Since 2003, Another Planet Entertainment (APE) has produced and promoted thousands of events with artists as diverse as Radiohead, Neil Young, Daft Punk, Adele, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Metallica, Dave Matthews Band, Bruce Springsteen, Juanes, Paul McCartney and Kanye West. Named the Top Independent Promoter (U.S.) by Billboard Magazine in 2015 and 2016, APE is the exclusive promoter for the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, the Fox Theater in Oakland, the historic Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, The Independent in San Francisco, Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena at Harveys and operates a private events division, Another Planet Event Group. APE also produces three major annual festivals – Outside Lands (since 2008) and Treasure Island Music Festival (since 2007) in San Francisco, as well as Life Is Beautiful (since 2013) in Downtown Las Vegas. For more information, visit www.APEConcerts.com.  

Paying homage to the greats and focusing on the best of the up-and-coming artists, Noise Pop cultivates revitalizing experiences and supports the broad scope of Bay Area culture. Established in San Francisco in 1993, Noise Pop is the one of the nation’s leading independent music promoters. Over the last 25 years Noise Pop’s namesake festival has provided exposure to some of the top emerging artists, many of which have gone on to widespread acclaim, including The White Stripes, Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, The Flaming Lips, The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Bright Eyes, Yoko Ono, and more.

Raymond Lawrence Riley, better known by his stage name Boots Riley, is an American rapper and producer best known as the lead vocalist of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club. Riley is known for his energetic, charismatic, "punk"-like presence on-stage, combined with dancing Most of his works, although often about a personal experience (love, sex, broken-down cars, getting drunk, etc.), are tied to a radical class analysis of the current system and or situation. Some of his songs call for the overthrow of the ruling class by the working class.    

Christopher Willits is a musician, artist and teacher based in San Francisco who believes that music and art can catalyze inner change. Willits creates meditative ambient electronic music created with guitar and voice, that is designed to overlap with his own cinematic film and video work. These immersive audiovisual experiences speak to a global audience on a universal level. His music on labels such as Ghostly International has garnered critical acclaim, sending him on continuous tours around the world. Multiple solo albums and collaborations with the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tycho, and Taylor Deupree have accounted for a diverse catalog with over 25 releases over the last 15 years. Christopher is the founder of the creative collective Overlap, and also Envelop, a spatial audio platform that creates Ambisonic sound spaces and open source software tools. As a devoted teacher, Christopher strives to illuminate people’s creativity in music and art, and has lectured at many leading institutions in the world.

Dan Deacon is an American composer and electronic musician based in Baltimore, Maryland. Since 2003, Deacon has released eight albums under several different labels. Deacon is renowned for his live shows, where large-scale audience participation and interaction is often a major element of the performance.

Gabe Meline is KQED Arts' Online Editor. He lives with his wife, his daughter, a 1964 Volvo and too many records in his hometown of Santa Rosa, CA.

Geographer is an American indie rock band based in San Francisco, California. Formed in 2007, by Michael Deni who has described his sound as being "soulful music from outer space" using analog, electronic and acoustic elements to craft dense layers and unique sound textures. As Geographer, Deni has released three full-length albums, Innocent Ghosts in 2008, Myth in 2012, and Ghost Modern in 2015; along with two EPs, Animal Shapes in 2010, Endless Motion in 2015; and a 7" single, Kites in 2009.

Hieroglyphics, also known as the Hieroglyphics Crew and Hiero, is an American underground hip hop collective based in Oakland, California. The collective was founded in the early-1990s by rapper Del the Funky Homosapien. The collective is currently composed of rappers Del the Funky Homosapien, Casual, Pep Love, producer/manager Domino, DJ Toure, and the four individual members of the rap group Souls of Mischief: Phesto, A-Plus, Opio, and Tajai.

On her first proper album as Jay Som, Melina Duterte, 22, solidifies her rep as a self-made force of sonic splendor and emotional might. If last year's aptly named Turn Into compilation showcased a fuzz-loving artist in flux, chronicling her mission to master bedroom recording, then the rising Oakland star's latest, Everybody Works, is the LP equivalent of mission accomplished. Duterte is as DIY as ever writing, recording, playing, and producing every sound beyond a few backing vocals, but she takes us places we never could have imagined, wedding lo-fi rock to hi-fi home orchestration, and weaving evocative autobiographical poetry into energetic punk, electrified folk, and dreamy alt-funk.

Primus is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde and drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by drummer Jay Lane, though the latter two departed the band at the end of 1988. Featuring LaLonde and Alexander, Primus recorded their debut Suck on This in 1989, followed by four studio albums: Frizzle Fry, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, Pork Soda, and Tales from the Punchbowl. Alexander left the band in 1996, replaced by Bryan "Brain" Mantia, and Primus went on to record the original theme song for the TV show South Park and two more albums, Brown Album and Antipop, before declaring a hiatus in 2000.

Rogue Wave is an indie rock band from Oakland, California, and headed by Zach Schwartz (a.k.a. Zach Rogue) who created the band after losing his job in the dot-com bust. Their first album was Out of the Shadow which was released privately in 2003 and re-released in 2004. In the fall of 2004 they went on a national tour of the United States. Their most recent album, Delusions of Grand Fur, was released on April 29, 2016, through Easy Sound Recording Company.

Josette Melchor is the Founder of Gray Area Foundation For The Arts, a leading San Francisco non-profit dedicated to applying art and technology to create social and civic impact. As a Community Organizer, she partners with cities to address civic issues through public activations such as the Urban Prototyping Festival. A respected Executive Director, she has implemented sustainable revenue models to stabilize organizations and led fundraising campaigns to revive the historic Grand Theater as an 800 person venue in the Mission District as well as the Oakland Fire Fund to serve hundreds affected by the Ghostship tragedy. As a Curator, Josette instigated the first exhibition that paired artificial neural networks with artists which helped establish the Artists and Machine Intelligence program at Google. She was gifted her first set of turntables at seventeen, which inspired her to DJ and develop an eclectic collection of music at the confluence of disco, techno and house. Her selections are influenced by over fourteen years of large-scale media arts production and relationships with well known music producers. She has led the development of hundreds of creative technology projects utilizing cutting edge technologies and alongside work at Gray Area is starting an experiential media studio Dreamboat with a small team of artists. In other words, Josette Melchor is a Human classified as a Community Organizer, Curator, Entrepreneur, DJ, Queer Mexican Woman programming life at the intersection of art and technology based in San Francisco. She founded Gray Area Foundation for the Arts– a leading nonprofit media arts center– more than a decade ago and is driven to serve diverse audiences with her work. She has also worked with notable designers and interdisciplinary research centers including: MIT Senseable City Lab, Institute of Computer Sound and Technology, Stamen Design, Code for America; artists C.E.B Reas, Robert Hodgin, Aaron Koblin, Camille Utterback, and many more. She has spoken at DLD, PICNIC, TEDx Silicon Valley, Art Center College of Design, and Stanford. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Burning Man Project and The Processing Foundation. You can visit her website here: josettemelchor.com

Sam Lefebvre is a freelance writer whose byline has appeared in publications such as Pitchfork, the Wire and Spin. He lives and works in Oakland, CA

Sidecar Tommy is beat maker, drummer, and co-producer of electro-gypsy trio known as Beats Antique. Sidecar Tommy creates music that brings the dirtier beats to the forefront. Using his 30 years of experience as a drummer, fusing with state of the art production tools, the original score is vast, raw, and properly sculpted for sound systems big or small, culminating in a collage of music that hits.

Thao Nguyen, also known as Thao, is an American singer-songwriter originally from Virginia and now based in San Francisco. She is the lead musician of the band Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, and has collaborated with Joanna Newsom and Andrew Bird. Outside of the band she has collaborated on projects with several artists including Merrill Garbus, The Portland Cello Project, and Mirah. Her music is influenced by folk, country, and hip hop.

Tycho is an American ambient music project led by Scott Hansen as primary composer, songwriter and producer. Hailing from San Francisco, California, he is known as ISO50 for his photographic and design works. His music is a combination of downtempo vintage-style synthesizers and ambient melodies. As of December 2014, Tycho is signed to and has released under Ghostly International, but has also released music on Merck Records and Gammaphone Records. On December 6th, 2016 Tycho's fourth album, Epoch, received a nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album in the 2017 Grammy Awards.

Tune-Yards (stylized as tUnE-yArDs) is the music project of New England native Merrill Garbus. When performing live, Garbus creates drum loops on the spot and layers these with ukulele and vocals, in addition to electric bass played by Nate Brenner.