Billboard Magazine: Music Magazine Research

'Billboard magazine is the world's most influential music media brands; reaching key executives and taste makers in and around the music business through Billboard Magazine. The Billboard brand is built on its exclusive charts and unrivalled reporting on the latest news, issues and trends across all genres of music.'

Billboard magazine target audience is intended for music professionals, such as record label executives, artists, music retailers, and radio DJs. It is generally considered a business-to-business magazine however, it can be found at many consumer book stores and magazine stands, especially in cities with a large music industry presence such as New York, Los Angeles,  and Miami

This magazine is extremely successful within the magazine industry today due to its up to date music related news and contents. The house style always include's the 'Billboard' masthead which is normally placed behind a popular musician which is in the eye of the media due to their hit singles. The use of colour and font is effectively used depending on the issue to help attract the right target audience as seen in the example Billboard covers below. 

This billboard magazine cover shows the ‘Billboard’ masthead placed behind the model drawing your eye to her. The model is Rihanna; a hugely iconic celebrity known for her individual style and chart music. The cover attracts the male gaze as Rihanna is wearing limited clothing revealing her stomach and arms. Her eyes are directly staring in to the camera which gives the impression that she is staring at you. The main head line; ‘the world is hers’ is in large capitals and italic font drawing the readers eye

This billboard masthead immediately stands out in this issue. The model, Beyoncé, is placed behind the masthead, again attracting the male gaze due to her subtly seductive posing. Her eyes again seem to be looking into the camera to give the readers the impression that she is starring at you. The picture captures Beyoncé’s iconic look which is her big lioness-look hair. The magazine uses very neutral colour which draws the reader’s attention to the mast head which uses a variety of bright colours including green, yellow, red and blue. Beyoncé’s name is in the main headline beneath her face drawing you to her name which would appeal to any Beyonce fans.  

 

 This billboard magazine cover continues the housestyle with the Billboard masthead behind Usher whom is modelling. Usher is a popular artist; this issue would attract many of his fans. He is wearing a blue jacket which contrasts with the black writing. Blue is also a male colour attracting a target audience of boys. 'Dirty Dancing with the hit man', this puff instantly draws audience in through the use of alliteration and it leaves them wanting to read more on the article.