The story behind the company
Mike Tang founded BEST OF THE NEXT after spending over a decade building technology/media companies, and simultaneously trying to grow his own music career as the Artist, WITTY.
He saw firsthand what most independent artists experience: a fragmented, confusing landscape full of services that overpromise and underdeliver. Fake streams. Generic playlist placements with bot traffic. Ad teams that don't understand music. Coaches who've never actually released a song.
Earlier in his career, Mike spent over 12+ years leading digital strategy, growth marketing, and technology initiatives across multiple businesses, establishing the kind of direct-response, data-driven muscle that most music agencies simply don't have. He's run paid media at scale, built automated lead/sales systems, and operated at the intersection of tech + culture long before AI tools made it mainstream.
That combination of legitimate marketing expertise and lived experience as an Artist, led to the creation of RADIO INFLUENCER™ HeatCheck: a campaign model no other company offers, using the trust and reach of mainstream Radio DJs/Hosts/Personalities to expose Artists to audiences that are already proven music fans.
After watching great music get ignored over and over again, not because it wasn't good enough, but because the marketing behind it was broken. Mike created the agency he wished had existed when he was trying to break through as an Artist himself.
Today BEST OF THE NEXT serves independent artists worldwide through RADIO INFLUENCER™ HeatCheck, Spotify Playlisting, TikTok Sound Promotion, Instagram Ads Management, custom fan acquisition plus monetization systems, and private coaching through the Artist Accelerator Exclusive.
