In 1984 Mike Alvarez formed the independent music label Not Records Tapes (NRT) in Austin Texas.   Alvarez quickly built a reputation of recording artists that went directly from NRT to bigger recording labels, including The Reivers (Capital Records), Haunted Garage (Metal Blade), Daniel Johnston (Electra Records), The True Believers (EMI).   Alvarez also headed the premiere independent music festival for its time, Woodshock , between 1983 and 1987.  

From 1988 to 1995 Alvarez worked in management at The Sony Video Institute, a world leading audio/video production training facility located until 1995 on The American Film Institute campus in Hollywood California.  

After the Sony Video Institute in 1995, Alvarez began working in television as an audio professional for E! Entertainment Television Network , CNN , NBC and other major U.S. and foreign cable networks.  

Alvarez has also produced and directed the television documentaries, Demon Angel, A Day and Night with Roky Erickson and Virginia Robinson, Her Home and Gardens (Virginia Robinson was the founder of Robinson's department stores).   Alvarez also has produced and directed several music videos for NRT and other small independent record companies.

Today, Alvarez continues to produce and promote independent recording artists in Los Angeles, California.    Alvarez also heads NRT Films, an effort overseeing the development of several feature film projects.   He is the producer overseeing the feature film project The Formula a n adaptation of the published Steve Stephens novel “God in Our Schools”.    

Before entering the entertainment world, Alvarez was a restaurant owner at 19 years old, an accountant for the city of Austin, a Texas State Senator assistant   for Senator Raul Longoria and a U.S. federal bank examiner for the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Alvarez was born in Hammond Indiana in 1955.   He lived in Reynosa Mexico in 1968 and 1969 until his family moved to Texas.   He lived in Texas until 1988 when he relocated to Los Angeles.   Alvarez attended the University of Texas from 1977 to 1986 studying business.   He graduated from Pepperdine University in Malibu California in 1994, with a BS in Business Management.