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75-441: Kassem started Acoustic Sounds in 1986, initially running it solo out of a two-bedroom apartment. Precisely when CDs were being introduced to the public and people were dumping their LP records in favor of CDs, Kassem was purchasing collectible high-quality LPs and then reselling them via buy-sell-and-trade advertisements in various record collector and audiophile magazines. Kassem's record collection grew until he literally lived in

150-401: A Mozart concerto without having to flip over multiple, four-minute-per-side 78s, and that pop music fans, who were used to listening to one song at a time, would find the shorter time of the 10-inch LP sufficient. As a result, the 12-inch format was reserved solely for higher-priced classical recordings and Broadway shows . Popular music continued to appear only on 10-inch records. However, by

225-464: A "tent show" section covering traveling shows and a subsection called "Freaks to order". Donaldson also published news articles opposing censorship, supporting productions exhibiting good taste and decrying yellow journalism ." As railroads became more developed, Billboard enabled a mail-forwarding system for traveling entertainers. The location of an entertainer was tracked in the paper's Routes Ahead column, and then Billboard would receive mail on

300-499: A 30 cm diameter flexible plastic disc, with a duration of about ten minutes playing time per side. Victor's early introduction of a long-playing record was a commercial failure for several reasons including the lack of affordable, consumer playback equipment and consumer rejection during the Great Depression . These "Program Transcription" discs, as Victor called them, played at 33 + 1 ⁄ 3  rpm and used

375-540: A background in the music industry. Gervino was appointed editor-in-chief in April 2014. An NPR item covered a leaked version of Billboard ' s annual survey, which it said had more gossip and focused on less professional topics than had prior surveys. For example, the magazine polled readers on a lawsuit that singer Kesha filed against her producer, alleging sexual abuse. Gervino was fired in May 2016. A note from Min to

450-555: A dedicated section called Amusement Machines in March 1932. Billboard began covering the motion-picture industry in 1907 but, facing strong competition from Variety , centered its focus on music. It created a radio-broadcasting station in the 1920s. The jukebox industry continued to grow through the Great Depression and was advertised heavily in Billboard , which led to even more editorial focus on music. The proliferation of

525-421: A field of Vinyl records . LPs stacked in the living room, the bedrooms, the closets, the kitchen and finally even the bathroom. A small apartment shrunk to only a few pathways — one from the listening position to the kitchen; another from the listening room to the bathroom; and one to each of the bedrooms. Orders grew and Acoustic Sounds was born. That was 1988, and Kassem’s budding success allowed him to purchase

600-459: A four-bedroom, ranch-styled house. Initially, it even looked like a home. But soon came more records. They devoured the basement, where Kassem’s now full-time business had added a few employees. They started climbing the stairs and soon controlled the living room and bedroom. This time the bathrooms were spared, but little else in Kassem’s workplace and home escaped the vinyl. He hired more employees for

675-540: A high-tech firm for tracking music airtime. Private investors from Boston Ventures and BPI executives repurchased a two-thirds interest in Billboard Publications for $ 100 million, and more acquisitions followed. In 1993, it created a division known as Billboard Music Group for music-related publications. In 1994, Billboard Publications was sold to Dutch media conglomerate Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU) for $ 220 million. VNU acquired

750-446: A much larger groove, and played at approximately 78 revolutions per minute (rpm), limiting the playing time of a 12-inch diameter record to less than five minutes per side. The new product was a 12- or 10-inch (30 or 25 cm) fine-grooved disc made of PVC ("vinyl") and played with a smaller-tipped "microgroove" stylus at a speed of 33 + 1 ⁄ 3  rpm. Each side of a 12-inch LP could play for about 25 minutes, allowing for

825-622: A much quieter playing surface. These records could hold up to 15 minutes per side. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony , performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski , was the first 12-inch recording issued. Compton Pakensham, reviewing the event in The New York Times , wrote, "What we were not prepared for was the quality of reproduction ... incomparably fuller." CBS Laboratories head research scientist Peter Goldmark led Columbia's team to develop

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900-449: A pair of 2-LP sets, Puccini 's La Bohème (SL-1) and Humperdinck 's Hansel and Gretel (SL-2). All 12-inch pressings were of 220 grams vinyl. Columbia may have planned for the Bach album ML 4002 to be the first since the releases came in alphabetical order by composer (the first 54 LPS, ML 4002 thru ML 4055, are in order from Bach to Tchaikovsky ) Nathan Milstein was very popular in

975-461: A phonograph record that would hold at least 20 minutes per side. Although Goldmark was the chief scientist who selected the team, he delegated most of the experimental work to William S. Bachman, whom Goldmark had lured from General Electric, and Howard H. Scott . Research began in 1939, was suspended during World War II , and resumed in 1945. Columbia Records unveiled the LP at a press conference in

1050-584: A reissue label called Analogue Productions . Kassem contracted with record labels – majors and independents – and licensed the original analog master tapes of choice recordings. He then had those titles remastered and pressed on a superior grade of vinyl and then offered the finished product for sale through his Acoustic Sounds catalog and to wholesale accounts around the world. Analogue Productions now has more than 450 titles in print. Also during this time, in 1993, Kassem began APO Records (Analogue Productions Originals), an original record label focused on recording

1125-509: A set of self-study cassette tapes and four television franchises. It also acquired Photo Weekly that year. Over time, subjects that Billboard covered outside of the music world formed the basis of separate publications: Funspot magazine was created in 1957 to cover amusement parks and Amusement Business was created in 1961 to cover outdoor entertainment. In January 1961, Billboard was renamed Billboard Music Week to emphasize its newly exclusive interest in music. Two years later, it

1200-444: A shrinking workspace. Finally, when 18-wheelers started pulling up to Kassem’s residential address to deliver pallets, it was time to move. In 1991, Kassem scouted out a 3,500-square-foot former dance studio in this mid-sized Kansas downtown. At first the space was a dream. There was room for shelves to stock inventory. There was a conventional shipping-and-receiving area. But Acoustic Sounds continued to grow. In 1992, Kassem launched

1275-461: A somewhat finer and more closely spaced groove than typical 78 rpm records. They were to be played with a special "Chromium Orange" chrome-plated steel needle. The 10-inch discs, mostly used for popular and light classical music, were normally pressed in shellac, but the 12-inch discs, mostly used for "serious" classical music, were pressed in Victor's new vinyl-based "Victrolac" compound, which provided

1350-559: A total runtime of approximately 50 minutes. Despite some earlier experiments and attempts at commercial marketing, the Long Play format did not begin to enjoy commercial popularity until the early 1950s. Starting in 1926, the Edison Records company experimented with issuing Edison Disc Records in long play format of 24 minutes per side. The system and playback system (still mostly wind-up phonographs ) proved unreliable and

1425-481: A trade publication for the Broadway theatre industry called Backstage . In 1987, Billboard was sold again to Affiliated Publications for $ 100 million. Billboard Publications Inc. became a subsidiary of Affiliated Publications called BPI Communications. As BPI Communications, it acquired The Hollywood Reporter , Adweek , Marketing Week and Mediaweek , and also purchased Broadcast Data Systems ,

1500-506: Is considered one of the most reputable sources of music industry news. The website includes the Billboard Charts, news separated by music genre, videos and a separate website. It also compiles lists, hosts a fashion website called Pret-a-Reporter and publishes eight different newsletters. The print magazine's regular sections include: Billboard is known for publishing several annual listicles on its website, in recognition of

1575-530: The Billboard 200 , which tracks the top-selling albums, has become more popular as an indicator of commercial success. Billboard has also published books in collaboration with Watson-Guptill and a radio and television series called American Top 40, based on Billboard charts. A daily Billboard Bulletin was introduced in February 1997 and Billboard hosts about 20 industry events each year. Billboard

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1650-711: The Clio Awards in advertising and the National Research Group in 1997, as well as Editor & Publisher in 1999. In July 2000, it paid $ 650 million to the publisher Miller Freeman . BPI was combined with other entities in VNU in 2000 to form Bill Communications Inc. By the time CEO Gerald Hobbs retired in 2003, VNU had grown substantially larger, but had a great deal of debt from the acquisitions. An attempted $ 7 billion acquisition of IMS Health in 2005 prompted protests from shareholders that halted

1725-491: The Waldorf Astoria on June 21, 1948, in two formats: 10 inches (25 centimetres) in diameter, matching that of 78 rpm singles, and 12 inches (30 centimetres) in diameter. The initial release of 133 recordings were: 85 12-inch classical LPs (ML 4001 to 4085), 26 10-inch classics (ML 2001 to 2026), eighteen 10-inch popular numbers (CL 6001 to 6018), and four 10-inch juvenile records (JL 8001 to 8004). According to

1800-506: The album era . LP was originally a trademark of Columbia and competed against the smaller 7-inch sized "45" or "single" format by RCA Victor , eventually ending up on top. Today in the vinyl revival era, a large majority of records are based on the LP format and hence the LP name continues to be in use today to refer to new records. At the time the LP was introduced, nearly all phonograph records for home use were made of an abrasive (and therefore noisy ) shellac compound, employed

1875-531: The music industry . Its music charts include the Hot 100 , the 200 , and the Global 200 , tracking the most popular albums and songs in various music genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm and operates several television shows. Billboard was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegan's interest in 1900 for $ 500. In

1950-532: The "bible" of the recording industry. Billboard struggled after its founder William Donaldson died in 1925, and within three years, was once again heading towards bankruptcy . Donaldson's son-in-law Roger Littleford took command in 1928 and "nursed the publication back to health." His sons Bill and Roger became co-publishers in 1946 and inherited the magazine in the late 1970s after Littleford's death. They sold it to private investors in 1985 for an estimated $ 40 million. The investors cut costs and acquired

2025-432: The "microgroove" groove specification; and a vinyl (a copolymer of vinyl chloride acetate) composition disk. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire US record industry and, apart from a few relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound in 1957, it remained the standard format for record albums during a period in popular music known as

2100-688: The 1940s, however, so his performance of the Mendelssohn concerto was moved to ML 4001. When the LP was introduced in 1948, the 78 was the conventional format for phonograph records. By 1952, 78s still accounted for slightly more than half of the units sold in the United States, and just under half of the dollar sales. The 45 , oriented toward the single song, accounted for just over 30% of unit sales and just over 25% of dollar sales. The LP represented not quite 17% of unit sales and just over 26% of dollar sales. Ten years after their introduction,

2175-588: The 1949 Columbia catalog, issued September 1948, the first twelve-inch LP was Mendelssohn 's Concerto in E Minor by Nathan Milstein on the violin with the New York Philharmonic , conducted by Bruno Walter (ML 4001). Three ten-inch series were released: 'popular', starting with the reissue of The Voice of Frank Sinatra (CL 6001); 'classical', numbering from Beethoven's 8th symphony (ML 2001), and 'juvenile', commencing with Nursery Songs by Gene Kelly (JL 8001). Also released at this time were

2250-464: The 2010s and US vinyl sales in 2017 reached 15.6 million and 27 million for 2020. In 2022, US vinyl sales reached 41 million units, surpassing sales of the Compact Disc for the first time since 1987, once again making the LP the highest selling physical format there. Reel-to-reel magnetic tape recorders posed a new challenge to the LP in the 1950s, but the higher cost of pre-recorded tapes

2325-479: The APO Records titles are now pressed at QRP and the pressing plant also handles the jobs of several other record labels. On August 28, 2013, Acoustic Sounds launched SuperHiRez.com, an Internet site selling mainstream title high-resolution album downloads from major record labels, produced using Direct Stream Digital (DSD) as well as PCM audio formats. Uncompressed DSD technology results in music as close to

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2400-652: The APO titles have been recorded since 1998. The studio is also available for anyone to book session time and additionally is available for weddings. Kassem was photographed for the cover of Billboard magazine , a leading publication in the music industry, in a profile written by Chris Morris for the Aug. 17, 2002, issue titled "Audiophile Labels Put a New Spin On Vinyl." In 2004, Acoustic Sounds moved from their 6,000-square-foot warehouse to an 18,000-square-foot former grocery store. At

2475-682: The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, a unit of the holding company Eldridge Industries . Timothy White was appointed editor-in-chief in 1991, a position that he held until his unexpected death in 2002. White wrote a weekly column promoting music with "artistic merit" while criticizing music with violent or misogynistic themes, and also reworked the publication's music charts. Rather than relying on data from music retailers, new charts used data from store checkout scanners obtained by Nielsen SoundScan . White also wrote in-depth profiles on musicians, but

2550-551: The LP as a form—as an artistic entity, as they used to say—has complicated how we perceive and remember what was once the most evanescent of the arts", Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981). "The album may prove a '70s totem—briefer configurations were making a comeback by decade's end. But for the '70s it will remain the basic musical unit, and that's OK with me. I've found over

2625-470: The LPs and CDs for the limited space. So, after 10 years in the warehouse, it was time to move. In the meantime, Acoustic Sounds further branched into new musical endeavors with the addition of Blue Heaven Studios . In 1996, Kassem purchased an old Gothic-style church in downtown Salina. He initially planned to use the space for storage for Acoustic Sounds’ overflow inventory. But after recognizing how incredible

2700-480: The advent of sound film or "talkies", the need for greater storage space made 33 + 1 ⁄ 3  rpm records more appealing. Soundtracks – played on records synchronized to movie projectors in theatres – could not fit onto the five minutes per side that 78s offered. They were not an immediate success, however, as they were released during the height of the Great Depression, and seemed frivolous to

2775-413: The articles are written by staff writers, while some are written by industry experts. It covers news, gossip, opinion, and music reviews, but its "most enduring and influential creation" is the Billboard charts . The charts track music sales, radio airtime and other data about the most popular songs and albums. The Billboard Hot 100 chart of the top-selling songs was introduced in 1958. Since then,

2850-413: The church’s natural acoustics were, Kassem decided to outfit it as a state-of-the-art recording studio. After a significant financial investment, including completely new electrical service, the building of a control room and the outfitting of the church with modern recording equipment and microphones , Blue Heaven was born. Kassem also left the original pew and balcony seats in the church sanctuary and so

2925-476: The deal; it eventually agreed to an $ 11 billion takeover bid from investors in 2006. VNU changed its name to Nielsen in 2007, the namesake of a company that it had acquired for $ 2.5 billion in 1999. New CEO Robert Krakoff divested some of the previously owned publications, restructured the organization and planned some acquisitions before dying suddenly in 2007. He was subsequently replaced by Greg Farrar. Nielsen owned Billboard until 2009, when it

3000-418: The decision was made to shutdown Acoustic Sounds Super HiRez digital downloads service after seven years due to streaming continuing to eclipse downloading. LP record The LP (from long playing or long play) is an analog sound storage medium , specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of 33 + 1 ⁄ 3   rpm ; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of

3075-558: The early years of that technology, very expensive, so the use of LP-format transcription discs continued into the 1990s. The King Biscuit Flower Hour is a late example, as are Westwood One 's The Beatle Years and Doctor Demento programs, which were sent to stations on LP at least through 1992. In September 1931, RCA Victor launched the first commercially available vinyl long-playing record, marketed as "Program-Transcription" records. These revolutionary discs were designed for playback at 33 + 1 ⁄ 3  rpm and pressed on

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3150-520: The early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs and burlesque shows, and also created a mail service for travelling entertainers. Billboard began focusing more on the music industry as the jukebox , phonograph and radio became commonplace. Many topics that it covered became the subjects of new magazines, including Amusement Business in 1961 to cover outdoor entertainment, so that Billboard could focus on music. After Donaldson died in 1925, Billboard

3225-534: The editorial staff indicated that senior vice president of digital content Mike Bruno would head the editorial department. On June 15, 2016, BillboardPH , the first Billboard chart company in Southeast Asia, mainly in the Philippines, was announced. On September 12, 2016, Billboard expanded into China by launching Billboard China in partnership with Vision Music Ltd. On September 23, 2020, it

3300-516: The first female and youngest-ever executive editor at Billboard and led its first major redesign since the 1960s, designed by Daniel Stark and Stark Design. During Conniff's tenure, Billboard 's newsstand sales jumped 10%, ad pages climbed 22% and conference registrations rose 76%. In 2005, Billboard expanded its editorial outside the music industry into other areas of digital and mobile entertainment. In 2006, after leading Billboard's radio publication, former ABC News and CNN journalist Scott McKenzie

3375-399: The magazine on outdoor entertainment such as fairs, carnivals, circuses, vaudeville , and burlesque shows. A section devoted to circuses was introduced in 1900, followed by more prominent coverage of outdoor events in 1901. Billboard also covered topics including regulation, professionalism, economics and new shows. It had a "stage gossip" column covering the private lives of entertainers,

3450-411: The many impoverished of the time. It was not until "microgroove" was developed by Columbia Records in 1948 that Long Players (LPs) reached their maximum playtime, which has continued to modern times. Economics and tastes initially determined which kind of music was available on each format. Recording company executives believed upscale classical music fans would be eager to hear a Beethoven symphony or

3525-591: The master recording as possible and is the same technology employed in the manufacture of SACDs . Kassem said publicly he expected the service to offer as many as 500 titles by year-end. On September 4, 2013, Acoustic Sounds announced an agreement with Sony Music Entertainment to provide the company's new digital download service with albums that have been produced or remastered in Direct Stream Digital format. The deal followed an earlier agreement reached with Universal Music Group . On December 31, 2020,

3600-405: The mid-1950s, the 10-inch LP, like its similarly sized 78 rpm cousin, lost the format war and was discontinued. The close spacing of the spiral groove that allowed more playing time on a 33 + 1 ⁄ 3  rpm microgroove LP also allowed a faint pre-echo of upcoming loud sounds. The cutting stylus unavoidably transferred some of the subsequent groove's signal to the previous groove. It

3675-469: The most authentic and legendary blues artists still living. APO’s first title – Jimmy Rogers /Blue Bird – won the 1995 W.C. Handy Traditional Blues Album of the Year. APO Records as of 2011 had 43 titles available. By 1994, Acoustic Sounds had again outgrown its space. Kassem found a warehouse with enough room for his growing inventory and plenty of office space. There was a loading dock for the shipping. There

3750-568: The most influential executives, artists and companies in the music industry, such as the following: Since 1990 Billboard established the Billboard Music Awards , an awards ceremony honors top album, artist and single in a number of different music genres which achieved the highest results during the year form sales, streaming, radio airplay, touring, and social engagement. The data are taken from Billboard and its data partners, including MRC Data and Next Big Sound . Through

3825-868: The phonograph and radio also contributed to its growing music emphasis. Billboard published the first music hit parade on January 4, 1936 and introduced a Record Buying Guide in January 1939. In 1940, it introduced Chart Line, which tracked the best-selling records, and was followed by a chart for jukebox records in 1944 called Music Box Machine. By the 1940s, Billboard was more of a music-industry specialist publication. The number of charts that it published grew after World War II , as new music interests and genres became popular. It had eight charts by 1987, covering different genres and formats, and 28 charts by 1994. By 1943, Billboard had about 100 employees. The magazine's offices moved to Brighton, Ohio in 1946, then to New York City in 1948. A five-column tabloid format

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3900-420: The service was discontinued, Billboard was still processing 1,500 letters per week. In 1920, Donaldson controversially hired black journalist James Albert Jackson to write a weekly column devoted to black performers. According to The Business of Culture: Strategic Perspectives on Entertainment and Media , the column identified discrimination against black performers and helped validate their careers. Jackson

3975-475: The share of unit sales for LPs in the US was almost 25%, and of dollar sales 58%. Most of the remainder was taken up by the 45; 78s accounted for only 2% of unit sales and 1% of dollar sales. The popularity of the LP ushered in the " album era " of English-language popular music, beginning in the late 1950s, as performers took advantage of the longer playing time to create coherent themes or concept albums. "The rise of

4050-535: The space doubles as a concert hall . In August 1997, Jimmy Rogers performed the first concert at Blue Heaven. Beginning in 1998, Blue Heaven began hosting an annual two-night concert series called the Blues Masters at the Crossroads . Fans flock from around the world each October to see the most legendary lineup of Blues artists assembled. Blue Heaven also became the home of APO Records and is where all of

4125-407: The star's behalf and publish a notice in its Letter-Box column that it had mail for him or her. This service was first introduced in 1904 and became one of Billboard ' s largest sources of profit and celebrity connections. By 1914, 42,000 people were using the service. It was also used as the official address of traveling entertainers for draft letters during World War I . In the 1960s, when

4200-500: The time, billboards, posters, and paper advertisements placed in public spaces were the primary means of advertising. Donaldson handled editorial and advertising, while Hennegan, who owned Hennegan Printing Co., managed magazine production. The first issues were just eight pages long. The paper had columns such as The Bill Room Gossip and The Indefatigable and Tireless Industry of the Bill Poster. A department for agricultural fairs

4275-400: The time, the space seemed big enough to allow for as much growth as could possibly be foreseen. But just six years later, in 2010, Acoustic Sounds had once again outgrown its space. Kassem then purchased three buildings. All of the inventory was moved to a 28,000-square-foot warehouse. The office workers were moved to a 20,000-square-foot office building. The third building – 21,000 square feet –

4350-493: The top-selling format, over cassettes, in 1992. Along with phonograph records in other formats, some of which were made of other materials, LPs are now widely referred to simply as "vinyl". Since the late 1990s there has been a vinyl revival . Demand has increased in niche markets, particularly among audiophiles, DJs, and fans of indie music, but most music sales as of 2018 came from online downloads and online streaming because of their availability, convenience, and price. With

4425-432: The years that the long-playing record, with its twenty-minute sides and four-to-six compositions/performances per side, suits my habits of concentration perfectly." Although the popularity of LPs (as well as 45s) began to decline in the late 1970s with the advent of Compact Cassettes , and later compact discs , the LP survives as a format to the present day. Vinyl LP records enjoyed a resurgence in popularity throughout

4500-492: Was a commercial failure. By mid-1931 all motion picture studios were recording on optical soundtracks , but sets of soundtrack discs, mastered by dubbing from the optical tracks and scaled down to 12 inches to cut costs, were made as late as 1936 for distribution to theaters still equipped with disc-only sound projectors. Unless the quantity required was very small, pressed discs were a more economical medium for distributing high-quality audio than tape, and CD mastering was, in

4575-410: Was a large basement for overstock. The building was perfect for about eight years. But finally, records began to stack on and around employees’ desks, across the floor of what was supposed to be the shipping and receiving area and in every single corner of the building. Plus, Acoustic Sounds started to sell more equipment, which meant turntables , CD players , accessories and the like had to compete with

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4650-509: Was adopted in November 1950 and coated paper was first used in Billboard ' s print issues in January 1963, allowing for photojournalism. Billboard Publications Inc. acquired a monthly trade magazine for candy and cigarette machine vendors called Vend , and in the 1950s it acquired an advertising trade publication called Tide . By 1969, Billboard Publications Inc. owned 11 trade and consumer publications, Watson-Guptill Publications,

4725-574: Was announced that Penske Media Corporation would assume operations of the MRC Media & Info publications under a joint venture with MRC known as PMRC. The joint venture includes the management of Billboard . On January 13, 2024, Billboard shared the intent to further expand in Asia by announcing the launch of Billboard Korea . Billboard publishes a news website and weekly trade magazine that covers music, video and home entertainment. Most of

4800-540: Was discernible by some listeners throughout certain recordings, and a quiet passage followed by a loud sound would allow anyone to hear a faint pre-echo of the loud sound 1.8 seconds ahead of time. The following are some significant advances in the format: Billboard (magazine) Billboard (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation . The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to

4875-592: Was established in 1896. The Billboard Advertising publication was renamed The Billboard in 1897. After a brief departure over editorial differences, Donaldson purchased Hennegan's interest in the business in 1900 for $ 500 (equal to $ 15,100 today) to save it from bankruptcy. On May 5, Donaldson changed the publication from a monthly to a weekly paper with a greater emphasis on breaking news. He improved editorial quality and opened new offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London, and Paris, and also refocused

4950-515: Was greatly improved by better tape formulations and noise-reduction systems. By 1983, cassettes were outselling LPs in the US. The Compact Disc (CD) was introduced in 1982. It offered a recording that was, theoretically, almost noiseless and not audibly degraded by repeated playing or slight scuffs and scratches. At first, the much higher prices of CDs and CD players limited their target market to affluent early adopters and audiophiles ; but prices came down, and by 1988, CDs outsold LPs. The CD became

5025-475: Was inherited by his and Hennegan's children, who retained ownership until selling it to private investors in 1985. The magazine has since been owned by various parties. The first issue of Billboard was published in Cincinnati , Ohio by William Donaldson and James Hennegan on November 1, 1894. Initially it covered the advertising and bill-posting industry and was known as Billboard Advertising . At

5100-624: Was named editorial director across all Billboard properties. Conniff launched the Billboard Women in Music event in 2007. Bill Werde was named editorial director in 2008, and was followed by Janice Min in January 2014, also responsible for editorial content at The Hollywood Reporter . The magazine became more of a general-interest music-news source rather than solely an industry trade, covering more celebrity and fashion news. Min hired Tony Gervino as editor although he did not have

5175-556: Was one of eight publications sold to e5 Global Media Holdings. e5 was formed by investment firms Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners for the purpose of the acquisition. The following year, the new parent company was renamed Prometheus Global Media . Three years later, Guggenheim Partners acquired Pluribus' share of Prometheus and became the sole owner of Billboard . In December 2015, Guggenheim Digital Media spun out several media brands, including Billboard , to its own executive Todd Boehly . The assets operate under

5250-400: Was one of several factors that confined tape to a niche market. Cartridge and cassette tapes were more convenient and less expensive than reel-to-reel tapes, and they became popular for use in automobiles beginning in the mid-1960s. The LP was not seriously challenged as the primary medium for listening to recorded music at home until the 1970s, however, when the audio quality of the cassette

5325-419: Was renamed to simply Billboard . According to The New Business Journalism , by 1984, Billboard Publications was a "prosperous" conglomerate of trade magazines, and Billboard had become the "undisputed leader" in music-industry news. In the early 1990s, Billboard introduced Billboard Airplay Monitors , a publication for disc jockeys and music programmers. By the end of the 1990s, Billboard dubbed itself

5400-469: Was replaced by Keith Girard, who was subsequently fired in May 2004. Girard and a female employee filed a $ 29 million lawsuit alleging that Billboard fired them unfairly with an intent to damage their reputations and that they experienced sexual harassment, a hostile work environment and a financially motivated lack of editorial integrity. Email evidence suggested that human resources were given special instructions to watch minority employees. The case

5475-411: Was settled out of court in 2006 for an undisclosed sum. In the 2000s, economic decline in the music industry dramatically reduced readership and advertising from Billboard ' s traditional audience. Circulation declined from 40,000 in circulation in the 1990s to less than 17,000 by 2014. The publication's staff and ownership were also undergoing frequent changes. In 2004, Tamara Conniff became

5550-498: Was the first black critic at a national magazine with a predominantly white audience. According to his grandson, Donaldson also established a policy against identifying performers by their race. Donaldson died in 1925. Billboard ' s editorial content changed focus as technology in recording and playback developed, covering "marvels of modern technology" such as the phonograph and wireless radios. The magazine began covering coin-operated entertainment machines in 1899 and created

5625-485: Was used to launch the latest Acoustic Sounds venture, Quality Record Pressings (QRP), a modern record pressing plant. QRP operates three different kinds of record presses and has equipped each with pioneering modifications, including adding microprocessors to the presses so that they will cycle based on temperature rather than the less accurate cycling by time. All of the Analogue Productions reissues and

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