Ariel Publicity

When I first heard that Ellis Paul an artist I have know about for years and seen one a few occasions raised $100,000 I was amazed…I had to get the story.  Here it is.

Ellis Paul is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. To date, he has released 16 albums and has been the recipient of 14 Boston Music Awards.  He has published a book of original lyrics, poems, and drawings, and released a DVD that includes a live performance, guitar instruction, and a road-trip documentary.  As a touring musician, Ellis plays close to 150 dates each year and his extensive club and coffeehouse touring, together with radio airplay, has brought him a solid national following.

Rachael Klien from Ellis’s management team answered these questions for Ellis while chatting with him on the phone while he drove from Virginia to Atlanta.

Ariel Hyatt: Do you believe that 1,000 True Fans is a theory that can work?

Rachael Klien / Ellis Paul: Yes absolutely, Ellis has sustained his career as a musician for the last 20 years. I would even go so far as to say that this has been his theory from the get go.

Starting out in the Boston Music scene then taking it on the road developing fans one by one. (Mind you. this is before the Internet existed, and back in the cassette tapes days) Ellis got in his car driving city to city creating really loyal fans. He traveled around a lot building each market. Talking to each person before and after shows, staying in touch as he traveled.  People are willing to buy your record spend a couple hundred if they are really committed.

Ellis just left his record label of 15 years to go it on his own. We raised $100,000 in fan contributions from about 300 fans, which we believe to be the ultimate testament to his fan loyalty.

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We’ve got some great artists performing at SXSW. Stop by a show and have a drink with them!
All of the artists will be available for interviews as well while at SXSW please email Christina Duren [Christina@arielpublicity.com] to schedule an interview.

Strait Laces
Punk, Rock
http://www.arielpublicity.net/clients/2694

Tuesday, March 16 Bruised Fruit Party @ Bull McCabes (714 Red River) – TBA
Wednesday March 17 Belfast Rocks Showcase @ Latitude 30 (512 San Jacinto Boulevard) – 12.30pm
Wednesday, March 17 Music Tech Mashup @ Rusty Spurs Saloon (405 E 7th Street) – 4pm
Thursday, March 18 Music Gorilla Party @ Treasure Island (413 East 6th Street) – 3pm
Friday, March 19 Music From Ireland Breakfast Party @ BD Rileys (204 East 6th Street) – 2.30pm
Friday, March 19  Official SXSW Showcase @ Wave – 8pm
Saturday, March 20  Irish Party @ Fado (214 West 4th Street) -1pm
Saturday, March 20 Party @ Lovey’s Loot – 7pm
Saturday, March 20 Closing Party @ Blu Lounge (360 Nueces Street) – 12am

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Ariel’s Tips On How To Advance Your Career at the Most Overwhelming Music Conference of Them All

Envision What You Want Before You Arrive My first bit of advice: Arrive prepared. Know who will be attending and create some goals before you get there.

Attend at Least One Music Conference Each Year I believe all serious musicians should make it part of their job to attend at least one conference a year.  They can be expensive to get to, but think abut it this way: music lessons and equipment were at one time expensive, and those things are also vital for your career. Conferences are the best place to meet people who work in and around the music industry, and conferences are a relaxed environment to connect with people in the industry who can change the course of your career.

Austin, Texas is a wonderful city, and its distractions are many. Keep in mind that this is not a vacation. It’s a work-related learning experience. With a little planning and foresight, you can have a million-dollar conference.

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Josh Ryan

Here I go again….  It’s Part 6 in my 1,000 True Fans series.

For this installment I asked my new friends at Sorted Noise in Nashville to introduce me to some of their artists who are doing it right.  I am happy that they introduced me to Josh Ryan. Josh fronts the group Secrets in Stereo and in just two years has made some impressive inroads by using social media (blogs) to bond with a tight knit community of fans who support him. What is interesting about Josh is the fact that he makes a lion’s share of his money from TV/Film placements and not from live shows.

Ariel Hyatt: Do you believe that 1,000 true fans is a theory that can work?

Josh Ryan: (quoting directly from the article) “Someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work.”

Then, geez…absolutely.  Obviously, this means that it’s the artist’s responsibility to continue to crank out content, and give them something to buy.  And I think (as you are finding out with previous “In Defense” interviews) the number is much lower than 1,000 for a solo artist because of the low overhead.  Although I write, record, and promote under a band name, I’m actually a one man show.  So, this applies to my situation.

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I have a fun NEW contest to share with you (as you know I’m a wee bit contest crazy because they are both fun and helpful).

I am headed to my first ever Canadian Music Week in Toronto on March 10 – 13 where I will appear on two panels, do a book signing and soak up what I have heard is one of the best music conferences out there.  Here’s the fun contest part: My dear friend Jay Frank will also be speaking at CMW.

Who is Jay Frank you ask?

Jay Frank is currently the SVP of Music Strategy for CMT, a division of MTV Networks. At CMT, he oversees the implementation of music across all platforms, including TV, web, mobile and VOD. The new synergy he is developing is changing the face of country music as he identifies future country hits through active monitoring of all platforms. This has lead to increased TV ratings, online video views, and record setting metrics for the 2008 CMT Music Awards.

Jay Frank has also managed music programming, along with artist and label relations for Yahoo! Music, formerly known as LAUNCH. From 2001 until 2007, Frank grew the audience tenfold to approximately 25 million people.

We’ve been friends for the better part of the past decade. We’ve also enjoyed brainstorming with each other over the future of music, where it’s going, and how do we get there. The funny thing is that our conversations were never doom and gloom. They were always full of hope and possibilities. We’ve always seen the potential for where new artists can go if they only had the right tools. Now, both of us are asked to speak about this around the world (a far cry from just chatting about it in our living rooms 10 years ago).

But we also know how difficult it is to pin either of us into any meaningful conversation after a panel when you have 30 seconds to ask your question. And some of you are pretty damn smart and driven. So, the two of us have decided to team up for something pretty damn special…we’d like to take YOU to dinner!

That’s right…you heard us. Take YOU to dinner. Normally, we get requests to take us to lunch or dinner just to pick our brain. But this time, we’re flipping the equation. Why? Because we both thought it’d be fun. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do in this music business?

So, here’s the deal. We’ll pick four fortunate folks based on a couple of things:
1) You sign up to both our twitter accounts at @cyberpr and @futurehitdna
2) You tweet either (or both) of us as to why you should go

That’s it! The dinner will be held on Thursday, March 11th at a TBD location in Toronto. Just in case that wasn’t enough, you’ll also get an autographed copy of my book Music Success In Nine Weeks AND Jay’s book Futurehit.DNA.

So come tweet now. We’ll be looking for potential entrants until March 8th. Then we gotta pick the 4 lucky winners and contact them.

Even if you don’t get to go to the dinner, please make sure to say hello to each of us at Canadian Music Week.

xx,
Ariel & Jay

Related show

• Artist: Ariel Hyatt
• Date: Thursday, March 11th 2010
• Time: 7:30pm
• City: Ariel Hyatt in Toronto, ON
• Venue: TBA – Toronto Restaurant
• Address: TBA
• Country: Canada
• Buy tickets
• Notes: Ariel Hyatt & Jay Frank will be taking 4 winners of our Twitter contest out to dinner – tell us why you want to dine with us in 140 characters or less @CyberPR & @futurehitdna
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

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