Billboard Magazine Analysis & Background Research

• Billboard magazine is different from other types of magazines because it is a company that is known all over the world. It has a weekly chart in America and most Americans see it as a symbol of the music industry. Billboard magazine largely features artists who specialise with an RnB background. Billboard has the most up to date songs and specialises in the singles and album charts. Not only this but they also interview artists and look at new artists. The atrists that feature on the cover of Billboard have a major conglomarate company behind them that enables them to be able to be viewed by millions and are recognised by the magazines fan base. The magazine has a youthful audience that takes notice of new songs and new artists and is intrested in the newest songs.The company takes note of this and frequently use The Nielsen Soundscan survey that measures which songs are most popular; they do this by looking at which songs where the most played on radio and the sales of the singles. The results are then put together to be published by Billboard every thursday.
  
  
• Although the magazine itself features widely R&B artists the Billboard 100 singles and Billboard 200 album charts use artists regardless of what genre the artist specialises in. Billboard have managed to move their way thorough the music industry and now cover a wide are of industries such as radio, downloads, CD's and television.
  
  

• The Title is in white and has a dark to light tone but is clearly visible. The title is the largest wording on the page although the artist on the cover is covering the mid part of the magazine name. This is ok as most will know the company (institution) distributing the magazine and will instantly recognise it. People may not be buying because of the magazine company but because of the artist also, as the artist is selling the magazine to the audience.
• The colours used on the magazine are restricted to around four. This makes the magazine look quite sophisticated as there is not lots of colour all over the place and is placed in certain areas for different parts of the magazine to stand out. It is used very cleverly to point out different parts of the magazine.
• The background uses different tones going from dark to light brown/ orange-yellow tones. It is in correlation to the summer tone of the magazine, there is also a banner saying ‘chart heat’ which goes with the theme of the magazine.
• The picture is mid – close up of artist Keyshia Cole. The picture takes up most of the page and talks about what she is going to do next. The Sub Headline says ‘new album’ and ‘big BET show’, this tells us that she is very much in the public eye and many people will have recognised her. Her name is the main headline and is large. It is in white which is noticeable against the background.
• The price and date of the magazine is shown in the bottom left of the magazine and is in white so is clearly visible against the dark background. It also says the other information about the company like website e.t.c.
• There are other headlines relating to other stars and what is featured in the magazine. Other celebrities include singer Pink and David Cook. It offers people who may like other types of music and not particularly RnB something else. This means that the company can broaden their audience and make more money.
• The barcode is on the back of the magazine.