Cash Box

Cash Box (or Cashbox) magazine was a weekly publication devoted to the U.S. music and coin-operated machine industry which was published from July 1942 to November 16, 1996 and revived as an internet-only magazine in 2006.

It was one of several magazines that published charts of song popularity in the United States of America. Cash Box's most prominent competitors included Billboard and Record World (known as Music Vendor prior to the April 18, 1964, issue). Unlike Billboard, Cash Box initially 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.[1]

Separate charts were presented for juke box popularity, record sales, and radio airplay, similar to Billboard's methodology prior to August 1958, when Billboard debuted its "Hot 100." This attempted to combine all measures of popularity into one all-encompassing chart. In addition, chart data were presented for specific genres such as country music.

In the 1990s, Cash Box fell victim to financial problems and accusations of chart fixing. (For example, the single "The Letter" by Wayne Newton hit #1 in its 12/12/92 issue, yet did not even chart in Billboard.) A succession of issues in the last two years of its run would have no updated "Top 100," with charts from previous issues being reprinted. The closer the magazine came to its demise the more frequently this occurred.