Research: Billboard Music Magazine

As a part of the making of a music magazine, I had to do some research, and so I decided to look at the music magazine Billboard, just because the covers are really well made and they have drawn my attention more then a couple of times.

Introduction:

The Billboard is one of the oldest trade magazines (professional magazine) in the world and is an international news magazine that's devoted to music and the music industry. It was founded on 1. November 1894 by William H. Donaldson and James Hennegan, and was originally a trade paper for the bill posting industry. Not too many years later the paper started to carry news of outdoor amusements, which led it to become the paper of record for circuses, carnivals, amusement parks, fairs and other live entertainment. In 1909 the magazine started coverage of motion pictures and in the 1920, the radio. With the development of the jukebox in the 1930’s the Billboard began publishing music charts, but back then only the 3 genres, pop, R&B and County & Western.  As the music part of the magazine grew bigger over time, the outdoor entertainment part was taken out and put together as a new magazine, and with time the motion picture part of the magazine was also moved to another publication. In 1961 the magazine was renamed Billboard Music Week, and the publication was now completely devoted to the music industry. 

Billboard Magazine is now owned by Promotheus Global Media, a diversed company with leading assets in the media and entertainment arenas, and is (according to their webside) the world’s most influential music media brand reaching key executives and tastemakers in and around the music business.

Content:

In the typical Billboard magazine you’ll get everything from the latest news and music reviews to Billboard music charts, music articles and more.On their webside: www.billboard.com

you can find new things in the world of music every single day and get access to exclusive videos and digital music, as well as the hottest new releases, music videos and more.

Layout & Readers:

The contents page of the magazine is neat, and easy to read. On the first 1/3 of the left side of the page is a music chart with the most popular songs and albums, and on the rest of the page we see what we typically get on a contents page, a little look into what you will be reading about, next to some pictures of famous artists that will be featured in the magazine. In the bottom of the magazine we see some information about the online magazine and events happening in the music world.
It's a very simple layout, but obviously it works for them, otherwise they wouldn't be as popular as they are today, especially amongst the young people in the world which would be their main and target audience. From what I gather that audience would have to be people in their teens and twenties. Artists like Lady Gaga, Adele and Taylor Swift are more artists girls listen and look up too, so I would say it would be more directed to girls than boys. The music genres represented in the magazine through these artists would also direct us more to the right track of the audience, because of course not all girls interested in music read this magazine, there are tons of different kinds of music genres out there and magazines that earn a lot of money from giving those genres of bands and singers a voice, but based on what charts Billboard have in their magazines they focus more on the R&B/Hip-Hop, Country, Rock, Latin and/or Pop kind of people.