The book · forthcoming

How I Broke BTS

In 2016 a thirty-person label in Seoul asked an American manager to help with one of its groups. Two years later that group had played the American Music Awards in Korean, debuted inside the top 40 of the Hot 100 and sat on eight Billboard covers. This is the method, by the person who ran it.

The seven pillars

The campaign ran on seven working principles. They were not written down at the start. They are what survived two years of trying things, and they still run every project Eshy Gazit takes on.

  1. Seven individuals, not a productThe members were told to be themselves. The press plan introduced them one at a time.
  2. The sum of sevenIndividuality and unity presented as one thing. Producers let segments run long.
  3. Trust with the labelThirty people in Seoul. Decisions reached the founder quickly and most ideas were allowed to run.
  4. Talking points that travel"Music is the international language." Then, "It's like The Beatles coming to America."
  5. Bridges to American artistsMany were pitched. Most said no. The early yeses made the next conversation easier.
  6. ARMY as the engineThe fans translated, trended and streamed. The job was to turn that energy into proof the industry could read.
  7. A mission bigger than musicBring East and West together through the group's music. People rally to a purpose.
"There was no precedent, because we were the precedent."
From chapter 8, Radio

What is in the book

Part I

The making of a bridge

A kid on a living room floor in Israel, Manhattan studios, a PR shop priced at a fifth of the big firms, and the mission statement that turned a career into a method.

Part II

The campaign

The demo from Seoul. A thousand no's on the Wings Tour. Engineering a reason to be at the Billboard Music Awards. Radio as a campaign, not a favor. The collaborations that came out of a rented house. The week that made history.

Part III

The playbook, complete

Knowing when to leave. What BTS taught the world. How the bridge became a business, from Monsta X to a label of its own. The seven pillars, written down for anyone with a project of their own.

The author

Eshy Gazit was BTS's US managing partner from 2016 to 2018 and has managed Monsta X since 2018. He is a partner at Maverick Management, the founder of Intertwine Records and the CEO of LUSIVEX, and a two-time Billboard International Power Player. He lives in New York. More about Eshy, and the BTS campaign as a case study.