1. Task 5
Music magazines that I would like to base my magazine on
General background information from Wikipedia- I have selected
parts that I think are important such as cover and contents ideas
and things which relate to my ideas for my target audience (young
females)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the
oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music
charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis.
The two most notable charts are the Billboard Hot 100, which ranks the top 100 songs
regardless of genre and is based on physical sales, digital sales and radio airplay; and the
Billboard 200, the corresponding chart for album sales.
History
Billboard was founded in Cincinnati on November 1, 1894, by William h. Donaldson and
James Hennegan. Originally titled Billboard Advertising it was a trade paper for the bill posting
industry, hence the magazine's name. Within a few years of its founding, it began to carry
news of outdoor amusements, a major consumer of billboard space. Eventually Billboard
became the paper of record for circuses, carnivals, amusement parks, fairs, vaudeville,
minstrels, whale shows and other live entertainment. The magazine began coverage of
motion pictures in 1909 and of radio in the 1920s.
With the development of the jukebox industry during the 1930s, The Billboard began
publishing music charts. Originally, there were only three genre-specific charts: Pop, Rhythm
& Blues, and Country & Western. In the 1950s it introduced a section covering the television
industry, including ratings charts for programs. It continued to carry news of fairs, carnivals,
theme parks and other outdoor entertainments until 1961 when these departments were
spun off into a new weekly magazine called Amusement Business. By this time the television
coverage had also been moved to another publication.
At the start of 1961, The Billboard was renamed Billboard Music Week. The publication was
now devoted almost entirely to the music industry, with some coverage of coin-operated
vending and entertainment machines on its jukebox pages. The title was changed to simply
Billboard at the start of 1963. In 2005, the magazine and its web sites were repositioned to
provide coverage of all forms of digital and mobile entertainment.

2. Amusement Business prospered for a few decades, but was struggling by the beginning of
the 21st Century. Shortly after then its frequency of publication was reduced to monthly, and
it finally ceased publication following its May 2006 issue.
Billboard Today
Billboard Publications became a major trade magazine publisher, acquiring The Hollywood
Reporter, Kirkus Reviews, Adweek and Mediaweek. It was acquired by Dutch publisher VNU
(later renamed the Nielsen Company) in 1993, but later sold in 2009 along with the other
Nielsen Business Media properties to the new company e5 Global Media, which was renamed
in 2010 to Prometheus Global Media.
Billboard is intended for music professionals, such as record label executives, artists, music
retailers, and radio DJs. Although it is generally considered a business-to-business magazine,
it can be found at many consumer bookstores and magazine stands, particularly in cities with
a large music industry presence such as New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Miami.
Editorial coverage and broader strategy are guided by its editorial director, Bill Werde.
Much of the magazine is available at Billboard's B2B site, Billboard.biz. Billboard.com is the
consumer-centered site, and includes artist interviews, daily news and charts.
Billboard Covers
Billboard is known for their creative covers which often feature artists from the charts and
music which is currently popular at that time; they often feature artists such as rhianna,
taylor swift and lady gaga. They are also known for their bright colourful masthead which
makes the magazine stand out and distinctive. Back in the 1940’s the magazine used a basic
cover with not much Colour- just orange, white and grey, the font style was plain and simple
and the image featured on the cover was black and white. There also wasn’t very much
writing on the front cover apart from the masthead, magazine number, date, cost and “the
world’s foremost amusement weekly”. The covers were quite plain and boring. Over the years
the covers have become much more advanced and appealing, using more and more colours,
a wider range of fonts, started including much information, e.g. coverlines, used colourful
and professional images and have became in general more attractive and eye catching.
Contents
Billboard is popular for its feature of music charts, breaking music news, artist interviews,
exclusives, news, videos and more. There are many pages taken up of music charts, these
include the billboard 200, albums, exclusive charts from billboard online, launch pad,

3. heartseekers songs, regional hearkseeeks number one albums, the hot 100, pop/album/rock,
country, r&b and hip-hop, Christian/gospel, dance, jazz/classical/world, latin, hits of the world
and the singles and track song index.
On the Billboard website I saw this…
“Billboard Magazine, published weekly, is the premier trade publication for the music
business. The magazine was founded in 1894 by William H. Donaldson and James H.
Hennegan as a publication for the billposting and advertising business, but expanded over the
decades to cover amusements, motion pictures, radio, recorded music and other areas of the
rapidly growing entertainment industry. Now focused the music business and related
enterprises, Billboard Magazine publishes news, analysis trend reporting and other key
features, as well as Billboard's famous standard-setting charts of U.S. sales, airplay,
downloads and box office grosses.”
And this…
“The world's premier music publication, Billboard has served the entertainment business
since 1894. Beginning as a weekly for the billposting and advertising business, Billboard and
its popular music charts have evolved into the primary source of information on trends and
innovation in music, serving music fans, artists, top executives, tour promoters, publishers,
radio programmers, lawyers, retailers, digital entrepreneurs and many others.
As Billboard's consumer-faced online home, Billboard.com features an extensive array of
searchable, playable charts, breaking music news, artist interviews and exclusives, news,
video and more. Launched in 1995 as Billboard Online, Billboard.com now attracts ten million
unique visitors each month in more than 100 countries and has become the de facto digital
destination for popular music.
Billboard is headquartered in New York with bureaus in Los Angeles and Miami, and has
editorial correspondents in major cities around the globe.”
Google images search for billboard magazine covers I would like to base my
magazine for a female audience on