We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gunnar Axne. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gunnar below.

Gunnar, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

I feel like the biggest reason why a lot of artists don’t profit that much at the beginning of their careers is because they don’t have the right funding. Money is everything in the music industry, that’s why a lot of these labels control everything. We are trying our hardest to get to that point, as we are profiting a bit, but not to the point we would like.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Currently I am a senior at Columbia College Chicago studying Artist management, while simultaneously running my own artists management company called CITOC(Change Is The Only Constant) Management. Over the past few years we have worked with different artists under CITOC, our current roster includes May Star, Damiete & Ky Moor.

Our mission at CITOC is to provide a network and support for our music artists and their career, while helping develop their craft.

Over the past year we have been able to get two artists signed under distribution deals with Empire and a label powered by Sony/The Orchard. May Star being one of these artists has also hit over 250,000 streams combined on his songs throughout this year. As well as getting co-signed by many industry professionals and producers. You can check out his most recent release, “Club DSM” on all platforms now.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Throughout my time working in the industry I have dealt with a lot of scams. My most recent was with an industry artist who broke a performance contract. I ended up losing two thousand dollars and had to take legal action. Trust is a huge thing that can be easily faked, to make it in this industry you have to tell the difference between real and fake. So make sure you have the right people behind you in life.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is one of the key things we have to use in the music industry, so making sure we had a strong digital footprint was a must. Currently you can find our business CITOC on every social media platform out there including instagram, facebook, etc.

When starting your companies page I advise making sure you understand your niche and who you want to target. This will help you use targeted ads to bring more people to your business. Make sure you implement trends as well, like Tik-Tok and Instagram reels have been a huge help.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.citocmgmt.com/about
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/gunthemanager
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunnar-axne-citoc
• Twitter: www.Twitter.com/gunnaraxne
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@citocmanagement
• Other: https://youtu.be/dwkh4JrCv24?si=PaToktPTvAL_YV6C

Image Credits
Cover photo: Gunnar & May Star Other Photos: Gunnar & Ky Moor