With A Voice Like This

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068 – Interview with Ariel Hyatt – Part 2

Recorded 4 September 2008

This Episode is the conclusion of the interview with Ariel Hyatt, President of Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR and Author of the book, Music Success in Nine Weeks. Topics discussed in the conclusion were:

  • Info Marketing
  • The paradigm shift in the Music Industry
  • Experiential Souvenirs
  • It takes time
  • How to get Music Success in Nine Weeks
  • Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR and how they work with New and Social Media
  • Connecting with your fan base

Comments from the Podcast Gallery
Podcasters Chef Mark Tafoya, founder of the Culinary Media Network and host of ReMARKable Palate and Andrea of Geek is Chic contributed comments in this show.

Links from this show

Music from this show
The music in the show is Should I Love Him or Walk Away by Wendy St. Kitts [Update: link removed, web address no longer valid]. In addition to her website, you can find her on MySpace and CD Baby. Thank you to Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR for the music.

[audioplayer file=”http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-52008/TS-146688.mp3″]

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067 – Interview with Ariel Hyatt – Part 1

recorded 4 September 2008

This episode of With A Voice Like This is the first part of my interview with Ariel Hyatt, President of Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR and author of the new book Music Success in Nine Weeks.

The topics discussed in this first half of the interview include:

  • Ariel’s background and what lead to the writing of the book
  • The purpose of the book and how to use it
  • Giving a context to who you are as a musician
  • Networking – the art of influence
  • Newsletters and New Media
  • Connecting with your audience
  • ‘What’s in it for me?’
  • USP – Unique Selling Point

Links from this show

The conclusion of this interview will be Episode 068 of the show.

[audioplayer file=”http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-52008/TS-141083.mp3″]

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052 – Can I Get A Little Help Here?

This Episode of With A Voice Like This:

Hey, I’m not too proud to ask for help. I’m a little stymied trying to help the rest of 4-AM understand what the Internet can do for the group. They seem to see a website as mainly a virtual brochure for the group. I know it’s much more than that but I find myself in the unenviable position of new information not having the same impact when a colleague shares it as it would if it were shared by an outside expert.

This is where you come in. Give a listen, you’ll hear a few of my ideas and I’d really like you to share yours. You can drop me a line at [email protected], call it into the Comments From the Podcast Gallery voicemail at 630.492.0487 or just leave a comment here. I look forward to your input.

By the way, does anyone know if PodCamp Chicago is still on for June 6-8? the information has run dry and I thought that would be a great venue to perform at and give the rest of the group a taste of what the Internet can do. Let me know.

Listener’s Choice

Well, this episode’s Listener’s choice is a bit of a do over. Kim Fenolio pointed out to me that there were different versions of Laura Clapp’s Not Responsible available and I managed to miss the one that Kim liked best. So to make up for it (since this is Listener’s Choice), I played a Laura Clapp twofer, The accoustic version of Not Responsible and Let It Rain. You can find Laura’s music on the Podsafe Music Network [Edit: Site no longer exists], at myspace.com/lauraclapp and www.lauraclapp.com.

[audioplayer file=”http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-52008/TS-111970.mp3?dl=1]

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046 – What’s In It For You?

A tribute to Gene Puerling (March 31, 1929 – March 25, 2008)

In this episode: I have three question when it comes to a band’s website

  1. What do you need to see?
  2. What do you want to see?
  3. What do you wish you could see that you’ve never seen before?

Discussing the website for 4-AM and the groups it needs to speak to, Booking Agents, Clients and Fans. What belongs, what is the best use of New/Social Media and some of the resources I use to help me with the ideas.

Links:

Hot Hits, Cheap Demos by Nadine Condon

Promoting Your Podcast by Jason Van Orden

Musician’s Cooler Podcast with Jammin’ Dave Jackson

[audioplayer file=”http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-52008/TS-103329.mp3″]

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The Perception of Value

So what’s it worth to you?

How do you quantify a service to someone who has no frame of reference? I have a Masters Degree in Vocal Pedagogy, which is part performance and part teaching voice, and I’ve spent tens of thousand of dollars on training my voice. If I don’t have name recognition does any of that mean anything to someone who’s looking for some music for their event or venue? What if I’m part of a group, where my name doesn’t come up as much if at all?

I deal with it all the time as a musician. A rule of thumb on how to deal with it is how much you charge, but even that can vary widely. I have an “I won’t step outside the door for less than…” figure. Now that figure for me as a solo singer is 66% higher than that same figure for me as a part of an established group currently. What do I base that on? It’s not like I have production costs to base that figure on to show someone. I have talent, knowledge, expertise and experience, but if you’re working with someone who has no frame of reference, those things don’t mean anything to them. And the money itself? I’ve had people not bat an eye at that money and I’ve had people politely (and sometimes not so politely) brush me off. So what’s the answer?

They don’t know what they don’t know

I learned the answer I use through singing weddings for friends. I was reminded of it because I did a wedding not too long ago, for friends. It’s the perception of value. I used to sing weddings for friends for free because I thought of it as my gift to them. And you know what happened? Nothing. Not even a thank you. It didn’t take me long to feel under appreciated and frustrated by that. Didn’t they know how much that was worth?

And that was it. No, they didn’t know. At least not in a way they easily understood. They had no frame of reference. After all, if I was giving it away, it must be worthless, right?

Flash forward to this wedding I just sang for friends. They knew they wanted to use me in the wedding, but they were looking at additional musicians as well. They did their research and saw what the market was around the Chicago area. When we finally discussed money, they said they’ll pay me whatever I wanted.

I quoted them a price of 20% of my solo figure I talked about earlier. The phone went silent for a few moments, then I heard “Are you sure?” I told them this is my friends’ discount and the rest was my wedding gift to them. I got the now standard reaction which was many, many thank you’s and other people coming up and almost falling all over me to talk to me about it.

What I gained by defining my value

I had given my friends a good frame of reference, a perception of value that they understood and everyone was happy, even ecstatic to the point that they shared it and so on and so on and so on…

That’s the biggest benefit to me. People were excited enough to talk about me and to me. That means I’m more likely to:

  1. Be handing out business cards
  2. Be remembered
  3. Get that next gig

Even though I’m doing a friend a favor, I’m still getting a lot out of it. All because I was able to communicate the value of what I was doing. That’s the answer I needed.

I was reminded of that because I’m working on the website for an a cappella quartet I sing with. How do I communicate the value to three different groups; Booking Agents, Clients and Fans to the point that they share it willingly? With all the social media tools, I don’t have that answer yet. But I know the value. What’s your take?

 

Photo by Redd Angelo on Unsplash