Launched in 1999, Songlines is the leading magazine covering traditional, contemporary, folk and fusion music from around the world. Each edition is packed with the latest album reviews, artist interviews, festival profiles and travel adventures from every corner of the globe. Music is about culture, politics, history and the environment and Songlines is your essential guide to it all.

If you’re new to Songlines, download our Aug/Sept 2014 issue (#102) for free. Features include an interview with Afrobeat pioneers Tony Allen & Orlando Julius, as they both celebrate 50-year careers with new albums.

There is also an interview with Scottish author, avid music consumer and vinyl addict Ian Rankin, who speaks to Jo Frost (Songlines editor) about how he’s always willing to take a punt on new music, especially if there’s a good story behind it.

Also featured in the trial issue: a feature on Israeli musician Idan Raichel and his collaboration with Malian musician Vieux Farka Touré; Malian jeli singer Kassé Mady Diabaté; and violinists Anna Phoebe and Jyotsna Srikanth. We also pick our Essential 10 Afrobeat albums that you must own, plus Chris Moss provides a Beginner’s Guide to salsa superstar Rubén Blades.

The September 2026 issue (#221) of Songlines is out now. We are in conversation with Ibeyi, the French-Cuban twins Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz, who return with Offering, their fourth album and first as an independent act, weaving Yoruba spirituality and Afro-Cuban rhythms into their most vulnerable songwriting yet. We meet Samba Touré, the Malian guitarist and heir to the desert-blues lineage of Ali Farka Touré, whose Baarakelaw honours the working people of Bamako. Our Beginner’s Guide is devoted to Nduduzo Makhathini, the South African pianist and Blue Note’s first signing from the country, who traces his path from Zulu spiritual roots to the world’s stages. We head to Thailand to hear from Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band, the psychedelic street-procession outfit whose album III channels ritual, community and rice-whisky abandon. We talk to The Waterboys’ Mike Scott about Fisherman’s Blues and the band’s Gaelic adventures. And we travel to Hanoi for the GOm Show, the Đàn Đó Collective coaxing unearthly music from handmade ceramic and bamboo instruments. Elsewhere, we celebrate Glitterbeat’s Hidden Musics series as producer Ian Brennan shares stories from the field trips behind it; Tianxi Wen reflects on building transcultural productions in Field of Research; we tell the story of the reimagined 1972 folk classic Bright Phoebus in Fireside Stories; prolific producer KMRU picks his Essential 10 Kenyan Gems; author and broadcaster Alice Vincent reflects on sound, listening and Hark: How Women Listen in My World; and Megan Jacobini de Fazio traces ‘Buttana di to mà’ with Racines for Songbook. There’s also Rodrigo y Gabriela, Lambchop, Ryan Young, Absolute Lilt, Abdelkader Haci, WOMAD, Reggae Sumfest, Altercat and the Essaouira Gnawa Festival – plus all the usual news, listings, reviews, competitions and so much more. Subscribers will also receive our accompanying compilation (CD + digital) featuring ten tracks from the best new music releases and five bonus tracks from Glitterbeat’s Hidden Musics series to accompany the issue.