Press Kit

For 25 years Ariel Hyatt has helped thousands of artists in all genres, and at various points in their careers navigate the confusing and overwhelming landscape of the ever-changing music business with more ease and efficiency. Her passion, and sage instincts make her a potent career-accelerating force. 

“I’m a thinking partner. There’s a mind-numbing amount of new music coming out every single day—it can be scary to navigate alone. Having an empathic, experienced cheerleader who coaches, advises and shortens the learning-curves can make a profound difference.” Ariel says.

Ariel’s desire to help artists is extremely personal. Her father is an Emmy Award-winning producer who enjoyed a prolific documentary career in her youth. She watched first hand as he struggled to keep up with the changing film industry. “My father experienced what I see my musicians go through. The world shifts rapidly and if you are unable to adapt, you can get swallowed up and left behind. Living through his deep struggle continues to inspire me to be resourceful and resilient for my artists.” 

This has enabled her to be uniquely attuned to the artist’s mindset, and boundlessly devoted to the power of music and it is what guides her to create books, articles and online courses for musicians. “There’s a science to effectively growing your music career, but there isn’t a definitive roadmap; it can be confounding,” Ariel says. “I’m very good at making people feel less confused.”

She is so good at un-confusing, that she has been invited to present at over 70 conferences in twelve countries, including SXSW (where she has spoken 19 times), CMJ, MONDO, Vivid Sydney, Hubspot Ignite, Campus Party London, The 140 Conference, You Are In Control (Reykjavik), and Social Media Week New York. She has also toured Canada and Australia, teaching artists across both continents with her marketing master classes and created multiple courses for top music industry colleges and universities. Ariel’s work has been lauded by media outlets including Oprah, CNN, Wired, Billboard, Forbes.com, Playback, Music Connection, and The Washington Post.

Ariel is the author of five successful books on PR, crowdfunding, and new media, Music Success in 9 Weeks, Musician’s Roadmap to Facebook & Twitter, Cyber PR For Musicians, Crowdstart. Her latest release The Ultimate Guide to Music Publicity: Proven Strategies For Getting Featured in Blogs, Playlists & Traditional Media went to number one on Amazon in the Music Business category and features a foreword by Derek Sivers and indispensable advice from a wide swath of music industry luminaries including veteran music publicists, bio writers, editors, playlisters, and podcasters who generously contributed their tips, plus 11 indie artists who share their inspirational PR journeys. 

Cyber PR, the platform she built in 2007 is still the backbone of their campaigns today, makes a radical departure from the traditional PR approach because their process is transparent. She created software and an online dashboard that allows clients to monitor the progress and success of their PR campaigns in real time. This takes the smoke and mirrors aspect away from the process and holds her agency and team accountable. Years ago she realized that even though publicity is very important it’s only one of many key things that musicians need. “The two things that are missing for most artists I speak to are a plan and a team. 

The problem is most teams are not available to artists until they become well established. This is another distinction that separates Cyber PR  from other agencies. Ariel and her team are a rare art-as-commerce sanctuary for musicians. They specialize in crafting long term strategy plans called Total Tuneups. Ariel says: “In today’s digital marketing climate, careers can be overwhelmed by the exhausting amount of knowledge artists must learn to stay ahead and truncated by instant metrics, hard-to-find fanbases, and seemingly impenetrable milestones. We love rolling up our sleeves to help musicians connect to themselves first and then to fans in meaningful ways.” 

She used to be an obsessive world traveler, but for now she’s a new mom raising her pandemic-born son. She and her husband are both born and raised New Yorkers and they now split their time between Manhattan and The Berkshires with their tabby Hunter C. Thompson (the C. stands for cat).  She proudly serves on the boards of Women In Music, and Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, and she is a graduate of Leadership Music, Nashville. 

In 100 Words…

In 50 words…

Ariel Hyatt is the founder of Cyber PR; a Brooklyn-based social media PR firm. Her Cyber PR Total Tuneups, books, and seminars help artists navigate the confusing and overwhelming world of the new music business with ease.