History of Billboard Magazine

Billboard is a magazine that publishes on a weekly bases. It is an american magazine with its head quarters based in New York city. The two founders of the music magazine are William H. Donaldson and James Hennegan, with the first publish of the magazine on the 1st of November 1894. 

Before Billboard became a music magazine in 1960s, it originally was a magazine that was focused on bill posting, it is now one of the oldest trade union magazines in the world. 

The magazine was first founded on the 1st of November in Cincinnati. Like said above the magazine was first known for bill posting with the name Billboard Advertising. The content of the magazine changed three times over the years, it first included outdoor amusements and major consumer of billboard space.  The magazine then went on to be the magazine known for publishing about circuses, carnivals, amusement parks and many more. We then got to the stage that the we are at know with what the magazine includes as the magazine when on to include motion pictures in 1909 and radio during the 1920s. The first publish that was about music was in 1913, the magazine included the best cellars charts and top songs which were in the vaudeville theatres. However this was yet to be a regular chart. During the 1930s the jukebox industry was being to develop so this influenced Billboard to being including the music charts in their magazine. 

Genres: Billboard included three genres which were: Pop, Rhythm & Blues and Country & Western. 

During the 1950s new sections were introduced into the magazine, these sections included the chart ratings for TV programs, as billboard has now started to cover the TV industry. However the magazine was still including all of the sections that it was before like the news of fairs and carnivals etc. However during 1961 all of these departments created their own magazine called Amusement, also things were progressing at the time so what was being shown on TV became a different publication.

Once again Billboard changed its name, during 1961 it was again re named to Billboard Music Week. This is the point at which the magazine became solely about music, with it still covering things entertainment machines like jukeboxes and things that are coin operated like vending machines. For the final time Billboard changed it name to Billboard which it then kept in 1963. There was also a web site created which then provided coverage of all formed of digital and mobile internet.

The magazine took its content out of billboard and started its own magazine, Amusement Business carried on for a few years after. However at the begging of 2000 the magazine started to struggle. The magazine then cut down the amount of times that it published to monthly, however during May 2006 it increased once again.

Radio station started to play the 'Billboard Hot 100 chart', this continued for many years. However some of the radio stations that were using Billboard stopped meaning the magazine was no longer being used.

Although Billboard is a magazine they also have their own awards called the 'Billboard Music Awards'. The were held annually in December however they slowed down in 2007 but then started again in May 2011.