 Billboard publishes a news website and weekly magazine that cover music , video and home entertainment . Most of the paper 's stories 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 1955 . Since then , 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 Forty , based on Billboard charts . A daily Billboard Bulletin was introduced in February 1997 and Billboard hosts about 20 industry events each year . 
