Gary Smith

Gary Smith begin his career in the music industry in the 70's while still a student majoring in broadcast communications at Fresno State University. His first productions included Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and Janis Joplin. Smith produced concerts independently with artists like Creedence Clearwater and Deep Purple and eventually moved to San Francisco and worked with a number of bay area bands. In 1974 he produced a string of national tour dates for the Guess Who. After becoming tour manager for the Average White Band in 1975 and later an associate in the AWB management company in 1976 Smith handled every aspect of arena level national and world tours for AWB through 1979. After several years of extensive touring he returned to his home town of Fresno and in 1982 joined the fledgling Promoters-On-Line Listings (P.O.L.L.) later to become known as POLLSTAR.

POLLSTAR Chief Operating Officer and director of development, Gary Smith, has overseen every aspect of the growth and development of the publication from a few page quick printed tip sheet to a glossy full-color magazine with more than 20,000 readers internationally. POLLSTAR has carved out a niche for itself concentrating on concert industry news, itineraries, and statistical tour data. POLLSTAR now has music business clients in more than three dozen foreign countries. The publication has grown far beyond the original tip sheet with numerous syndication and consulting deals including clients like Arista Records, BMG North America, Columbia, Geffen, MCA, MTV, People Magazine, RCA, Rolling Stone, TicketMaster and Warner Bros. PollarOnline.com is one of the top music business web sites and Pollstar.com is one of the highest rated music information sites in the world.