Research page: Billboard

Billboard is a news magazine dedicated to music and the music industry.

It runs and maintains internationally recognised music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in different categories weekly.

The average reader of Billboard magazine earns $212k+ a year, is a college graduate and comes from a variety of jobs, from an artist to a financer.

Billboard has an online readership of people. 45% of readers save their billboard magazine so they can refer to it later in the year and keep it close at hand.

 Billboard have a Facebook, Instagram, twitter, tumblr, pinterest, and a newsletter, this appeals to the younger generation as they are online a lot more than the older generation, and as this magazine is geared mainly towards the younger age group, this is ideal to have lots of platforms that they can be contacted on and see what is popular with their readers.

Billboard reaches out to other readers who aren't necessarily in their readership profile by including a variety of artists and have a very large gallery of photos online for people to look at that aren't necessarily taken by photographers from the magazine.

This provides a way for people to monitor their favourite artists through Billboard and keep up to date with gossip. This is a useful feature because some people aren't on social media sites such as twitter and instagram and want to keep up to date with information about their favourite artists. 

They also include a lot of artists on their magazine that also aren't in the news all the time. So there is a page with the latest information about the artist. This feature attracts more people to the website rather than the magazine to gain other readers, and perhaps to invite other readers into buying the magazine.

Billboard also monitor the charts to track what songs are most popular, this aspect makes them very popular with those who want to keep up to date with music download what songs are most popular at the time and be able to keep up with the trends in music.

The front cover of this issue is almost devoid of colour, with only the occasional yellow thrown in to make it stand out. However the title of the magazine still has its stylized font with the colours filling in the middle of the letters. The background behind Taylor Swift is completely black, making her stand out.

The image of Taylor Swift is in black and white. This is contrasting the type of music that she produces, as it’s usually upbeat, country music. However, this image reflects the perception that the journalist might take writing about her in the magazine.
the representation of Taylor Swift has her looking quite demure and vulnerable, she's covered up which means that she looks innocent. However she is looking directly at the camera which means that it's quite upfront which matches the main cover line, of her growing up in public and also breaking out of the idea of innocence with her music.

The title of the Music artist is large and takes up quite a bit of space on the cover. It’s in white which contrasts the black background and makes it stand out. It’s also rather high up on the page so when viewed in a rack full of magazines, the first thing the reader sees is the title, which might attract them because they are a regular reader of billboard, or just because the bright colours stand out, the next thing that the reader would see is the name Taylor Swift and that would attract a lot of people as Taylor Swift has a large fan base, and might be enticed into buying the magazine because it has her in it.

There is a caption underneath her name, which introduces the take that the journalist has on her life. “Grows up in public” tells the audience that this feature is going to focus on her public image and how life is harder growing up in front of cameras and in the public eye. This ties in with the image as it is in black and white which might reflect how she felt growing up.

There’s a flash at the top that your eye is drawn to after the image of Taylor Swift. About the “Women in music 2010” this is linked to the image of Taylor Swift as it convinces readers of the magazine, and fans of Taylor Swift to vote for her in the awards. And also includes the page number that it’s on so that the reader doesn’t have to look at the contents page and can go straight to voting and then see what else is in the magazine. It is also in the theme colour of yellow on the page, which draws the readers eye and entices them to vote.

The smaller flash included at the side of the magazine about the Windows phone is an attraction to those who don’t necessarily listen to Taylor Swifts music and buy billboard magazine for the technology that it features and it’s reviews. The title of the flash “Get Smart” tells the reader that knowing about the Windows phone 7 is common knowledge and being smart means that you know about the Windows phone. This is an attraction to those interested in the windows phone but is also an exaggeration as being smart doesn't necessarily mean that you know everything about the Windows phone 7.

Another music artist is included on the cover.  The words “Cee Lo” are boxed in yellow as to stand out against the black background. Then the captions underneath that say “Not just a one” with that crossed out but a “two hit wonder” This shows the type of story they are trying to produce with Cee Lo Greens music, that he isn’t something to just brush off, his music is influential and he’s not an artist to be written off.

The magazine is also promoting new music and trying to get the reader's attention about the new band that they are showing. This is a business attraction as new bands might look at the cover and try and pay Billboard magazine to promote them on the front cover. This also has a link to the website as they can write an online article and provide a link as to where you can buy the music, this will get readers online more to check out content not included in the magazine, therefore is a profit for both the band and those who own Billboard.

The cover also includes the links to their online pages, this might be for first time readers, who read the magazine and enjoy it and maybe want to see what they have online, or to check out material that wasn't included in the magazine, like Empire magazine that has exclusive content in their iPad edition and for those who subscribe get exclusive material.

If you compare to any of the other magazines there are some differences in terms of layout. The cover lines are smaller and there is a lot more blank spaces that aren't filled on this cover compared to a cover produced by a magazine such as NME.
The audience of the magazine might be people that are regular readers of Billboard magazine and also fans of Taylor Swift or one of either. Based on the genre of the magazine as being more of an pop, R&B/hip hop and Country, a lot of people would already have listened to country music therefore would have listened to music like Taylor Swift's.

Contents page analysis:

Billboard's contents page is distinctive due to the logo in the top corner which isn't too large but does tell the reader that it's from the magazine. The contents page has a distinctive title as the font ties in with the style of the magazine.

There are some images on the page that make it look a little bit more exciting instead of just a informative page that tells the page numbers.

Some of the page numbers are included on the images. There are members of a band and a solo artist that have just the numbers included on their image, this tells the reader that these features are important and are hinted at on the front page, which means that their picture is recognisable to fans of the band/artist.

the largest feature included on the contents page is the "Christmas in July" feature because it's an odd type of article to have as a main feature and also because Christmas in July wouldn't happen and intrigues the reader to read on and discover why Christmas is in July. 

the largest image is of Hayley Williams , who is a very well known rock star part of the band named Paramore. She is a well known and loved by lots of people due to her bubbly personality and exciting style. The image of her featured on the contents page reflects that happy and bubbly personality that's often shown on  her performances and her interviews. Therefore it's the largest image, probably because there was an image of her on the front cover meaning that she is the biggest feature in the magazine.

Double page spread analysis:

This double page spread featured in Billboard is particularly interesting because there is a certain type of flare to the double page spread.

The background to the writing is on a purple background rather than a white or black background. Purple is an unusual colour to have an article on because there might be elements of other pictures that have purple in them. Also unlike other double page spreads the image doesn't spread across more than one page. The image of Beyonce is exclusively on one page while the writing is on another.

However the title does spread across the page onto the background of the image. Showing that there is a focus more on information rather than a visual double page spread. The title and the fact that this is featured on a woman of the year spread, means that there is a positive outlook on Beyonce in this article.

The image of Beyonce is very iconic because it is looking right at the reader suggesting a fierce and upfront approach to the article, she has metal over her obstructing a part if her face that makes her seem like she may be hiding something; however if we look at the title of the article, "Fiercely creative" it has another meaning to it, the metal has been constructed in an artistic way to show Beyonce in a creative way and an artist in a sense that she has constructed the metal the same way she constructs her music. the makeup that Beyonce is wearing is also part of the fierce persona that is being portrayed in the image. The smoky and high arched eyebrows show that there is a eerie and mysterious element to the singer.

Beyonce has also been featured in this article as "Woman of the year" Which means that this edition of the magazine would have been special as it was announcing the Woman of the year article. This means that people might have specifically bought the magazine to read the article and find out who the woman of the year is.