://www.internetradiomagazine.com

http://www.joelgaineshow.com

http://twitter.com/joelgaines

Q) How long have you been broadcasting/blogging?

A) I was a political blogger for 8 years before I became a broadcaster. We’ve been broadcasting The Joel Gaines Show for just over a year. Because of our experience with Ariel Publicity and the artists we’ve interacted with, we have decided to revitalize Internet Radio Magazine dot com as a more music-based property.
Q) In your opinion, what does a good song need to consist of?

A) For me to gravitate to a specific song, I have to feel it. I’m not saying I have to be able to relate to the song topic, but I do have to feel like it’s not contrived. Artists who are investing more than time into a track tend to come across more passionately. That’s what I look for.

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

A) I have to admit my favorite genre is 70’s and 80’s funk and my favorite band is Journey. Having travelled to nearly 30 countries, I have picked up an appreciation for just about everything. Shuffling my music player might find Hazel O’Connor, Crossfade, G Tom Mac, and George Straight played one after the other.

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

A) I have broadcast under a station license and as an individual internet broadcaster. Trying to stay in license compliance and keeping your music fresh can be price prohibitive for the little guys. I really enjoy the podsafe offering from the fantastic artists Ariel Publicity promotes.

Q) A recent study found blogs to be more effective than MySpace in generating album sales, do you feel that that is a true statement?

A) I think it is true. A blogger has more specific opportunities to attract traffic and it is easier to be a big fish in a niche pond. On Myspace, no matter what you are trying to promote, you are faced with being just another fish in the ocean. I’ve seen social media work for people when they use it as a means to bring traffic to their blog, but it needs to be looked at more as just another tool in the kit.

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“The In-Crowd” is an inside look at crowdfunding, with Ariel Publicity Artist Phil Putnam and RocketHub.com co-founder Brian Meece.  Each Monday, the boys are giving us an honest look at a crowdfunding project in action and dish on how things are going each week.
What is crowdfunding?  Find out here.

What does it look like?  See here.
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WEEK 5:

29 days in, 46 days remaining.  $2,598 raised (26% of the $10,000 goal), $7,402 needed.

Phil Says:

I’m convinced that milestones and kidney stones are of the same material.  They’re as tough as hell to pass, and the immense sense of relief you feel once they’re behind you is akin to making the final payment on your student loans, or successfully avoiding the fish tacos served at a restaurant where the cleanliness of both the space and the staff are questionable.  Brian had let me know that it was crucial for “Songs About You” to hit the 25% funded milestone before the first third (25 days) of the campaign had passed.  As if timed to the minute, that 25% mark came and went in the last hour of day 25.  Though, as a person, I am prone to hyperbole, especially for comic effect, these kind of dramatics are not really my style.  I was, shall we say, on heightened nerves as Day 25 wore on, and then just as heightened in excitement and gratitude when the mark was passed.

One element of the push to 25% that stood out to me is how much better the support response was among my fans/friends when there was a quickly ticking clock.  Several hundred dollars was given in the 36 hours before the Day 25 deadline in response to the facebook posts I was making about it.  Brian and Vlad and Jed, the RocketHub boys, have been telling me that people respond strongly to urgency, and it bolstered me to see that come to life.  That urgency is going to be even more important when we get to the last third of this project’s time line, as stats show that the last third is where the majority of the support is raised, provided that you’ve built enough momentum up to that point.  With crowdfunding, the consensus is that “momentum” is having at least 50% of the goal amount raised.

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New Media Pioneer: James Wellstead of The Jaycast

The Jaycast. Take your Ipod on a trip! Escape to a world of comedy banter, toilet humour, and the best in new unsigned Rock Podsafe music. Join Jay and Mr D  in a british podcast that is:  “The world of the JC”.

The Jaycast Podcasting Live from “The Jaycast House Milton Keynes UK” every fortnight!

http://jaycast.mevio.com

Q) Tell us a little bit about your site. What inspired you to start it?

A) The Jaycast is a British based Music & Comedy podcast playing the best in new unsigned, indie and Podsafe Rock and Pop music on the net, The JC tis a blend of two guys doing guy stuff, sharing silly stories and jokes mostly geared towards toilets and life. Lets think of it of it as an escape from the real world for around 30 to 40 mins and Jay’s world is pretty weird.

The show is hosted by Jay and Mr Downtrodden Jay’s manic depressed room mate. Jay of course is a constant source of amusement and ridicule for Mr D. Jay revels in his love of SiFi TV shows, mainly Battlestar Galactica, and hopes one day maybe just maybe he will meet a Cylon, preferably the blond one. The show was formed on November 5th 2005 mainly inspired by the Lynn Parsons Chalet Show, Top Gear and of course the Source Code by Adam Curry. Jay has had an interest in radio from an early age and New Media has given him a chance to annoy not only truckers on the CB radio but now the entire internet. So why not check us out for yourself every fortnight your Ipod wont know whats hit it.

Q) Why do you believe new media resources (i.e. blogs, podcasts, internet radio stations) have become so popular? How have they been beneficial to artists? How have they been detrimental?

A) I believe Podcasting, Blogs and Internet radio are so popular these days simply because there is no diversity in “Lame” stream radio. Music tends to be manufactured with singers using auto tune, wheres the talent? We believe the real talent lies in Podsafe music, its diverse and it is real. Podcasting is a great way to promote this and is proven to sell records and real talent enthusiasts want to hear. However I also believe that in order to promote new talent you need to mix it in with the classics. That helps to keep the interest for the new stuff. Its great promoting a new talent but some times you need to throw in something people know. It is such a shame you cant spin Brother Love along side Pink Floyd without a huge law suit. If we could then Podcasting would really take off.

Q) Media 2.0 has changed the way artists communicate with fans. Where do you envision online communication going next? Any thoughts on what Media “3.0” will look like?

A) New Media 2.0 has changed the way artists communicate with fans greatly, It has become very personal and you can get to email an artist directly. Subscribing to artists blogs ensures you know exactly when your favourite band is giging and when the next album is out without the wait. The next step for new media 3.0? Let podcasters also promote the rock legends then sky is no longer the limit. Its just north of Watford.

Q) What does an artist have to do to get your attention? Are their specific characteristics that you look for?

A) To get the attention of the JC you just need to sound great and pack a rockin good tune. We like to start with a fast rock track, steer you round to a tuneful pop number, then add a little more rock and end on a nice ballad or “Ceiling Burner” as we call it, one where we can get the lighters in the air. Oh and nice legs we like nice legs and Mr Downtrodden likes female bass players apparently.

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VIDEO: Ariel Hyatt and Derek Sivers: Getting Your Music to Bloggers, Podcasters& iRadio DJs

I really loved the pieces that Chis Bracco has written on MTT on Blogging and I wanted to add some thoughts on getting blogs to write about you.  His strategies are rock solid and full disclosure he used to work with my company and he is indeed very effective at getting bloggers to cover artists. Read Chris’s piece here: http://bit.ly/a1Mm8dl

I know that blogging seems like yet another unbearable thing to take on so there are 2 ways to approach this

1. Become a reader and commenter
2. Become a reader, commenter and blogger yourself!

Q: How Do You Play Ball with the Bloggers?
A: Become a reader and commenter

I highly suggest that you try to get familiar with the blogging world by reading blogs and posting comments on blogs you like.

THIS IS THE WAY TO GET KNOWN IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD!

CAUTIONARY TIP: If you are posting on a blog who has not already covered you DO NOT HYPE YOURSELF. Bloggers hate it! Instead, you can leave comments about something THEY wrote and include your sig file with your name, band name and a link to your website. This is a subtle way of letting the blogger know you are a musician without saying: HEY! REVIEW ME! If they like your observations about them and what they write, they just may.

GET SEEN

Create profiles at Google (http://iGoogle.com) and Friend Feed (http://FriendFeed.com) and add the RSS feeds from your different social networks. These profiles will feature updates from your RSS feeds, and enable you to follow your friends and favorite blogs in one place. Other people will also be able to see all of your various feeds in a central location.

Add your blog’s RSS feed to your Facebook profile(s) and your Facebook friends can also see your updates on your Wall.

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“The In-Crowd” is an inside look at crowdfunding, with Ariel Publicity Artist Phil Putnam and RocketHub.com co-founder Brian Meece.  Each Monday, the boys are giving us an honest look at a crowdfunding project in action and dish on how things are going each week.
What is crowdfunding?  Find out here.

What does it look like?  See here.
-  -  -  -  -

WEEK 4:

22 days in, 53 days remaining.  $2,000 raised (20% of the $10,000 goal), $8,000 needed.  The focus on heart had some clear impact on funding, and more importantly made Phil more at home in the campaign.  The need to hit the 25% funded milestone in the next week is extremely crucial.  That’s where Phil and Brian are setting their sights.

Phil Says:

My mother exhausts me.  In a good way.  Her energy level at her age (slightly over 60) is remarkable, even mystifying.  How does she do it?  I’m feeling confident that crack rock is not her secret, and also pleased to know that she is the kind of person who is not going to be done with life before she is really done with it.  You know what I mean?

The reason I mention her manic awesomeness is that she visited my partner and I in NYC for the past few days, and it was really wonderful.  Our traipsing the streets of the Apple also pulled me away from my laptop and gave me some distance from the keystroke/facebook addiction that successful crowdfunding requires you to nurture and feed.  It was fortunate timing, as I needed a break from the grind, and I sensed that my fans/friends did too.  There’s only so many times they can hear the message before they start feeling annoyed or guilty, and only so much of my social media presence can be swallowed by the crowdfunding message before they feel like I have nothing else to say.  Thus, I left my MacBook Pro on the shelf and hit the town with Mom, facebooking pith and caprice along the way via my iPhone that had nothing to do with “Songs About You”.  It helped me have some fun, and it helped my fans/friends remember that I’m a person and not just a fundraiser.  This, plus the focus on heart and being myself that I wrote about in last week’s entry, helped me inhabit the campaign in a more comfortable way.  They say that when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  But I’m not (just) a hammer.  It was nice to remember that.

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Eclectic, freeform “iRadio” program Outsight Radio Hours starts its second decade available free on iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freeform-radio-artist-interviews/id259718352 or in podcast form wherever fine podcasts are served, such as http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=49803
Q) Tell us a little bit about your site. What inspired you to start it?

A) After several years of music journalism – reviews and interviews for an alternative biweekly – I participated in a pirate radio station as an act of civil disobedience with the then active microwatt revolution. We literally couldn’t get arrested for years (I think the FCC didn’t want to deal with the paperwork) and along the way I became enraptured with the immediacy and currency of live radio as opposed to waiting weeks if not months for dried ink to hit the streets.

Q) Why do you believe new media resources (i.e. blogs, podcasts, internet radio stations) have become so popular? How have they been beneficial to artists? How have they been detrimental?

A) The new media resources are popular precisely because they are populist forces. They democratize promotion and distribution by putting these formerly scarce resources in everyone’s hands. Revolutionary change has always had pros and cons. The benefit is less marginal effort (much less) to access the services for the artist, the detriment is the same thing. The budding artist has that much more competition for attention: every other blog, MySpace page, ringtone, and personal IPod trove of ripped vinyl – whatever. The new-media-age artist must juggle a thousand time-consuming tasks (e-mail blasts, MP3 leaking, forum posts, a gig diary blog, whatever) and still summon the innovation to stand out for the background noise.

Q) Media 2.0 has changed the way artists communicate with fans. Where do you envision online communication going next? Any thoughts on what Media “3.0” will look like?

A) The average entertainment universe is still fragmented between the car (the original mobile platform), the home entertainment center (cable-fueled TV is now the ultimate thick client) and modern handheld devices (lots of possibilities, very little surface area). Somehow at least two of these are going to converge and that is going to be another quantum evolutionary leap. I think it will be a surprising blend that will capture people’s attention. But what specifically, I don’t know. Virtual Reality on the TV seems too obvious as that medium wrestles with the hope of 3D before it has even fully digested HD. Social Networking on the car radio? “On the Social Band, you can hear and chat with your Facebook friends while you drive thanks to a partnership between Bluetooth and On*Star! Wherever your friends are at, even when are in traffic you can tune in with them to a concert ten time zones away” Yeah, something like that.

Q) What does an artist have to do to get your attention? Are their specific characteristics that you look for?

A) If it grabs my ear, I count on it to grab the ear of my listeners, too. I look stunning authenticity – like a daring experiment that succeeds and sticks out, or that instant air of familiarity that a good tune, a good melody has even if you have never heard it before.

Q) What do you ultimately hope to accomplish with your site?

A) I hope my interviews stored over the years on archive.org will be a time capsule for throwbacks of the future and in the present day my 2-hour episodes produced weekly will give some music enthusiasts that wonderful moment when they first meet their next favorite band.

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