Jeff Pollack

On the last weekend in May, the 11th annual Sasquatch Music Festival (also known as simple "Sasquatch!") will be held in George, Washington. Let's start with the location, the Gorge Amphitheatre, located directly on the Colombia River. It's hard to get a better setting for a live venue. Completely outdoors...

Today is the first day of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, better known as simply Coachella. Previously only one weekend per year, Goldenvoice has expanded into two consecutive weekends this year to capitalize on its overwhelming popularity. The event has become synonymous with good music, good times, and...

There has been so much written about SXSX these past couple of weeks that I wasn't sure if there was anything left to add. Most of the blogs amply covered the new films being showcased, the exciting start-ups, the debut of cool new apps and the buzz surrounding various new...

It seems like every year the SXSW film, digital, and music conference in Austin, TX gets bigger and bigger. 2012 is possibly the biggest year yet, especially when it comes to the final week -- the music week-- of the conference. Hundreds of bands descend upon Austin to play multiple...

Big Bang, the intimate gathering of top music, media, and brand execs, held its 6th session on February 10th, just days in advance of the Grammy Awards. The room was filled with major artist managers, leaders from top media platforms, music services, promising start-ups, music labels, VC's and CEO's of...

When is a sale not really a sale? When a third party decides you've paid too little for something. That's the perplexing situation that the music community is in thanks to Billboard's new policy on counting album sales. In brief, Billboard has arbitrarily decided that any album sold for less...

The Noise Pop festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary next month, February 21st -26th, in San Francisco, CA. Noise Pop is an annual event held at the beginning of the year that focuses on art, film, and largely indie music and provides fantastic exposure for some of the most exciting...

So which artists emerged in a huge way in 2011 and reached the top echelon of success? I focused on 10 that were standouts this year. Regardless of when the album came out, or when they got their first break, 2011 was the year that each of these artists made...

New Year's is one of the best holidays for music because it's a global celebration. This year will be no different. While NYE has always been a big night for electro-dance music and festivals, 2011 may be the biggest yet as house music and the subculture built around it are...

Everyone is about to release their picks for 2011 and looking back I'd like to say it was a good year for new music, but it really wasn't. There were, however, a few notable records worthy of your attention in the past year.

Just a quick note...I'm borrowing a...

I tend to write these pieces about a single event or festival, but I also tend to break my own rules... For November, I decided to simply write about three great shows going on Thanksgiving Weekend, one you don't even have to leave your house for! Sting and Vince Gill...

The Big Bang Forum, a gathering of top execs from the media, music, and digital space, had its fifth meeting this past Friday at a boutique hotel in Santa Monica. The Forum brings together leaders from the tech and entertainment industries who are excited about the future; people who are...

We're all constantly hearing about new cool sites, apps, and products on the market. Most of us forget 90% of these within a few hours of hearing about them...and for good reason. There's no way to keep an eye on everything that's out there.

It's almost tragic that the...

It's hard to think of a better place to be for Halloween than New Orleans. Few places have such a great mix of haunted history combined with an all-day and all-night party atmosphere. Rehage Entertainment's Voodoo Experience always rolls into City Park just in time for the party.

It...

On the coattails of Outside Lands, San Francisco's big music festival that's fast becoming the Coachella of northern California, comes the bay area's less publicized festival, Treasure Island Music Festival. It's more relaxed than many of the other festivals around the country, only lasting two days, with a modest 13...

There's been a lot of bad press about rock being in decline in terms of sales, video and radio airplay, and creativity being at low ebb, resulting in fewer outlets for rock music.

Is it true? First of all, let's evaluate a silly statement made in recent industry press...

In the past, Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville have been considered the biggest music cities in the nation, and for good reason. However, Austin is quickly rising to the top of the list (especially when it comes to live music) with amazing venues, passionate music fans, and two of...

It's July and we're all anxious to get away for some time before the end of summer is upon us. So the eternal question came up again at dinner last night with some friends...if you could only take 10 albums with you to a desert island with no other access...

Next month will mark the 15th year of Perry Farrell's brain-child, Lollapalooza (not counting the cancelled tour of 2004). It's a great festival with an interesting history. Beginning in 1991 as a farewell tour for Farrell's band, Jane's Addiction, Lollapalooza continued as a nationwide tour for the next six years....

The big news in the music industry is Apple's iCloud rollout. Yet the Big Bang Forum, a gathering of influential executives from the music and media business, which took place on the Friday before Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, barely took note of it.

Three months ago when the last...