Ariel Hyatt is the President and Founder of Ariel Publicity, Artist Relations, and Cyber Promotions. For the past 5 years she has worked closely for a diverse family of bands. Her company has publicized, promoted and booked hundreds of bands and serves as the publicity director to the Fox Theatre in Boulder, CO which hosts live music seven nights a week.

A strong proponent for independent musicians, Ariel speaks several times a year at music conferences and festivals. She has appeared on panels at NEMO (Boston), The Philadelphia Music Conference, EATM (Las Vegas), The Independent Music Festival (Hoboken), The Circle (NYC), The Indie Music Forum (San Francisco & Philadelphia) and at Skyhouse Studios (Denver).

Ariel Publicity, Artist Relations and Cyber Promotions says about itself: "We are an –the- trenches national PR firm, full service guerilla marketing group and on-line promotions group, rolled into one. Attentive to the most minute details, our staff has what it takes to make bands stand out in today's over-saturated music world. We will get your name out there." 

[Margee] How did you first get into publicity/music...which came first or is it all one question? 

[Ariel] I got into PR because my dear friend and role model Robert, working at a fashion PR firm. I started interning for him when I was in college and learned all about PR and how the PR process works. By my senior year in college (and my third year of interning for a fashion PR firm), I realized that fashion was not my passion and music was.

When I graduated from college with a liberal arts degree in theatre and a musician for a boyfriend, I moved back in with my parents with no idea what to do for a living. My mother asked me one simple question: What do you love? I had one: Music.

"Go out and do music" she said. So I started an exhausting and humbling job search. 

[Margee] Go mom! And what exactly did that job search entail? 

[Ariel] Sending my resume to every record label I could think of and getting told I could intern for free. I had a lot of meetings with a lot of people all of whom told me I had no specific experience in MUSIC PR (even though I had 4 years of fashion PR under my belt). It was very frustrating. 

[Margee] What was your first out-of-college job? 

[Ariel] I worked as the associate producer of the "Kelly In The Morning Show" on WNEW FM. It was competing with Howard Stern and had horrible ratings. It was a sinking ship and it eventually got cancelled. 

[Margee] Where was this job search? 

[Ariel] In New York City. 

[Margee] Where did you finally land? 

[Ariel] I landed at a music PR firm KSA who represented Sting, Peter Gabriel and Tina Turner among others... It was around then that I found out about WAR? and realized I wanted to move back to Colorado. 

[Margee] Why Colorado? 

[Ariel] I studied in Boulder for a semester and I fell in love with the town and the music scene there. I heard from a friend in Colorado that a New York City based indie label (WAR?- What Are Records?) was moving there. So I went to the WAR? Offices and asked for a job and naturally got an unpaid internship! After a few weeks I got lucky and got hired. A few weeks after that I was asked to join the company on the move west. 

[Margee] When did you decide to open your own company? 

[Ariel] I opened my own company when I was fed up with working for a promoter and realized I wanted to focus my energy on helping bands instead of ripping them off. 

[Margee] You recently moved the company to New York. What prompted such an extreme move? 

[Ariel] I was born and raised in New York and I missed home. I had been splitting my time between NY and Boulder for the past three years and I was tired of living on an airplane. Also, my business had grown as much as it could possibly have grown in Boulder. 

[Margee] When did you make this decision? 

[Ariel] I made this decision a few years ago - I got an apartment in New York and started going back and forth between the two offices. I was not ready to leave Boulder at that time (if you have ever visited that place you will understand). 

[Margee] Has it been an easy transition? 

[Ariel] Leaving was really hard - I had been there seven years and created a whole life in Boulder. But, I knew it was the right time to leave. I have always been a New Yorker at heart and I felt like a part of me was always not quite fitting in the whole Boulder scene. 

[Margee] What kinds of clients do you have? 

[Ariel] We have a policy at my company - if we love the music we will try our hardest to work with the bands. As a teenager I was totally into ska music like The Toasters and The New York Citizens. When I got to college, it was the Blues Traveler, The Spin Doctors, The Authority at Nightengales, The New Music Café and The Wetlands. I think my current roster totally reflects those initial loves. We like to work with clients that have aggressive touring schedules as our specialty is tour PR. 

[Margee] What is your favorite kind of project? 

[Ariel] Bands that are pro-active in their careers are not scared of hard work and have a long term vision. It's the only way to make it in this industry which can be so competitive and stacked unfairly against artist.

Bands who have tried to do their own publicity are preferred because they understand what we go through every day. The longer we are hired to work on a project the better the results. It takes quite a bit of time to develop a buzz on a developing artist. 

[Margee] Do you work alone or do you have a staff? 

[Ariel] I have a staff - usually 1 or 2 full time publicists aside from myself and my web and graphic designer (who I can't live without). I also rely heavily on interns. 

[Margee] Do you have any favorite outlets for specific kinds of clients? 

[Ariel] I have a list of writers who always at least consider my artists and who I really love. Each genre of music has a different list of favorite outlets, so I tend to cater each media list for the artist that it suits. 

[Margee] What was the hardest pitch you ever gave that you aced? 

[Ariel] Wow - that's a great question. There are a few that stand out that I did not ace. Most writers know what they will write about way before I get them on the phone. 

[Margee] And the easiest surprise pitch ever? 

[Ariel] I just got a feature for Sally Taylor this month in Good Housekeeping Magazine. I thought it would be a longshot - Good Housekeeping does not really focus on music... But they loved the idea and they did a wonderful profile on Sally, which will expose her to a whole world of people who never would have known she exists. 

[Margee] Do you think the Internet has facilitated more opportunities? If so, what kinds? 

[Ariel] Absolutely. Now you can e-mail writers and editors directly and they may just write you back!

Also - with a few hours you can identify the outlets that review CDs and submit your materials for consideration. Additionally, the net is a great place to meet other musicians and build up a community around you of like minded people to share ideas with. 

[Margee] What are your most recommended websites? 

[Ariel] I am a big MusicDish fan. I also really love CD Baby for selling your CDs and I like Inmusicwetrust, 181.4 degrees from the norm, and Lilith's Child. 

[Margee] Why do you like those sites so much?? 

[Ariel] They really love music and you can tell that when you read the reviews that they write. I think this is a nice quality. 

[Margee] What advice would you have for a company looking to hire a publicist? for an artist/band? For someone planning to do it themself/themselves? 

[Ariel] Hiring a publicist is exactly like auditioning a musician to play in your band. You need someone that understands your vision and the someone solid to back you up and you need someone whose personality you like and trust. There are many types of publicists and not all of them are appropriate for all clients.

If you are planning to do it yourself, there are a lot of great resources that will teach you protocol - I highly recommend The Billboard Guide to Music Publicity by Jim Pettigrew and Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. 

If you are going to go down the do it yourself road, just have patience and send in the band member who is the most polite and doesn't give up easily.