First, a confession.

I want to be Ariel Hyatt.
Rather… I want her job.

Ariel is the powerhouse President of Ariel Publicity and CyberPR, which specializes in getting musicians maximum exposure online. Her background is in what I call old school Public Relations where one’s success is determined by your ability to secure the media’s attention in favor of your client. Years ago, I used to do this same thing in the wine industry, working hard to get wine critics and food & wine media to write features and shining reviews of the wineries I represented.

But what Ariel discovered, as she pushed hard to get her touring bands booked, noticed and written about, was that it was getting harder and harder to get any results using the traditional PR channels. The effort to pay-off ratio wasn’t paying off.

Gradually, Ariel turned her attention and efforts to the wonderful world of the internet and the unique promotional opportunities it offered. By January of 2007, it was clear to her that she could better serve her clients through internet marketing and social networking. By following these new rules of marketing and pr, beautifully defined by David Meerman Scott, Ariel started (and now continues) to teach musicians how to use these “new rules” to increase their fan base, boost their music sales and get noticed. She changed the name of her company to “CyberPR” though she still uses ArielPublicity in her url: www.arielpublicity.com.

So, why am I going on and on about Ariel Hyatt other than the fact that I would love to be her and do for jazz and cabaret artists what she does for her bands? Because I just finished reading and re-reading her book, “Music Success in Nine Weeks.” And it’s so full of information that every musician must have if they want thrive in this world of internet marketing and PR that I thought I’d give this little gem a thorough review here.

Especially NOW, because I feel so many of my singer friends are totally missing the boat when it comes to promoting themselves and their music. They are still operating from within the old world of traditional PR and promotion. And I see them suffering and feeling immensely frustrated because of it.

But instead of just writing a quick summary review of “Music Success in Nine Weeks” I thought I’d dig into each one of the chapters, week by week, so you can get a good sense of all this book has to offer. Better yet, go buy the book and let’s work through it together.

By the way, not so ironically, I discovered Ariel and her company on Twitter, a fact that is sure to delight her since she is such a big proponent of social networking. As you will soon discover when we get into Week Four.

So, go get the book and we’ll jump into Week One next week.