About Billboard Magazine
The magazine is the bible on music media brands with its influential ranked charts of top songs, top bands, and the top 100.
It provides 100 charts on the music industry on a weekly basis. The publication is international in scope. The top 100 ranking is probably the most notable ranking as it tracks the top 100 songs across all genres of music in terms of radio airplay, sales, and Internet streaming. The Top 200 tracks sales of albums.
Billboard Magazine did not start out tracking the music industry. The publication which was created by William H. Donaldson and James Hennegan began its life as a trade publication about bill posting. Eventually the publication expanded to billboards for the outdoor entertainment industry including amusement parks, live entertainment, circuses, carnivals, fairs and vaudeville shows. Coverage of the entertainment industry led to covering motion pictures and radio and to with the entrance of the jukebox in 1930, Billboard began its continuing coverage of the music industry.
In the beginning, there were only three types of music that was ranked. The original music charts were for pop, rhythm and blues and country and western. The entertainment and movie information was eventually dropped from Billboard publication into new publications. There are now international versions of Billboard in Brazil, Turkey and Chile.