
If you wrote for Billboard, you had made it. You were at the uppermost end of the trade. People in the biz at the highest level would take your calls. PRs would stalk you for a story about the acts or executives they were representing. You got invited to the best gigs and after-parties. You were part of the music biz establishment. For many of us it remains the best gig in the world. The rewards were high, and the gratification to work for such a biblical institution meant the world to those in the cathedral. You knew you were read by the most influential people in the biz – and you had influence.

The business side seems to almost be an afterthought and is getting less and less thoroughly covered, and since many of the magazine’s veteran writers have left, the publication has lost a sense of history and isn't capable of putting news in its context.
In the 1990s, when the magazine was edited by the late Timothy White, Billboard held on to its mission to be the business paper of reference for the industry. He was a man of passion who understood the business and he would challenge his troupes to provide the best stories before anyone did.

How long will it take before the print edition will be confined to the history of trade press? If this happens, it will definitely mark the end of an era. But let's hope we won't get there. As Woody Allen once said, "More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly."
That could quite nicely sum up Billboard's future...
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