With one of the weakest winters in recent memory now over, it is once again time to shine the spotlight on the Top 10 Cyber PR® artists for Spring, 2012. Though this is never an easy decision, especially with the level of talent we are representing on a consistent basis, we have compiled a list of the top 10 Cyber PR® artists that have received the most attention from bloggers, podcasters and internet radio stations. Enjoy and happy spring!

- Ariel and Team Cyber PR®

Lila Rose

Click here to view Lila Rose’s VPK

Art Decade

From Boston, MA comes alternative rockers Art Decade. With the release of their stunning new album Western Sunrise, and the evocative video that accompanies it, Art Decade takes its place as one of the leading experimental rock bands in the country. Art Decade has an expressive, distinct style that shines throughout the album and is captured beautifully in the breakthrough video created by animator Whit Alexander which was made using the $5 Procreate app for the iPad 2.

Click here to view Art Decade’s VPK

Colin McGrath

Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Colin McGrath has a knack for penning tales of freewheeling characters with a natural tone that is both whimsical and heartbreaking. NPR Music has described him as an “Itinerant folk orchestrator,” who writes “songs that are steeped in storytelling, with characters and images drawn from old Americana.”

Click here to view Colin McGrath’s VPK

Lexie Roth

Lexie Roth is the daughter of guitarist Arlen Roth and his late wife, Deborah. She has appeared on her father’s album Toolin’ Around Woodstock with Levon Helm on drums, and sings Vaya Con Dios on the upcoming release of the Les Paul Tribute Album alongside of Keith Richards, Slash and many other greats. Lexie has also launched a Kickstarter campaign to help pay for the packaging of her debut album!

Click here to view Lexie Roth’s VPK

Tom Fuller Band

In just 7 years and 3 albums critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter Tom Fuller has matured into a sophisticated tunesmith with a flair for penning cinematic, anthemic, pop-rock with introspective and spiritually-uplifting lyrics. The Chicago native’s third and latest, ASK, released September 5th in the UK and recently in North America on Redcap Records is his most realized vision.

Click here to view Tom Fuller Band’s VPK

Trew Music

James “Trew Music” Crockett is an American Alternative Hip-Hop rapper and song writer. Born in Prince George, VA, Trew grew up listening to an array of musical genres of different eras. As of recent, Trew has written songs for soundtracks for Sony Motion Pictures and toured with rock band “Kid is Qual”, as well as Pop-Rock bands “The Audition” “Valencia” and “Promise of Redemption”.

CLick here to view Trew Music’s VPK

Pheroze

London-born, Brooklyn-based, Indian rock songwriter/ guitarist, Pheroze just released his second solo album, Crows Into Swine, on November 1st of 2011. Unlike his previous work with hardcore metal band Scar Culture, this album displays Pheroze conquering new territories, likening himself closer to a combination of classic Soundgarden and Alice in Chains than Slayer.

Click here to view Pheroze’s VPK

Midwest Hype

Midwest Hype combines hip-hop, funk and reggae that sounds like a combination of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sublime. They have performed at several festivals including Head Jamz Music Fest, Summer Camp Music Fest, the Indianapolis 500, Green Music Fest, Chicago Bluegrass and have opened for The Wailers, Umphree’s McGee, Rusted Root, and GIRL TALK.

Midwest Hype released DAYGLOW on Jan 5th with a sold out show at Schuba’s in Chicago and followed up the show with a high attendance show at House of Blues Chicago.

Click here to view Midwest Hype’s VPK

The Wee Trio

While rooted in jazz The Wee Trio finds ways to break boundaries encompassing their other roots in rock and fusion. Each member is a leader in their own right, but together as The Wee Trio, Westfall, Loomis and Schonig represent one of the highly creative groups pushing jazz and improvised music in exciting and innovative new directions. They now offer their latest creative tour-de-force, Ashes To Ashes – A David Bowie Intraspective.

Click here to visit The Wee Trio’s VPK

Kira Willey

In the kindie music world, Kira Willey breaks through with her unique, two-in-one albums that blend upbeat, danceable music with get-up-and-move yoga inspiration. In October 2011, this innovative singer-songwriter from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, released her second CD, “Kings & Queens of the Forest.”

Click here to View Kira Willey’s VPK

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I’m kinda obsessed with how artists make money mostly because artists constantly ask me how they can make more of it.

Several weeks ago, we proudly blogged in support of The Future of Music’s incredible undertaking Artist Revenue Streams, which is a must read for any artist looking to monetize their music.

The FMC has begun to release the results of their in depth study and they have identified 42 ways artists can earn money.

Numbers 5 & 6 on the list are:

5. Composing Original Works for Broadcast (an original jingle, soundtrack, score, or other musical work for a film, TV or cable show, or an ad agency…)

6. Synch Licenses (Typically involves licensing an existing work for use in a movie, documentary, TV, video game, internet, or a commercial).

Which leads me to start focusing in on: How I can help… which led me to Sarah Gavigan, founder of Get Your Music Licensed.

Sarah is an award-winning music supervisor/producer for advertising agencies, brand consultant on music licensing, and a writer. Like me, She has presented at conferences around the globe, including CMJ, SXSW, and Belfast Music Week.

I asked her 7 of the most important questions I could come up with about music licensing and placement and she graciously answered.

1. Ariel Hyatt: What makes music licensing so important for musicians today?

Sarah Gavigan: The first reason is distribution. In a sea of music it’s hard to make a lot of noise. Radio is still seen as the most powerful way to get your music heard by the masses, and the only way to major rotation is to be signed with a major label who is willing to throw a lot of money into your record. Radio literally has the ability to broadcast your song to millions of people every time it’s played. So does synchronization music licensing! If your music is in a television commercial, during primetime hours your song is being heard by millions of people every time that television show is broadcast. The second reason is that it is a fastest way to make real money. 

2. AH: Is it possible for an independent artist or band to get their music placed in a film, on a TV show or ad on their own?

SG: Absolutely, but you need to have a 2 things in place:
1st  In order to appeal to music supervisors you have to know what they’re looking for, and you need to have your rights in order.  
2nd you need to understand that presentation is everything. That’s not to say that you need a fancy website, you just need to understand what information a music supervisor is looking for.  

The 2nd most important thing to know about music licensing is that it’s a numbers game. The more music you have in your catalog, the more diverse that catalog is, and the more chances you have for getting your music licensed. 

3. AH: How do you know if your music is right for licensing?

SG: The best way to know if your music suits a certain type of placement is to watch TV. Watch TV shows, movie trailers, TV commercials and webisodes on YouTube, and you will get a feeling for where your music will work best (i.e. an action series, a drama etc.)

4. AH: Who should an artist contact to get his music placed? 

SG: It’s important to know who you’re talking to, I never open e-mails if I can see that it is a mass newsletter or e-mail blast from someone I don’t know. You need to do some well thought out research. Find a show or brand that you like and work backwards. Look up the Music Supervisor online, and learn a little bit about them before reaching out. Are you thinking a certain brand you think your music might be good for? With good research you can find the name of the ad agency, and then the name of the music producer or creative director at that agency that works on that brand. For many people this can be daunting and time-consuming way to spend your time, which is why I recommend forming mastermind groups with other musicians to help divide and conquer, or to join music libraries that can help distribute your music to buyers in the licensing market.

5. AH: How will being on Facebook & Twitter help get music licensed?

SG: You need to create an audience and create buzz if you want major music supervisors to notice your music. You want to use Facebook and Twitter to help you to establish your brand.

6. AH: What are music supervisors looking for when they search for artists on social media?

SG: We usually head to social media channels once we know about an artist to see what the buzz factor is.  If I have heard a song of an artist and I want to know more I will Google their name and visit their Facebook & Twitter profiles to see how large their audience is. Many times as music supervisors, this helps us gauge where the music might fit best. It seems strange but many times are creative direction is to find a “buzz band.” (meaning one with an already established and growing audience).

7. AH: If you want to get your music placed, do you need to be signed to a label or a publishing deal first?

SG: You don’t need to be signed to get a music placement. I use unsigned artists all the time, which I find through reps, managers and other types of music companies that handle musicians. But, having a prominent music placement can help your chances of getting signed to a label or publisher because you have acquired a larger audience by having your music heard by millions. 

Sign Up For The Q&A Call Here:

About Sarah:

Sarah has created an online educational resource called Get Your Music Licensed. Which is an online community and platform where she shares her insight and expertise on the notoriously hard to access music licensing industry.

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In this brand new blog series, CyberPR artists have a unique chance to get some answers from gurus on the cutting edge of the music industry. Not only do we want to showcase those who are doing some great work; we also love the idea of stumbling upon some fun new insights from the perspective of the artist. Today’s real answers come courtesy of CyberPR artist Pheroze and Dave Cool of Bandzoogle. Enjoy!

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P: You reach a decisive proposition at the end of your 2006 documentary, “What Is Indie?“, which explores the notion of defining oneself as an indie artist in the music industry. Now, 6 years later, do you think the definition you attained is still conclusive or has it changed?

DC: The funny thing about the conclusion of the film is that it was very much open-ended. I think being independent still is today, maybe more than ever, about being in control of your own career. With the lines between what’s a label/indie label/major label now even more blurry, I’m not sure it really matters anymore. It really comes down to having control over your own career, whether you’re unsigned, signed to a small label, or signed to a larger label.

P: In the days of MySpace dominance a lot of artists were content to place the full efforts of their online presence into their MySpace page in lieu of their own website. While people have largely moved away from

MySpace, I’ve noticed a lot of today’s artists are still doing the same thing by putting a large percentage of balance on general social media like Twitter and Facebook and music specialized social media sites like ReverbNation or SoundCloud. Do you see any kind of recurrence of abandonment of these networks similar to what happened with MySpace? What can social media networks do to stay relevant to an artist’s long term career and how can artists keep on top of the shifts?

DC: I think that we’ll continue to see social media sites come and go. Many argue that Facebook is quickly losing its significance because it has simply become too big/too noisy/too buggy, just like MySpace was, and I don’t disagree with that notion. And unless they find a way to get people to spend time on their platform, I think Google+ might come and go very quickly. Then there’s Tumblr, and now Pinterest gaining a lot of traction.

But this just reinforces what we talk about a lot on the Bandzoogle blog, which is the need to have your own website. When artists spent several years trying to gain as many friends as they could on MySpace, many of them were probably lost if they weren’t getting those fans signed up to their mailing list or driving them back to their website and developing a stronger connection with them there.

As for staying on top of the shifts, I’m not someone who believes that every artist should jump onto every new social media site that pops up. You should definitely sign-up to new services to reserve your name in case you do decide one day to use that account, but you need to spend time where your fans are. Right now you could probably get away with simply being on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. There have been some success stories with artists using Google+ to gain attention for their career, and early adoption of new services usually brings in success stories like that, but you can call me a Google+ skeptic, as I just don’t think is gaining significant traction, at least not yet.


P: Services like Ustream offer artists a way to live stream their shows with pretty basic equipment creating potential for a hybrid of an in-person and online experience for fans. Are there any creative ways that you would suggest that an artist can bring their website and social media into their live show?

DC: Definitely, and you just mentioned one yourself, which is to live stream your show. You can send people to Ustream, but you can also embed the stream on your own website, so that way fans can interact with you on a site that you control, and where they can sign-up to your mailing list and learn more about you.

As for social media, there are lots of ways to interact with fans during a show, the easiest being through Twitter. I’ve heard of bands setting up a #hashtag for their show so fans can react to each other during the show, or other bands taking requests live from fans through Twitter. You can also post photos throughout the performance using an app like Instagram and sending it to your Twitter & Facebook.



P: Bandzoogle enables an artist to easily create their web presence and customize it to their ‘brand’. Are there still web best practices that you feel an artist should know even when using Bandzoogle?

DC: Oh yes, there are lots, and we regularly blog about website best practices. But the most important page of your website is probably your Homepage, where most people will land on your site. For your homepage you’ll want to have:

- A great header photo
- A streamable song and/or video
- A short bio
- A call-to-action (to sign-up to your mailing list, download your latest song, shop at your online store, etc.)
- Latest news: a few of your latest news items or blog posts
- Links to your social media profiles

With these 6 elements in place on your homepage, you’re giving yourself the best chance to keep fans on your site and exploring more about you and your career.



P: What are ways an artist can use to gauge the health of their online presence?

DC: I think the first step you can take is to do a quick Google search. Your website should be first, then your social media profiles. With your website, you can take a look at your analytics and see what the bounce rate is for your homepage. If a lot of people are leaving quickly after getting to your website, then you might want to think of tweaking the design or having a better call-to-action, which is the one thing you want people to do when they reach your site (could be to sign-up to your mailing list, download a new MP3, visit your online store, etc.).

With social media, again it can be a numbers game, but not necessarily quantity. If you have 1000 likes on Facebook but nobody is reacting to/commenting on/sharing your posts, then you might have to think about your messaging and re-tool your strategy. On the flipside, if you only have 250 likes, but are getting lots of feedback/comments/likes, then you’re doing great and should just slowly keep building your following.


P: How did you reach out and meet the people you interviewed in “What Is Indie?” and what were their reactions to the finished documentary?

DC: I honestly just sent people emails. It was mostly musician friends of mine to start off with, and after we had filmed a bunch of interviews, we cut a short trailer. Then I started emailing the trailer to people who I didn’t know so they had an idea of what the project was all about.

I think most of the people in the film enjoyed it, but like with all artistic works, some enjoyed it more than others, and some not at all. But some people really championed the film to their networks and helped it reach so many more people than it would have, so I was thankful for that.
—

That’s all for today! We’d like to thank both Pheroze and Dave Cool for this interview. Did you learn anything that you found interesting? Let us know in the comments!

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Here is part 2 of my 2 part interview with the inspiring Seth Godin.

Watch Part 2 of the interview:

These are the highlights of our talk. Enjoy!

The First TEN, everyone has 10 people in the world. If you play for them and they walk away you need to change your music, but if those 10 bring 10 more friends tomorrow now you can amplify what you are doing.

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Just when Last.fm seemed to be losing the battle to Pandora, Spotify announced their app store, which included a Last.fm app. The power of Last.fm has always been based on their scrobbling technology, which allows Last.fm to monitor their users’ listening patterns and make musical recommendations accordingly. With the built in Spotify app, Last.fm can now scrobble all the music you play on Spotify. This move was a huge win win for both companies. Last.fm provides a fantastic music recommendation system that integrates directly with Spotify, and the raising popularity of Spotify gives Last.fm new traffic and a whole new life.

Obviously, this is a great for users trying to discover new music, but how does this help musician’s gain more exposure (that is what this post is about, right?)? Here are 4 quick steps to leveraging Last.fm.

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With social media growing at such a rapid pace, I decided it was a good idea to revisit my social media food pyramid and update it for 2012.

So…

Here’s Your Social Media Food Pyramid

It happens to me all of the time when I teach artists social media.The face goes blank, the frustration begins to settle in and then the artist says it:

“I just don’t have anything interesting to say.”

REALLY?

I’m shocked by this every time.  You are an artist; you do things we mere mortals are totally enamored by: you PLAY MUSIC, you write songs, you perform them in public!

So PUHLEEASE, do not tell me you have nothing interesting to say. I ain’t buying it.

All you are missing is a System for Social Media Success.

Luckily, unlike sheer god-given musical talent, social media is a learnable skill.

The inspiration for this hit me while I was teaching my system to a client in my kitchen…

THE FOOD PYRAMID!

Now, I’ve been told they don’t actually teach this in school anymore… but for those of you old enough to remember, do you remember that chart they brought out when we were in 2nd grade to show us how to eat well-rounded meals? I have re-tooled it for you so you can now participate on Social Media healthily! And you won’t even have to think about it – just follow along…

You wouldn’t eat only bagels all of the time.  They are a treat once in awhile, but they are not healthy to eat every day – and a diet of only bagels would be boring!

Most artists are only serving their audiences bagels all of the time. Plain bagels. Over an over again.

Uninteresting.

We want a burger, or a giant green healthy salad, we want some candy.

We want the protein but you keep serving bagels, bagels, bagels!

These are five things that when used in concert with one another can help you ratchet up your social media effectively and manage it easily.

Use these as a guide to mix and match them to suit your comfort level (just like your diet, eat what feels right for you)

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