Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing some research on Ariel Hyatt and her PR prowess when it comes to independent music. I was planning to do a feature in the next week or so about how much of an undiscovered gem she and her service could be for a struggling act or artist. I mentioned her (hopefully) influential article about Twitter from musicthinktank.com on the blog yesterday.

Unfortunately, Ariel just launched a new marketing program for herself that will probably guarantee her and her team will be so busy they’ll be turning away loads of work for months. If you’re lucky enough to get a spot in one of her publicity programs, take advantage of it as soon as you can. If you’re truly certain your act is ready to compete on a worldwide stage, Ariel will be able to help you take it to the next level as far as online media is concerned. Just make sure to give your project plenty of lead time – your album promotion should start at least 3 months in advance of your release date!

Want to know more about promoting your music online? Learn more from Ariel Hyatt’s CyberPR.

More of Ariel Hyatt’s resources:

Music Success in 9 Weeks

Roadmap to Social Media Success

Cyber PR Publicity Campaigns

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Sitting down to write those first mind-racking band descriptions and introductions on your profile can be very hard. It involves a great deal of thinking, planning, and usually a lot of collaboration with the rest of the band, your friends and family members for ideas and the “right” thing to say. But, rather than worry excessively about what you want to say, you should consider what people want to read about your band.

New Fans and Innate Curiosity

When a new fan visits your site, they likely have three questions in mind:

• What kind of music do you play?
• What are you and the other band-members like?
• How does this affect me?

MySpace provides plenty of space and prompts for you to provide information about what kind of music you play and what kind of band you are. You can upload tracks for them to listen to, list your major influences, and create a series of mini-profiles with information about your band’s members. However, the third question is one of the most important and must be addressed carefully in the descriptions you write.

You might notice that many bands write a very long, involved profile discussing who they are, where they came from and what they see in their music. Other bands simply post a concert calendar and a short bio of 200 words. While a profile that is too long will simply bore readers, one that is too short does not address the question of “how it affects them.”

To address this question, you must write less with the “goal” of your music in mind and more with the “substance”. What do you do that is different from other bands and how do you interact with your fans? Fans want to know that you are an active, fun band. If you know you are going to be traveling a lot and that you will update your blog, respond to fan messages, and listen to requests, write that into your profile. If you want to hear feedback on a track or have a cool idea that you want to run by a large group of people, do it in your profile.

By combining the basic marketing information that all bands include in their profile – origins, influences, and aspirations – with the basic, interactive information that your fans want to hear, you can ensure they know what you want them to know while feeling like stopping by you profile has a positive effect on them.

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So, you’ve decided to create a blog on MySpace – one of the single most effective ways to draw an audience to your profile. Before you get started, it is important that you know exactly what seven things you can do to ensure that crowd shows up though – otherwise, you will be left scratching your head at the lack of views: Continue Reading

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Get help writing your band bio

Cullen Hendrix tells you exactly how NOT to write your band’s bio in this post I stumbled across when looking for resources about putting the story of your music online. If you’re not ready to hire a pro to do the work, take a minute to consider your approach. Continue Reading

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I usually limit myself to a post a day, but I couldn’t wait to point out this post titled “Study: Blogs Trump MySpace for Selling Music” by Mack Collier over at mpdailyfix.com.

He’s talking about this study from NYU’s Stern School of Business that found blogging has a positive impact on the success of a CD release – more than the number of friends you have on your MySpace profile.

This is something I’ve been saying for a while. It’s why I dedicated a section of my eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Music Online, to introducing the concept of blogging for music promotion.

HypeBot has reported on this as well. As they point out:

“According to the study, if 40 or more blog posts were made before an album’s release sales ended up being three to four times times the average for both indie and major releases. If blog posts crossed 250, album sales rose to six times the average regardless of label.”

Of course, major labels still have success using traditional methods, but this goes to show that it’s possible to get serious results by embracing the world of Web 2.0.

If you haven’t jumped on board social marketing to support your music marketing yet, you’re missing out! Download a FREE preview of The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Music Online today, surf this blog, and gain an advantage in your music promotion strategy before the others catch on!

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The Internet is a whole new world of promotional opportunities. Essentially everything you thought you knew about the business can be thrown out the window when you log into MySpace or any of a dozen other social networks to find new fans. Those bands that fail to make the essential adjustment are doomed to fail until they realize just how different everything is. For the rest of you, here are 5 essential tips that help you look beyond the basics of Music Marketing to find what you can really accomplish online. Continue Reading

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