Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Kosak.
Michael, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I first got started in the music industry when I started managing a hiphop group based out of San Diego called Black Resume. At the time, I was doing a lot of club promotion and I randomly got introduced to BlackRez through my step sister. I was already getting my friends gigs (for fun) so after I was blown away by their music I had to book them to open for E40 in Santa Barbara. (I was going to school in SB at the time).
This was back in 2010 when you had to “pay to play” in the hiphop scene, so we decided to start our own concert promotion company, called Black Resume Productions. That went really well and we quickly became the top hiphop promoters in San Diego. We did everyone from Kendrick Lamar to MacMiller. Needless to say, it got very hectic and I decided to take a step back from the music industry and finish school. (I had dropped out once the promotion company started taking off)
In 2016, right before my graduation, I met my day one client Royal & the Serpent. She only had one song written at the time, and I knew that she had something beyond special. I decided to go back into management and take a risk on Royal, as she did on me. Royal and I formed one of the most special relationships humans can have by, literally, manifesting our dreams together, and its been the best experience of my life thus far.
Since 2016 I have signed five new clients, and have developed my own unique business, within the management company, where I manage playlist curators. I essentially take on curators who already have a bit of a following and throw fuel on the fire. I help them maintain submissions while ensuring that their following on Spotify continues to increase exponentially while ensuring that the active listeners stay as engaged as possible.
It’s definitely a fun and exciting time in the music industry and I extremely grateful that I get to live in a time where you can, truly, find your own way into an industry as competitive as the music business.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There are always struggles. As I mentioned before, I left the music industry back in 2013 and wasn’t certain if I would return.
Managing artists is all about managing personalities and doing whatever you can to ensure that everyone is operating in an open and fun loving way. The more people/egos involved, the harder that becomes. For me, I always tried to do whatever I can to ensure that everyone involved with whatever team I’m working with, is having fun. If people aren’t having fun, then I believe we are missing the point of working in the industry we are in.
If you want a specific struggle: On our third show as Promoters we booked Kendrick Lamar at Porters Pub on the UCSD Campus. The owner of the bar completely screwed us over and left us without the campus owned sound system. (They had a small band play during the day, and the owner thought he could save a quick buck by foregoing the necessary sound system and using the sound set up from earlier). All the while, we hit way past capacity with a line out the door. The cops asked who was in charge and I had to give them my information.
Needless to say, Kendrick’s team wasn’t very happy and was threatening to not go on. There was a moment when I thought to myself, “holly fuck, there is going to be a riot on UCSD’s campus and my name is the one that is going to be 100% responsible!” Luckily we got it all sorted. Kendrick went on. The only problem was the sound was garbage, but the kids still turned up and had a really great time.
NBD MGMT – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
NBD MGMT is an artist management company first. We have five current clients. Royal & the Serpent, Flyanna Boss, Flawed Mangoes fka Fla.mingo, Bob Rabbit, and Tyler Showers.
We specialize in artist development and the best way to develop an artist, in our opinion, is through Spotify. Spotify has become an area of specialized focus for our company and through that we have developed a special relationship with playlist curators. We manage recording artist, producers, songwriters and playlist curators.
In my estimation, there isn’t a company that has developed our specialized system of managing both artists and influencers/curators.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Honestly, my proudest achievements are my achievements, they are my clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sites.google.com/nbdmanagement.com/followers/home
- Instagram: @nbdmgmt
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itsnbdmgmt/
- Other: www.royalandtheserpent.com
Image Credit:
Conner Sorensen
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