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Best Music News, Online
December 22, 2001
Stephen Scovil
The world of music entertainment spins faster than the world itself. New songs, albums and artists come out every week, waiting to be picked up and listened to.
With so many constant changes, just how are people supposed to keep up?
Fortunately for the music listeners of the world, there's Billboard. The popular music magazine has graced the Internet with their web site at www.billboard.com.
Billboard.com brings the top news from the music industry to the Internet reader, set out like a newspaper. The first thing you'll see when you visit the page is the headline and picture for the top story, along with the headline of other daily news right below, which varies from news about music specials to announcements of bands breaking up.
Catch up on the news from the past weeks by clicking on the title, "More Daily Music News". Clicking on any of the listed headlines will bring up the article on that subject.
Below the daily news is a section dedicated to reviews and previews of new and upcoming products. Check out "Hot Products" to get an overview of the big album releases with views from the artists about their albums!
Click on "Reviews" to get professional reviews of the latest albums, to help you save your cash for the more worthy releases.
Of course the area Billboard has always been famous for has been their "Billboard 200", their detailed list of the top albums of that week based on sales. Clicking "Billboard 200" on the left bar will take you to the top 100 albums of that week, (viewing all 200 requires a membership). The albums are listed from the top seller of that week, down to the 100th bestseller of that week. The list provides the place of the album that week, the previous week, the number of weeks on chart and that album's peak position on the top 200. If this information isn't enough, it also provides icons to mark assorted certifications for number of units shipped, greatest sales gain for that week and other achievements, all explained in the legend at the bottom of the page.
Along with the classic "Billboard 200" there are a number of other charts to view, charts for individual genres, a chart for Internet sales, independent albums, and "No. 1 in Billboard", a list of all the #1 albums of each chart. All these are located right underneath the "Billboard 200" link. If you look further below these you'll find a list of singles and air play charts for various genres, plus another "No. 1 in Billboard" for singles at the bottom.
So whatever your musical style, be sure to surf onto Billboard.com. They're sure to have something of interest for everyone.
Stephen Scovil is the Community Access Program member who staffs the public access computers at the Brownsville branch of the Oxford County Library.
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