Billboard (magazine)
Billboard (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in various music genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm and operates several television shows.
Editor
Hannah Karp
Lee Zhito, Tony Gervino, Bill Werde, Tamara Conniff
Weekly
Lynne Segall
17,000 magazines per week
15.2 million unique visitors per month[1]
- William Donaldson
- James Hennegan
November 1, 1894 (as Billboard Advertising)
United States
Arabic, English, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese
Billboard was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegan's interest in 1900 for $500. In the early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs and burlesque shows, and also created a mail service for travelling entertainers. Billboard began focusing more on the music industry as the jukebox, phonograph and radio became commonplace. Many topics that it covered became the subjects of new magazines, including Amusement Business in 1961 to cover outdoor entertainment, so that Billboard could focus on music. After Donaldson died in 1925, Billboard was inherited by his and Hennegan's children, who retained ownership until selling it to private investors in 1985. The magazine has since been owned by various parties.
Billboard publishes a news website and weekly trade magazine that covers music, video and home entertainment. Most of the articles are written by staff writers, while some are written by industry experts.[10] It covers news, gossip, opinion,[2] and music reviews, but its "most enduring and influential creation" is the Billboard charts.[6] The charts track music sales, radio airtime and other data about the most popular songs and albums.[6] The Billboard Hot 100 chart of the top-selling songs was introduced in 1958. Since then, the Billboard 200, which tracks the top-selling albums, has become more popular as an indicator of commercial success.[2] Billboard has also published books in collaboration with Watson-Guptill and a radio and television series called American Top 40, based on Billboard charts.[10] A daily Billboard Bulletin was introduced in February 1997[6] and Billboard hosts about 20 industry events each year.[1]
Billboard is considered one of the most reputable sources of music industry news.[11][34] The website includes the Billboard Charts, news separated by music genre, videos and a separate website. It also compiles lists, hosts a fashion website called Pret-a-Reporter and publishes eight different newsletters. The print magazine's regular sections include:[1]
Billboard is known for publishing several annual listicles on its website, in recognition of the most influential executives, artists and companies in the music industry, such as the following:
International editions
