Similar Music Magazines Research

History and Background Information

•Top of the Pops magazine is a monthly publication published by BBC Magazines. It features chart information, star gossip, fashion and beauty advice, quizzes, song lyrics and posters. It is a supplementary magazine for the TV show Top of the Pops.

•The brand identity of this magazine is a happy, cheery, pop music, commercialised, pre-teen magazine. It is aimed at a younger market interested in pop music, celebrities and "teen stars“ in the C2 to E demographic audience.

•The magazine was launched in February 1995, and is famous for giving girl group The Spice Girls their nicknames. Alongside a revamp of the TV show. It was originally marketed as the missing link between Smash Hits and NME, but its format was gradually changed, with less music content and a demographic shift to young girls. It is still in publication despite the cancellation of the TV show.

•The title has had several editors over the years, including Peter Lorraine, Corinna Schaffer and Rosalie Snaith, and contributing editors including Adam Tanswell. Its’ current editor is Peter Hart.

Cover Price £3.99

Frequency 4 Weekly

Circulation 98,030

Readership 298,000

Boys 15%

Girls 85%

Age range 11-15 years

Covers

• The cover of ‘Top of the Pops’ always use a main image of a famous pop artist or celebrity as they are well known to the target audience. Therefore, they are immediately attracted to the magazine and want to find out more about the featured artist.

• The artists on the cover of the magazine, usually tend to be smiling and have direct eye contact with the reader. This connotes a bubbly and happy mood which is associated with pop music.

• Many artists that feature in the magazine are: Jessie J, Miley Cyrus, Cheryl Cole, JLS, The Wanted, The Saturdays, Justin Bieber and many more.

Things that feature in every issue of Top of the Pops:

•Oops, Shameful Celeb Slip Ups—The magazine picks the funniest celebrity pictures and associates them with a witty quote •Your Oops—Readers send in the most shameful stories •Gossip 2 Go—The month's hottest celebrity gossip •Shayne's World—The X Factor series 2 winner Shayne Ward takes us over what goes on in his world •Don't Miss—The magazine picks some of the hottest films, TV programmes and games, plus the latest single reviews by a random celebrity. •Top Of The Shops—The magazine picks out some of the hottest bargains, where you can buy them, and their price •Real Life—The magazine draws our attention to situations that happen in the real world •The Surgery—Originally called Star Therapy, this was hosted by a random celebrity who tries to sort out readers' problems. Along with the name change, the section is now hosted by BBC Radio 1's Aled and BBC Slink's Dr Mel. •Your Letters—Hosted by Dick and Dom who take a look at some of our readers' gossip about stars, clothes or just real life situations. • Images and gossip of pop artists

Source- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops_(magazine)

Content

Website

The website is just for readers who want to find out more about the magazine. There is a ‘Contact Us’ section, where it allows the reader to contact the magazine via many different methods.

Bright colours like yellow and pink used which attracts the audience as it stands out and connotes happiness.

A ‘Free Gossip Email’ lure which is used to attract the audience and uses images to get them to ‘Sign Up Now’

http://www.totpmag.com/

History

Billboard was founded in Cincinnati on November 1, 1894, by William h. Donaldson and James Hennegan. Originally titled Billboard Advertising it 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.

With the development of the jukebox industry during the 1930s, The Billboard began publishing music charts. Originally, there were only three genre-specific charts: Pop, Rhythm & Blues, and Country & Western. In the 1950s it introduced a section covering the television industry, including ratings charts for programs. It continued to carry news of fairs, carnivals, theme parks and other outdoor entertainments until 1961 when these departments were spun off into a new weekly magazine called Amusement Business. By this time the television coverage had also been moved to another publication.

At the start of 1961, The Billboard was renamed Billboard Music Week. The publication was now devoted almost entirely to the music industry, with some coverage of coin-operated vending and entertainment machines on its jukebox pages. The title was changed to simply Billboard at the start of 1963. In 2005, the magazine and its web sites were repositioned to provide coverage of all forms of digital and mobile entertainment.

Amusement Business prospered for a few decades, but was struggling by the beginning of the 21st Century. Shortly after then its frequency of publication was reduced to monthly, and it finally ceased publication following its May 2006 issue.

Target Audience: Billboard is a chart magazine which features artists, albums and music from a wide range of genres. Therefore the audience has a a wide age range, however the niche audience for Billboard is -15-30 years old as they magazine advertises new, chart hits.

Source- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_(magazine)

Covers

•

• The cover of ‘Billboard’ always use a main image of a famous artists and celebrities as they are well known to the target audience. Therefore, they are immediately attracted to the magazine and want to find out more about the featured artist.

• The artists on the cover of the magazine, usually tend to be smiling and have direct eye contact with the reader. This makes the audience feel more invited and personal.

•Many artists that feature in the magazine are: Jessie J, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Drake, Trey Songz and many more. This shows that the magazine is a chart magazine as they use artists from different genres of music. The readers can also tell that the magazine is from the USA, as they use many USA artists on the cover, however these artists are still popular in the UK too.

Content• Billboard currently puts out over 100 charts each week, the most popular ones

being Hot 100, Billboard 200, and Hot 100 Airplay. • On January 4, 1936 The Billboard published its first music hit parade, and on

July 20, 1940 the first Music Popularity Chart was calculated. Since August 4, 1958, the Hot 100 has been published, combining single sales and radio airplay.

• They also feature many reviews on the latest albums, hits and gigs.• News and videos on recent artists and bands.Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_(magazine) and http://www.billboard.com

Website

Images of different genres of artists which represents the different genres of music Billboard is aimed at.

Source: http://www.billboard.com

They have hyperlinks at the top mention ‘Charts’, ‘News’. ‘Video’ and ‘Reviews’. This shows that ‘Billboard’ is a chart music magazine and has lots of information on the page to inform the readers on music artists.

The website use lures like, ‘Connect with Billboard.com’ and ‘Join Billboard’ to attract the readers.