Meet Gunnar Axne | Artist Manager & PR

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gunnar Axne and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gunnar, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I began CITOC Management back in 2021 during my freshman year of college. I just started studying artist & event management in the music business at Columbia College Chicago. I was friends with a few rappers and always enjoyed music and being around them in the studio. One day I realized maybe I couldn’t make my own music, but I could help others reach their own goals within their music careers. I then decided to bring on my first two artists, which went well on my end till it began to falter. I then dropped these artists and signed 3 more over the course of the next year, eventually leading to 4 today. CITOC stands for Change Is The Only Constant, and I hope to help each artist I work with understand the change within the industry and how to use it to their advantage.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
CITOC Management is an artist development and management company based out of Chicago, IL, originally starting in Des Moines, IA. Over the past few years CITOC has expanded to four artists, May Star, ZZZAY, Damiete and Ky Moor, with half of them securing distribution deals with major labels. Some of the hardest challenges within our business is having few hands to help on project roll outs and events and overall each artists careers. A huge hurdle I had to overcome was figuring out ways to fund these artists or to get their music off the ground. Yes, it takes a lot of money, but I focus on putting my time into the artists we work with. This has allowed me to grow my networking vastly, from connecting with companies partnered with The Orchard, to communicating with managers of artists like Sean Kingston, Cage The Elephant and many others. Like I said before, CITOC stands for Change is The Only Constant, and we hope to help artists and creatives understand the changes within their industry.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am assuming this is for Dallas, so in my opinion just checking out any local events that are going on that weekend, from live music, to art festivals. A great restaurant to check out is Petra and The Beast as well, they have a great menu selection. And don’t forget to check if there are any mavericks or cowboys games while you’re in town too, they are always a blast.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would definitely like to thank my friends and family, a few of them have stuck with me through all the struggles. To the few friends I have, thank you for sticking by me even though we are states apart and thank you for always supporting my movement. And to my parents who have helped me push through certain situations and afford to put me through college to study my dream job.

Website: www.citocmgmt.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/gunthemanager

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunnar-axne-citoc

Twitter: www.twitter.com/gunnaraxne

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gunnar.axne.98

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@citocmanagement7952

Image Credits
Ky Moor artist in photo