Listen to the interview here:

or right click HERE to download

I recently asked all the subscribers what they wanted to know about
music PR/publicity and ways to promote music.

I then took the questions to music PR guru Ariel Hyatt.
Although she is best known for  ArielPublicity.com,
Ariel recently published a book that you can find out
about here:

http://www.musicsuccessinnineweeks.com

To me, the best thing about this interview is that Ariel
is the real deal – working with real clients, and shes been
doing it for a while….

Check it out:

or right click HERE to download

And by the way – listen in to find out how to win a copy of her free book…

ps shout out to Scott for sorting out my Wordpress probs..
he is the man when it comes to anything wordpress.

I first heard about this from my friend Andy Reynolds,
who has alot of experience in tour management and the live space.

He just published a really interesting piece on a service called Square
that lets you take credit and debit card payments via the Iphone, Ipad
or Android phone.

In my experience, less and less people are carrying cash,  and I expect that
having a service like this will fuel further merch sales.

They do charge a fee, of 2.75% plus 15 cents, but if you have ever had to go through
the hassles of taking cards, this is a no brainer.

The service uses a small plastic box with a jack that slots into your device and then
you use that to swipe the card.  You then punch in the amount, the person signs with
their finger, and enters their email address to be sent a receipt!

If you dont have the reader, you can also enter the card number in manually.

Here are some more features:  https://squareup.com/features
The app is available in the app store right now!

Im really hoping that Paypal will buy Square and then the whole thing can be integrated
into one seamless package!

Right now, its only available in the U.S. and here is a video explaining how it
works:

Andy has written a few books  – most recently, he wrote:
The Tour Book: How to Get Your Music on the Road,
So if you are interested in getting your music on the road,
check him out!

http://www.themusicvoid.com/2010/05/event-report-unconvention-music-pies-macclesfield/

The amazing interactivity is made possible
with Greek company Mativision’s technology.

If you haven’t seen their technology yet,
you should definitely check it out…

They have a system that allows recording/playback in full 360°.
The user is then allowed not only to  move the camera and
zoom whilst watching playback, but they can also switch to
viewing from another camera!
Its pretty amazing!

You can see the cameras dotted around the stage:

I first heard about it when I was asked to give some input
to a Magic Numbers campaign.  They had a whole show
fully recorded and it was amazing to change where I
was watching from in real time at the touch of a button!

According to Mativision’s website, the band Pendulum
have made the “First 360 fully interactive music video clip
in history”!

If you head on over to http://www.pendulum.com/360,
you can check out the video, or should I say “interact”
with the video?

I like how they put the sign up box for the free mp3 just underneath
the video.
ie engage and then call to action.. super!

If you have play around, let me know what you think!

There was quite a bit of debate about the authenticity of her following.
If it wasn’t genuine, I wanted to know how it was done!!

My brief investigation took me to India, the USA, the UK and Japan,
as I spoke to various contacts about how it could have been done.
It was truly fascinating!

Heres my Video Report for you:

Part 1:

Part 2:

What are your thoughts? Gamed or not?

I first heard about her through 2 different industry friends.
They had both been approached by her for advice on
what to do with her Twitter audience.

THEN, a clever guy called Anthony Herron released an interesting blog post:

http://www.anthonyherron.co.uk/ignore-the-vanity-analytics

He basically showed that Muse had way more engagement with
their Twitter following and thats when Alarm bells started ringing in my head.

But you know what?
Whether it was gamed or not,
I think she deserves everything she can get!

An interesting link for you to check out:
http://twitterholic.com/Noushskaugen/

Be sure to watch the videos for some
super secret tricks…..

Im also giving you a sample Engagement Plan at the end so that you will
have all your engagement activities planned out for the next 6-12 months.

To read this free special report, just click the graphic or the link below, download the report to your computer, and read it.

Come back and leave a comment about what you thought about the report after you’re finished!

CLICK HERE to download report.

We are in the middle of launching a new training program,
and are having major problems!

Part 1 of the video series was sent out on thursday,
and Parts 2 and 3 were meant to be on their way by now,
but unfortunately I had a little accident…..

Some of you know that I love to play squash,
and usually play every Friday night.

Unfortunately on Friday, the guy I was playing
decided to hit the ball very hard- straight into my left eye!

I was immediately blinded, and blood started to
pour down my face.

People rushed to help and called the ambulance ->
I was going in to shock  – shaking/nausea/wanting to fall asleep..

Eventually the ambulance came and we were on our way to the hospital.

As they operate a triage system, we ended up having to wait to see the doctor,
and during this time, as the adrenaline started to subside, the pain began to
take over and it started to become unbearable!
It was like someone was poking a stick into my eye repeatedly!

Finally I was able to see the doc, and get some x-rays done.

The eyeball had sustained some major damage and
also it looked like I had fractured the socket of my eye!

At 2am, they referred me to another hospital to get the
fracture checked out..

I didnt get to bed until 7am, and then had to go to see another
specialist a few hours later to check out the eye ball damage…
This guy confirmed that I had  a huge, in his words “Star Ship Enterprise”
shaped scracth on my eyeball, and also had severe bruising to the back of
the eyeball and also some blood around the front!

Im currently waiting for it all to heal and am applying
various ointments and drops.

Its very difficult to use a computer and to read anything.

My left eye lid keeps itself shut, and so the right eye has to work extra hard
to compensate, but even just moving the right eye makes the left eye move,
and then Im again in agony!!

It looks like I will get better and should make a full recovery,
but probably will delay the launch videos a bit.

Its great that so many people have emailed asking for the next videos,
so thanks very much for that!

(if you havent seen part1, go here to see it:http://nichemusicsystem.com )

As soon as I can get things up and running and out to You All,
I will!

Im so grateful that I am not blind!  The Doc said I was VERY lucky.

Sorry for the delay and I will speak to you very soon.

All the best,

Hagop.

What does this mean for music promotion?

People are sharing music that they like via posting links,
People are letting others know that they will be attending xyz concert/show.
People are posting up their own pictures and videos whilst at events.

As the Music Maker, remember – YOU ARE THE CONTENT!!

Its your responsibility to make sure that people can find you,
share you, follow you, comment on you etc..

So take a good hard look at your next campaign or promotion -
is this something that your fans would love to tell others about?

Make it easy for them, give a reason for them to share,
create incredible events…..
IS it great content?
Would you want to share it?
Would others?

Depending on where you live, there maybe a local social network of choice.

But whatever it is, get on the top social networks, and start presenting
great content.

Make an engagement plan and roll it out!

if you want help with this – get in touch with me at:

http://getyourstage.com/contact-us

DO IT NOW!!

Here is the list for December:

Top U.S. Music Services On The Web (in unique visitors, December, 2009)

1. Vevo: 35.4 million
2. MySpace Music: 33.1 million
3. AOL Music: 29.0 million
4. Warner Music: 23.3 million
5. MTV Networks Music: 17.6 million
6. Yahoo! Music: 16.4 million
7. Jango Music Network: 9.6 million
8. ToneFuse Music Network: 8.3 million
9. MSN Music: 6.6 million
10. Rhapsody: 6.5 million

To see the full article, go here

So it makes sense that if you want to give your music some exposure,
you probably want to get it on some of these sites.

Interesting to note though is that the number one site, Vevo,
is actually a joint venture involving Google and that its main source
of visitors is Youtube.

not that kind of engagement!

Im talking about engaging your fans.!

So recently, I have been interviewing many many people from record companies,
publishing companies, and promoters.

The subject:  Digital Marketing.

We are doing a worldwide survey and Im learning some fascinating things.

Here is a good idea for engagement:

So in your career, you will have 4 different phases:

1. Recording
2. Releasing music
3. Touring
4. Doing nothing.

For each phase, pretty much everyone I speak to in record companies big and small has a 6-12 month engagement plan.

That means that they map out exactly what they will be doing and then create content to keep the interest and heighten it around significant events.

Many report that around the times of doing nothing, they post up content maybe once a month.

But in the build up to a major event or release, they ramp it up to weekly and sometimes even more frequent communication.

BTW Im not talking about micro blogging here, here is what I mean by engagement content:

• Video
• Audio
• Images
• Text

Video doesnt have to be music video.  It can be:
interview, live footage, rare footage, behind the scenes etc.

Audio:  Remixes, special collaborations, live versions, old rare tracks, cover versions.

Images and text – you can get very creative with this – It depends what fits your band or act.
Radiohead released a song and a pdf some time back that had several images that they wanted you to
print on tracing paper…

So once you have all your rough dates and the amount of content you need, start making and assembling it..

Then you just have to drip feed it whilst you are getting on with the “real” work of writing, recording and playing!

Get to it!