Billboard is a weekly American
magazine devoted to the
music industry. It maintains several internationally recognized
music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis. Among the two most important charts, the
Billboard Hot 100 ranks the top 100 songs regardless of genre and is frequently used as the standard measure for ranking songs in the United States, while the
Billboard 200 survey is the corresponding chart for
album sales.
When founded in Cincinnati in 1894, Billboard Advertising magazine was a trade paper for the bill posting industry, hence the magazine's name. Within a few years of its founding, it began to carry news of outdoor amusements, a major consumer of billboard space. Eventually Billboard became the paper of record for circuses, carnivals, amusement parks, fairs, vaudeville, minstrels, whale shows and other live entertainment. The magazine began coverage of motion pictures in 1909 and of radio in the 1920s.
First Issue
Christmas, 1896
