|
April 14,
2010
Newsletter #140
Hello from Ariel!
In This Week's Issue:
- Need music reviewers for ReviewYou.com
- Where’s Ariel?
- THIS WEEK’S FEATURED ARTIST:
Shawn Fisher / The Roast Beef Curtains
- THIS WEEK'S FEATURED RESOURCES: A
BLOG, A PODCAST, & A STATION
- Featured Interview: Scott Smith of
Megaphone
Need music reviewers for
ReviewYou.com!
ReviewYou.com is looking for seasoned music
review writers to join our staff. If you've
got excellent chops, a sharp perspective, and want
to make some cash for doing what you love (writing
about music), email of the following items in one
email to ReviewYou Editor Phil Putnam
(phil_at_arielpublicity_dot_com):
-A few lines
about who you are and what makes you tick
-The
genres of music you write about
-Links to your
blog/podcast, if you're a blogger or
podcaster
-3 album reviews you've
written
Thanks for your interest!
April
22-24 2010 - "I Create Music" EXPO - Los Angeles,
CA
Ariel will be speaking on the Social
Media panel, you can buy tickets here:
http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/events/expo/2010/registration.aspx
Launched
in 2006, the ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO is the
first and only national conference dedicated to
songwriting and composing. Selling out in its
inaugural year, the EXPO immediately provided a
unique opportunity for songwriters, composers,
publishers, producers - and those in the industry
that support them - to come together in an
unprecedented way to share their knowledge and
expertise. In its short history, the innovative
programming offered to attendees has grown to
include celebrity Q&A's, master classes,
songwriting and composing workshops, publisher and
business panels, One-on-One sessions, DIY career
building workshops, showcases and performances,
song feedback panels, state-of-the-art technology
demos as well as leading music industry
exhibitors.
THIS WEEK'S FEATURED ARTISTS: Shawn
Fisher / The Roast Beef Curtains
Shawn Fisher
http://arielpublicity.net/clients/2700
Shawn
Fisher will be playing 2010 Lollapalooza – August
6-8, 2010
http://2010.lollapalooza.com/
“When I
started to write my own songs, I tried to just
take in everything I heard and learn from it,â€ð
says Shawn Fisher. “It wasn’t until a few years
later that I really began to figure out my own way
of saying things.â€ð And these days, judging by the
rabid reactions of the crowds that buy Shawn’s
music and pack the shows by him and his back-up
band the Jukebox Gypsies, the 21-year-old
singer-songwriter’s way of saying things is one
that a lot of people are crazy
about.
The Roast Beef
Curtains
http://arielpublicity.net/clients/2736
The
Roast Beef Curtains will be playing Bonaroo 2010 -
June 10 - June 13
Inspired by tight reggae
rhythm sections & thrashing punk bands, Three
Hofstra University graduates birthed The Roast
Beef Curtains. Taking a DIY approach, Andrew,
John, & Mike evolved The RBC into the best
live reggae, dub, & punk experience on Long
Island.
THIS WEEK'S FEATURED
RESOURCES: A BLOG, A PODCAST,
& A STATION
Featured Blog:
Knox Road
http://www.knoxroad.com
Knox Road is based out of Washington D.C. and
New York City. Please leave comments, give
feedback, and most of all, support the
music.
Featured Podcast:
Bucket
Remix
http://bucketremix.com/
The 2007 Podcast Awards-nominee for Best Comedy
Podcast returns from its two-year slumber with new
co-hosts and attitude. Recorded weekly from the
shores of Connecticut.
Featured
Internet Radio:
Indie Music Sampler
Radio
http://www.indiemusicsampler.com/
A former DJ/musician from Portland, Oregon
presents samples of independent music for all to
enjoy. The show is primarily centered around Pop,
with a touch of blues, rock, and
folk.
Featured
Interview: Scott Smith of
Megaphone
For the hard rock quartet Megaphone, the
mission has been simple: Saving rock n’ roll from
the machine, and bringing it back to where it
should be – loud, catchy and in your face. It's
obvious they’re succeeding with that mission due
to a huge draw in their native Orlando, Florida,
extensive radio play, and gigs opening for arena
headliners and festival appearances. With their
new album, Exit Silent Mode, filled to the brim
with unforgettable hooks, melodies and songs,
Megaphone is poised to take everything about their
band to the next level.
The following is an
interview on Megaphone's experience of getting
their music onto the infamous Rock Band game.
Q) How did you get involved in the
Rock Band project?
A) I read the video game blog
Joystiq pretty much every day. One day I read a
post mentioning the Rock Band Network and I was
blown away. I had to re-read it just to make sure
I understood what I was looking at. I couldn’t
believe that just anyone could download these
tools and get their songs into the game. I told
the guys in the band about it and there wasn’t
even a question of whether or not we should get
involved.
Q) How did you
get your songs onto the Network?
A) I got the software license
and Creators Club membership and dove right in.
Fortunately, I had a small amount of MIDI
experience from college so I was somewhat familiar
with how the software worked. Beyond that, it was
just a matter of making the tracks good enough
that the RBN community gave them a thumbs up. It
was a long process because I was still learning
but it got easier as it went along.
Q) How hard was it to
program the different
instruments?
A) The easiest instrument to
do is the drum track. You start with the expert
difficulty and basically chart out exactly what is
played. There are some fills that you have to
adapt to the controller, but otherwise it’s quite
literal. The bass is a little more difficult
because you have to adapt twenty-something frets
with four (or five) strings to five buttons and
still keep a sense of movement. Guitar gets harder
because you start to incorporate chords and solos
with string bends. Vocals are probably the hardest
and most tedious, but you’ll have to trust me on
that. The explanation would be too long and
boring!
Q) How did you
use social networking to get exposure to your
songs?
A) The biggest problem we’ve
found while trying to promote this whole thing is
trying to get the word out beyond our usual fan
base. The cross-section of people who follow us
and people who have an Xbox 360, Rock Band 2, and
an Xbox Live account is probably pretty slim. We
did an interview recently with
RockBandAide.com which is a popular blog that
covers all the aspects of the game so we’re
looking to do more things like that to reach
people who otherwise wouldn’t have heard of
us.
Q) What are some of
the ways you are involving Rock Band into your
normal marketing outreach?
A) It’s a huge deal for us so
we’re including it in just about everything we do.
We just printed posters for our slot at the
Florida Music Festival and a good portion of the
poster lets people know that they can download our
tracks in Rock Band 2. The game’s logo is an
eye-catcher to anyone who’s familiar with it so
we’re trying to put it everywhere we can.
Q) What sort of advice do
you have for a band trying to get on the
Network?
A) If you’re going to try and
do it yourself, just be patient. Once you get your
song up for testing, listen to feedback and
don’t take it personally. It’s easy to get
defensive of your work when someone tells you
something should be changed, but in most cases,
the community knows best.
If you don’t want
to do it yourself, there are a bunch of authoring
companies that will do it for you (including my
own, littlecowdog.com). There’s a list of them in
the RockBand.com forums so check it out.
Q) What do you think is
the biggest advantage of being on the Rock Band
Network?
A) This is the widest reach
we’ve ever had. People in Spain, Italy, Germany,
France, and a bunch of other countries are
downloading our tracks. These are people that
would have had no idea who we were if it weren’t
for this Network. The cool thing is, if people are
afraid to purchase our tracks, they can download
the first minute as a demo for free. Even though
we don’t make any money from it, that’s even more
people that have heard our music and seen our name
and album covers.
Q) What has been
your favorite part of this whole
process?
A)
The first time I tested one of our songs
on my Xbox, I was floored. It was so awesome to
see what I had done come to life on my TV
and to see the animated characters rocking out to
our song. Then seeing the sales statistics and
seeing all those countries that had people
downloading our songs...the whole thing is just
amazing.
Q) How do you feel about
walking into a bar to find a random patron nailing
your part of a song/ absolutely
failing?
A) Last
I checked, I was ranked 16th on the leaderboards
for expert drums in our song “Gravitate.â€ð That
means that 15 other people around the world have
scored higher on my own drum part than myself! I
think I’d rather see people fail miserably for the
sake of job security...
Seriously though, I
think it’s awesome that people can master our
individual parts in this game. This is a level of
interactivity that has never been achieved before,
especially for independent bands. People get to
know your songs so much better than they ever
could before.
Q) What has been the
biggest effect the release of your songs has
had?
A) I think,
overall, interest in our band has grown. I wrote
an email to the music writer at the Orlando
Sentinel about it and he called me within an hour
to let me know he was going to include it in his
column. It’s just another feather in our
cap...like opening for AC/DC, it’s something that
people ask, “How did you do that?!â€ð
Megaphone will be playing at the Florida Music
Festival on April 23rd. Don't miss out!
ABOUT US
Ariel Hyatt is the founder of Ariel Publicity
& Cyber PR, a digital public relations firm
that connects clients to the new media including
blogs, podcasts, Internet radio stations and
social networking sites. Over the past 13 years
she has represented over 1,435 musicians and
bands.
Educating musicians is her passion and several
times a year, she leads workshops teaching her
strategy of combining social networking with
Internet marketing to help clients grow larger
fanbases and earn more money.
The Second Edition of Music Success in Nine
Weeks is now available and has helped hundreds of
musicians navigate the new music marketing
landscape. "Sound Advice," her bi-weekly ezine and
Internet TV series currently reaches an audience
of over 20,000 music professionals. She is a
contributing blogger for Music Think Tank, and
Know The Music Biz.
Sign Up here:
http://www.arielpublicity.com
CONTACT & INFO
Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR
389 12th
Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
http://www.arielpublicity.com
http://www.bandletter.com
http://www.myspace.com/ArielPublicityNY
http://www.twitter.com/cyberpr
PERMISSION &
PRIVACY
You have received this email because you
"opted-in" and requested to receive Ariel
Publicity's Band Letter or as a courtesy because
you are a musician or a member of the music media.
If you feel that you have received this email in
error, you may unsubscribe from this newsletter by
clicking the link below. |
