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/

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.

Check out this blog post:

CLICK HERE

Google has partnered with Ilike, Imeem, Lala, Pandora and Rhapsody to make it easier for people to find music in their search engine.

So if Google (hugely profitable and smart company) has selected these people as partners, maybe we should take note!

It also pays to do your research – in your musical niche, there may be a place where its perceived better to place music -
Where do the leaders in your field post their music..?

OK Heres the lowdown on Googles New Music Search Integration:

If you type in a music related search — like artist name, song name or album title — Google will show music related search results, including audio previews.

ILike, whose  MP3 store is powered by MediaNet, recommend making sure that your content is available through MediaNet so that Google can find it.

This can only be a good thing, particularly if your band has a name that is very generic and doesnt come up top when you Google it..

Eg if its not so unique..

According to this blog post:
“A Google algorithm randomly decides whether your playable search results come from Lala or MySpace.
Both services will let users hear the entire track once for free.
If you search for the same track again, the search box will play a 30-second sample instead.”

Naming and tagging any photos and videos of your band with your band name,
member names, song titles etc is key here so that they can get picked up by the search engine.

Lyrics have also been integrated by integration with a service called Gracenote,
so Googling lyrics will link to the music – you can do this already but take a look
at the video below to see how it looks!

Note how they already had so much going on before they worked with any record companies….

Click here to watch the video

Courtesy of Music Ally.