Melinda Newman is the former West Coast Bureau Chief/Deputy Editor for Billboard Magazine and has peeked behind the curtain of the music industry for more than 20 years. Since leaving Billboard, she has broadened her scope to include lifestyle and cultural reporting from around the world, including Mali, Peru, and Lebanon, where she wrote about refugee camps for The Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor. She has also extended coverage into TV and film, profiling such celebrities as Oliver Stone, Susan Sarandon and many more. In addition to Forbes, she regularly contributes to rollingstone.com, Associated Press, Variety, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Enterpreneur, Nuvo and several other outlets. She's been interviewed as an industry expert by CNN, AP, ABC and NBC, among others. When she’s not writing, she’s traveling (six continents so far), listening to music, or watching classic movies. She's also a fine poker player.