Music industry trade magazine
Cashbox
Categories
| Music industry
,
trade magazine
|
---|
First issue
| July 1942
; 81 years ago
(
1942-07
)
(original version)
2006
(
2006
)
(revival)
|
---|
Final issue
| November 16, 1996
; 27 years ago
(
1996-11-16
)
(original version)
|
---|
Country
| United States
|
---|
Based in
| Kennedy, Alabama
, U.S.
|
---|
ISSN
| 0008-7289
|
---|
Cashbox
, also known as
Cash Box
, is an American
music industry
trade magazine
, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as
Cashbox Magazine
, an
online magazine
with weekly charts and occasional special print issues.
[1]
In addition to the music industry, the magazine covered the
amusement arcade
industry, including
jukebox
machines and
arcade games
.
History
[
edit
]
Print edition charts (1952?1996)
[
edit
]
Cashbox
was one of several magazines that published
record charts
in the United States. Its most prominent competitors were
Billboard
and
Record World
(known as
Music Vendor
prior to April 1964). Unlike
Billboard
,
Cashbox
combined all currently available recordings of a song into one chart position with artist and label information shown for each version, alphabetized by label. Originally, no indication of which version was the biggest seller was given, but from October 25, 1952, a star was placed next to the names of the most important artists.
Cashbox
also printed shorter jukebox charts that included specific artist data beginning in spring 1950. Separate charts were presented for
jukebox
popularity,
record sales
and radio
airplay
. This was similar to
Billboard
'
s methodology prior to August 1958, when
Billboard
debuted its "
Hot 100
", which attempted to combine all measures of popularity into one all-encompassing chart. In addition,
Cashbox
published chart data for specific genres, such as
country music
and
R&B
music. In 1960,
Cashbox
discontinued its R&B chart after the March 5 issue; it was reinstated in the December 17 issue due to popular demand. The chart was originally dropped because it became dominated by
pop
records.
[2]
Cashbox
was a competitor to
Billboard
through the 1950s and 1960s, but two factors spelled its decline in 1970. Archivist and record historian
Joel Whitburn
published his first research book based on the
Billboard
Hot 100
,
which made that data the "Bible" for official historic chart positions. In addition, the syndicated radio series
American Top 40
with
Casey Kasem
used
Billboard
chart statistics, cementing
Billboard
as the dominant chart data for current and historic reference. Magazine publisher George Albert compiled
Cashbox
chart data for a reference book more than a decade later, and
Dick Clark
used
Cashbox
information for a time on his
National Music Survey
, beginning in 1981. However, by that time, the trend was set.
Perhaps the final straw for
Cashbox
came on December 12, 1992, when the Top 100 chart reported the number one song as "
The Letter
" by
Wayne Newton
. The song did not even make the bottom of any
Billboard
chart, nor was it reported to be in the top ten by local radio charts or sales reports. This called the magazine's integrity into question.
Cashbox
lost considerable credibility within the industry after this, with accusations of chart fixing. No official findings of the Newton incident were ever revealed.
Cashbox
would subsequently print its final consecutive chart of this era in November 1996.
In 2003, the former
Cashbox Magazine
became involved in a murder trial after police in Nashville, Tennessee, made an arrest in a 1989
cold case
. Kevin Hughes was a small-town boy from southeastern Illinois who spent his childhood focused on music and creating his own country music charts. As a young man of 22, Hughes thought he had landed his dream job in Nashville as the chart director for
Cashbox
'
s country music chart for up-and-coming artists. He compiled data from jukebox plays, record sales, and radio play to determine the
Cashbox
chart positions of various country music records. He reportedly was looking to introduce more scientific and transparent methods of determining chart positions, when a year into his job, he was gunned down in the street late one night on Nashville's famous
Music Row
. After years of investigation, police arrested his former
Cashbox
coworker, Richard D'Antonio, for the murder. Prosecutors maintained the killing was in connection with a
payola
scheme where record promoter Chuck Dixon paid
Cashbox
employees for favorable chart positions and other publicity. A Dixon client was once named
Cashbox
'
s "Male Vocalist of the Year" without having sold a single record. Hughes was reportedly killed for not going along with the chart-fixing scheme. D'Antonio, a
Cashbox
employee associated with Dixon, was convicted of
first degree murder
in 2003 and died in prison in 2014. Dixon had already died a few years prior to D'Antonio's arrest.
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
Online magazine (2006?present)
[
edit
]
Cash Box
was reinvented as the online-only
Cashbox Magazine
in 2006, with the consent and cooperation of the family of Albert, the late president and publisher of the original edition.
Cashbox
has occasionally issued special print editions.
As of April 2015
[update]
,
Cashbox Magazine
has added the following music charts: Roots Music,
Bluegrass
Singles, Bluegrass
Gospel
Singles, Beach Music Top 40, Roadhouse Blues and Boogie Top 40, Country Christian Top 100 Singles and
Southern Gospel
Singles. The online magazine also relaunched the Looking Ahead Charts on March 1, 2015, covering all genres of music. The
Cashbox
Top 100 has been expanded to the Top 200. All chart data for the main
Cashbox
charts is provided by Digital Radio Tracker.
Sandy Graham is the owner, editor in chief and CEO of
Cashbox Canada
, an independent music trade in
Toronto
, Canada. Shane and Robert Bartosh control the Roots data. Bruce Elrod is the owner and remains the registered agent for
Cashbox
, which is now operated from
Ridgeway, South Carolina
.
[7]
The current owners of
Cashbox
met with Wilds & Associates co-founder and CEO Randall Wilds in 2018 to discuss business relations. Wilds acquired interest in
Cashbox Magazine
and a partnership was formed. As a result, Wilds & Associates became the publisher for
Cashbox.
While the digital/online edition remains intact,
Cashbox
returned to a printed edition as a bi-monthly publication beginning with their November/December 2018 issue, featuring country music artist
Blake Shelton
on the cover. In addition to being the publisher for
Cashbox,
Wilds & Associates also serves as the distributor of the publication. Since returning to a print edition, a new website was unveiled in late 2021. The new site
[1]
offers readers a preview of each issue, music news, and subscription information.
Archives
[
edit
]
In 2014, Whitburn's Record Research Inc. published a history of the
Cash Box
singles chart data covering October 1952 through the 1996 demise of the original magazine.
[8]
Randy Price maintains the original
Cash Box
data for the online archives.
[9]
The
Swem Library
at
The College of William and Mary
[10]
maintains the archive of the original print editions of
Cash Box
magazine. The print editions were digitized in collaboration with the Internet Archive, via a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.
[11]
Charts described
[
edit
]
The Looking Ahead chart was the
Cash Box
equivalent to the Bubbling Under charts of
Billboard
. It commenced on October 3, 1959 with 20 positions. By April 29, 1961 the magazine had 50 positions and maintained that format during the 1960s. During the 1970s, it was in the 20-30 position format until its cessation on February 27, 1982. It recommenced on August 4, 1990, with 15 positions until its final cessation on March 27, 1993.
[12]
[13]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Cashbox Magazine"
. cashboxmagazine.com. Archived from
the original
on March 20, 2014
. Retrieved
22 March
2014
.
- ^
"R&B Chart Returns"
(PDF)
.
Cash Box
: 38. December 17, 1960.
- ^
Patterson, Jim (September 23, 2003).
"Ex-Record Promoter's Murder Trial Starts"
.
Associated Press
. Retrieved
2 September
2022
.
- ^
"The Dark Side of Nashville's Music Business"
.
ABC News
. Nov 10, 2003
. Retrieved
2 September
2022
.
- ^
Nicholson, Jessica (September 18, 2014).
"Man Convicted in 1989 Music Row Murder Dies"
.
MusicRow
. Retrieved
2 September
2022
.
- ^
"Guilty Verdict Returned in Music Row Murder"
.
CMT
. September 26, 2003
. Retrieved
2 September
2022
.
- ^
"Business Profile for Cashbox Magazine, Inc"
.
Better Business Bureau
. Archived from
the original
on Jun 27, 2018.
- ^
Whitburn, Joel
(2014).
Cash Box Pop Hits 1952?1996
. Record Research Inc.
ISBN
978-0898202090
.
- ^
Price, Randy (ed.).
"Archives"
.
Cashbox Magazine
. Retrieved
20 May
2023
.
- ^
"Cash Box"
. The W&M Digital Archive
. Retrieved
22 March
2014
.
- ^
"CASH BOX Music Magazine to Come Online | Internet Archive Blogs"
. 11 March 2016
. Retrieved
2023-04-26
.
- ^
Joel Whitburn's Record Research -
Cash Box Looking Ahead 1959-1993
- ^
The Hits Just Keep On Comin', FEBRUARY 9, 2021 -
Superstars and Not
External links
[
edit
]
Look up
cashbox
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
|
---|
1950?1969
| |
---|
1970?1989
| |
---|
1990?1996
| |
---|