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| Cash Box (magazine) | |
|---|---|
| Title | Cash Box |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Publisher | The Cash Box Publishing Co. |
| Firstdate | 1942 |
| Finaldate | 1996 (print) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Cash Box (magazine) was an American music industry trade publication that chronicled the recording, jukebox, radio, and retail sectors of popular music across the mid-20th century. Founded in 1942 and published weekly, it provided charts, reviews, industry analysis, and trade news that tracked careers, labels, venues, and technological shifts within popular music. The magazine competed with contemporaries and became a primary source for information on singles, albums, and jukebox performance during the swing, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, disco, and early hip hop eras.
Cash Box was established in 1942 by the Cash Box Publishing Company amid a landscape populated by Billboard, Variety (magazine), and DownBeat. Early issues emphasized jukebox payola, Columbia Records, Decca Records, Victor Talking Machine Company catalogs, and wartime sheet music trends tied to World War II mobilization. During the postwar period Cash Box covered the rise of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and the development of rhythm and blues scenes in cities such as Memphis, Tennessee, Detroit, Chicago, and New Orleans. In the 1950s and 1960s Cash Box reported on the emergence of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and the British Invasion, tracking label activity at Sun Studio, Abbey Road Studios, and Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. complex. The magazine expanded coverage through the 1970s into disco and funk, noting acts like Donna Summer, Chic, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, and labels including Atlantic Records and Stax Records. In the 1980s and early 1990s it reported on the growth of MTV, compact disc distribution by Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, and the rise of hip hop artists from Def Jam Recordings and Bad Boy Records.
Cash Box combined news briefs, label promotions, artist interviews, single and album reviews, and industry directories that referenced executives at Capitol Records, RCA Records, Island Records, Arista Records, and independent labels. Regular columns covered jukebox operator concerns tied to Amusement and Music Operators Association, radio programming trends at WABC (AM), WLS (AM), and KROQ-FM, and retail reports from chains like Tower Records and Sam Goody. The magazine featured spotlights on venues including the Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Fillmore East, and Madison Square Garden, and technical pieces about studio equipment from Neumann, Ampex, and Fender. Special issues profiled award seasons such as the Grammy Awards, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions, and festival coverage spanning Woodstock, Glastonbury Festival, and Monterey Pop Festival.
Cash Box published weekly charts for singles, albums, and jukebox plays, with methodologies that combined retail sales reports, radio airplay playlists from stations like WABC (AM), KISS-FM, and regional reporters in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Nashville, Tennessee. The magazine used survey forms returned by record stores, radio stations, and jukebox operators—mirroring but differing from Billboard's proprietary systems. Cash Box charts often highlighted crossover movement among genres such as doo-wop, soul, country, and early rock, documenting chart runs for artists including Buddy Holly, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Cash, and Patsy Cline. The publication also issued subcharts for genres like country, R&B, and dance, tracking club play at venues like Studio 54 and radio formats evolving at WBLS and KMEL.
Cash Box influenced label promotion strategies at Columbia Records, Motown, Epic Records, and Capitol Records by providing another metric for jukebox and retail success that managers at Motown and producers like Berry Gordy and Phil Spector monitored closely. The magazine's charts are cited in biographies of artists such as The Supremes, James Brown, Prince, Madonna (entertainer), Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Nirvana (band), and Tupac Shakur as contemporaneous evidence of popularity. Researchers and music historians at institutions including the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and university archives use Cash Box as primary source material on mid-century popular music industries, live circuits like the Chitlin' Circuit, and shifts in distribution from vinyl to CD formats.
Notable writers, chart compilers, and editors included industry figures who intersected with labels and broadcasters such as Billboard rivals, freelance journalists who covered artists like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, and columnists reporting on executives from CBS Records, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and independents. The masthead at various times featured editors with backgrounds in trade reporting, promotional work at labels such as Mercury Records and RCA Victor, and connections to programming directors at stations like WNEW-FM and XETRA-FM.
By the early 1990s Cash Box faced declining print advertising from major labels at Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI amid consolidation, shifts in radio consolidation under Clear Channel Communications, and the rise of online music information exemplified by early web projects connected to AOL and later digital retailers like Amazon (company). Financial pressures, competition with Billboard's growing chart authority, and changes in data reporting led to the cessation of regular print publication in 1996. Sporadic revival attempts occurred in subsequent years, but sustained print distribution did not resume.
Back issues and scanned archives of Cash Box are held in collections at the Library of Congress, university libraries with music special collections such as Berklee College of Music, Vanderbilt University, and private archives maintained by collectors of memorabilia associated with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and regional historical societies. Reprints and microfilm runs are available through archives that also preserve contemporaneous periodicals like Billboard, Variety (magazine), and Rolling Stone. Digital preservation projects and musicologists reference Cash Box charts in discographies, biographies, and databases maintained by institutions including the Smithsonian Institution and specialist researchers in popular music studies.
Category:Music magazines published in the United States Category:Defunct magazines of the United States