Ariel Hyatt’s paternal grandparents owned Hyatt’s Hardware in Lee, where her dad grew up. Her parents’ paths crossed in New York, thanks to their shared love of the arts. Her dad worked in documentaries, and mom worked first in children’s television, then became a marketing entrepreneur. Ariel has followed in her footsteps.
How did you get started in the music publicity business?
I grew up in this house where arts was the language. My mom parlayed her knowledge of children’s theater into helping companies understand how to market their stuff to kids. Big brands used to hire her to do test marketing and developmental marketing, and she’d gotten all the information she needed by playing theater games. We spent every weekend and summer up here going to theater and Tanglewood.
What was your first work experience?
I started at a record label, then worked at a concert promotions company, and then struck out with my own PR firm 25 years ago.
You started your own business when you were 25 years old?
I did.
And how did you have the chutzpah to do that?
I got fired from my job at a concert promotions company, because I had too much chutzpah and was doing things that they didn’t enjoy, putting charity tables at live concerts to get people interested in other things.
You were taking too much initiative?
Exactly correct. I was living in Boulder, Colorado. Small town, not a lot of music industry opportunities, other than you better try to make one up on your own. I figured I’d give it a go, so I hung out my little shingle. My company started out [as] Ariel Publicity. Then about 10 years in, when we went fully digital, I changed the name to Cyber PR, which was a very ’90s-sounding kind of name.
Also a great URL to capture.
Yes. I got lucky in the trademarking of that.
And you only cover music?
We only do music and music-related companies, apps, and brands. We might work for a music venue or author who writes books for the music industry. Right now we’re working for a livestreaming platform.
How did you get a foothold in the industry?
In Boulder, I had the benefit of a small town and a good reputation. Once I got fired from the concert promotions business these people called and said, “We’ve been loving what we’ve seen you do and would you like to work for us?” Also, I already knew all the artists, many of whom hired me. From there, a lot of my bands were touring and would meet other bands, and word of mouth spread.
I became interested in digital marketing, writing articles weekly or once a month, blogging, and got very serious about building my email list. This was right around when Napster took hold, in 2006-2007, then Myspace came, and people could distribute music on computers. I could see the writing on the wall — that creating physical CDs, tapes or records and selling them was not going to be a great future.
I had this database of probably seven or eight thousand newspapers and magazines, and as my bands were touring, the markets and the newspapers were shrinking. When I started, every single newspaper had a jazz music writer, a classical music writer, and often a pop or mainstream rock writer. Those three writing positions at the newspapers turned into one. I started having trouble getting articles for my clients. I was like, “Oh my gosh, they’re not covering local music stories anymore.”
The combination of music being distributed all over the internet, plus fewer opportunities for artists to get covered in newspapers made me realize online was definitely the wave of the future.
I decided to take a ton of the pieces I’d written and organize them into a book called “Music Success in Nine Weeks.” It was nine things that artists could do to get their online and offline acts together to be more efficient. I self-published in 2007, and my world changed. It was the smartest thing I ever did. About two weeks after I published the book, I got a call, which I thought was a crank call. It was a woman from Iceland, and she said, “Hi. I work for a music conference. I love your book and we are inviting you to come speak in Iceland.”
From there, I became known to international communities and I got invited by more and more people. Because digital was so new, I was holding the only book that explained how to do digital in the music world. So that little book helped set me up for meeting a whole lot of great people and connecting to a lot of artists and musicians, teaching master classes and giving keynotes, doing panels, seminars, and workshops. I’ve gotten invited to 12 countries.
Some people “poo-poo” self-publishing versus going with even a small publishing house. It sounds like, for you, it made no difference.
Well, this is what’s really interesting. After my book started taking off, I did get approached by a large publishing company who were interested in having the update to “Music Success in Nine Weeks.” They showed me the terms and it amounted to me receiving like 50 cents per book, and they would own a lot of my intellectual property.
I felt like it would be hypocritical of me — the person who was teaching artists about building a tribe, expanding their digital footprint, marketing to their audience. I thought, wouldn’t that be awful if I was saying that and then I was being published by someone else. So, yes, there are a lot of people that “poo-poo” the self-publishing thing. But, to me, not doing that didn’t go with my brand at all. The woman in Iceland didn’t care. No one in Canada cared. No one in Australia cared, and it was very nice to be able to keep all of the money when I sold my books.
Did you come out in the black?
Oh, definitely came out in the black. I always joke that now a book is a thick business card. It’s the thing that you can do to establish yourself. It’s amazing what you can do when you get creative. Especially as I think about my newest book.
Tell me about this new book.
It was the pandemic. I had just had a baby. I was locked in my house, and all of these artists were having their tours get cancelled. There was a lot of forecasting about how terrible COVID was going to be for musicians, not only because we clearly wouldn’t be gathering at concerts, but if you think about where you see live music, it happens at restaurants, bars, in coffee shops, in shopping malls. Live music happens wherever people are gathering.
So, as people stopped gathering, even artists that had unusual ways they made money — playing weddings, or funerals or birthday parties — all of a sudden, none of it was happening. The first thing on the chopping block is your publicist. I thought, “Now would be a great time to help artists navigate how to do their own publicity.” How do you create publicity for yourself? What does the media want? How do you tell your story? How do you systematically, with an artist mind, do it so it doesn’t drive you crazy or overwhelm you. How do you get it out there, and then what do you do when you get it. Because after doing thousands of PR campaigns for artists and giving them clips saying “Here’s your interviews, here’s your articles, here’s the podcast we placed you on,” I realized artists had no idea what to do with their publicity after they got it.
The book is called “The Ultimate Guide to Music Publicity.” I didn’t title it lightly. I looked around at what was available for artists and people who want to support musicians. There’s currently 70,000 tracks a day going up on Spotify, a mind-numbing amount of music. The book contains 55 different music publicists and journalists giving their best nuggets of advice. I also interviewed 11 musicians who exemplify the ability to spin their own publicity wheels. Whether they were really good at getting articles placed, or at making themselves newsworthy, they got the publicity to come to them.
So the book is interlaced with the tales of artists who wrote their stories, and there’s a couple of additional ones from artists who inspired me because they were so good at understanding how publicity can change your world, how it can help you put your mark on your own brand and your career, and how when you’re good at it, it begins to come to you.
This Sunday, March 27, at 1 p.m., music publicist Ariel Hyatt will be signing copies of her new book, “The Ultimate Guide to Music Publicity,” at Railroad Street Collective in Great Barrington.
