Music magazine Case Study

Introduction- 

“Billboard” music magazine was first founded in Cincinnati in 1894 by two salesmen, William h. Donaldson and James Hennigan. At the beginning of their publishing creations, both men designed the magazine, “Billboard Advertising” for printing and selling posters. They began their career selling the magazines for 10 cents a copy each week, presenting the public with eight pages of news about outdoor amusements, upcoming carnivals, fairs and live entertainment. 

It wasn’t until 1936 that Billboard advertising became a well-known brand by society. As soon as the Jukebox became a well-known music playing device, Billboard included the most popular music charts into the magazine and soon after devoted many pages to the coin-operated vending machines and jukeboxes to publicize the new craze. It was now 1961, and the magazine’s title was renamed, “Billboard Music Week”. Only three years later, it changed again to “Billboard” and has stayed this way since. In 2005, the publishing of Billboard changed from weekly to monthly and the “Billboard TOP” publicised the high selling music albums such as Mariah Carey, Rihanna and Kelly Clarkson. It was soon after that the magazine price in the U.K increased to £5.50 due to the importation from America. In 2008, Billboard achieved the circulation of 18,385 people.

In 2007, Billboard received an award for “Technology Choice Award Winners” as addition to “Design Excellence Award Winners and Finalists”.

The magazine content-

At the beginning of the Billboard music magazine entertainment, it was mainly based around pop music, rhythm and blues and country and western. Considering Billboard is now one of the greatest trade magazines in the world, it has now progressed to having no specific genre found within the magazine but just the latest, popular chart songs. Due to this availability, contents such as the latest news, issues and trends across all of the music genres, specific downloads; sales and box office grosses are included as minor features that keep a wide range of individuals happy by depicting a variety of music related interests into the magazine, suiting the target audience. Major contents such as radio, motion pictures, recorded music and contents on the growing entertainment industry are the main persuasion for the viewer to purchase the magazine due to the exciting articles that informs the audience on celebrity’s lives, latest gig and concert tickets and detailed photographs, showing the real lives of celebrities and their families.

The publisher of the magazine-

Lisa Ryan Howard, born November 24^th 1963, is a New York publisher currently supporting Billboard magazine. Lisa was a student at the University of Georgia who mainly studied Multimedia, sales and marketing, later on working in a variety of areas such as account managing, advertiser directing, director of sales and a chief revenue officer of “Fairchild fashion group”, before becoming publishers for “Conde Nast” and later on Billboard magazine. After 2 years of working for the Prometheus Global Media, Lisa received a Mid-career achievement award through successfully working in Media for 10-20 years. In 2007, Lisa’s name was include in the Advertising Age's annual "40 under 40" list of young “noteworthy” individuals in the media industry.

Due to Lisa Ryan Howard’s commitment, Billboard magazine is published mainly in North America but also operates businesses in Brazil, Greece, Japan, Korea and Russia.

Billboard is mostly funded by the main featured artists in the magazine such as “The script”, “Katy Perry” and “Rihanna”. The donations usually take place at live events such as gigs and concerts that are in aid of Billboard magazine.

The typical reader profile-

Along with the Grammy awards and the American music awards, Billboard music awards is one of the biggest music ceremony’s that lasted from 1990-2007. Due to this major event that took place each December, Billboard magazine gradually became a world-wide sensation whilst slowly gaining more and more entertainment such as Billboard magazine, Billboard.biz, Billboard conferences, Billboard bulletin, newsletters and Billboard.com. Whilst typically aimed at both genders from a wide range from 25-54 year olds, Billboard focuses on all genres of music, catering for the majority of people’s music tastes, leaving the general circulation for the magazine at 16,327 people. The typical audience for Billboard magazine will be people who are interested in the latest music entertainment, the singles in the charts and what order they are currently placed at.

Layout trademarks of the magazine (house Style)- 

Within the magazine, Billboard has included specific information, pictures and appearances that are presented throughout the magazine to create unity. Each month, the magazine would be presented with these layout trademarks for the target audience to visually see that the magazine is Billboard without having to read anything. These features help to advertise in stores, as individuals will acknowledge the trademarks and instantly have an interest in purchasing it.

On the front of each issue is a music artist, placed central to the magazine. Depending on the cover star of each issue of the magazine, determines what kind of person will be purchasing it. It is usual that the artist on the cover on each issue is holding a certain prop that links in with the contents of the magazine.

The main feature that I find is most relevant to be called a trademark is the masthead. Placed upper central, “Billboard” is
written in bold black letters, having the three primary colours, red, blue and yellow as addition to the secondary colour, green, to fill the circular shapes within “b”, “o” “a” and “d”. In different issues, the black masthead changes to white, depending on the main colours used on the front cover. As addition to this, the artists name is usually overlaying the main image or placed beside the image in either black or white so that the audience can identify who the articles within the magazine are about.

The colours used in the magazine are usually contrasting colours put together to make each minute piece of information such as the headline, sub-heading, dateline, sell line, masthead or pictures eye catching.

The contents of the magazine will usually be stated on the cover of the magazine. Sub-headings such as “Dave Grohl – I’M NOT DEAD” and “Arctic Monkeys present their favourite worst nightmare before Christmas” give the audience the information they need to understand what they will be reading about and whether they would like to, whilst using specific terminology to entice them.

Does the magazine reflect the values of its audience?- 

Considering Billboard.com receives over 4 million visitors each month, the magazine is publicised through social networking to then intrigue the wide variety of target audiences.
To enable them to keep 16,327 people happy each year, Billboard uses correct technology that the wide range of target audience will understand whilst adding personal information that attempts to relate to each person.
It is clear that each person who is purchasing Billboard magazine is interested about the current music entertainment. Due to this, Billboard keeps up with presenting the viewer with the information they want whilst enticing them with gossip about their favourite bands and celebrities. Along with this, the magazine provides “reviews of CD's, concerts and music news.” I feel that this is informing the viewer and giving intellectual guidance towards their hobby of music playing and visiting concerts. 

The terminology used in the magazine is written to suit a wide range of people. Considering somebody at the age of 25 could be reading the same magazine as a 54 year old, the words used are professional, intelligent and convenient.