The Wire

The Wire is the world's leading independent monthly music magazine. The first issue was published in 1982. More than four decades on the magazine remains committed to reporting on a dynamic global network of underground, alternative and experimental musics by publishing journalism and photography by some of the subculture’s most original and authoritative critics and observers.

A digital subscription gives you access to the complete online archive of back issues of The Wire since issue one, summer 1982 — that's over 40 years, 470 issues and 40,000 pages. Click here to read the free trial issue, or click here to see the full archive.

Digital only subscriptions can be bought by clicking the Add to basket button below.

Print subscriptions — which also include free access to all the digital issues — are available direct from  The Wire shop priced from £41 for six months — click here for details.

If you subscribe via The Wire or Exact Editions you can view the complete archive online as well as via the iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire or Android apps. Please note that if you subscribe via an app, you only get access via that app.

Digital subscribers also get full and exclusive access to The Wire's complete archive of audio downloads in the Below The Radar series - click here for details - and The Wire Tapper series - click here for details.

For details on campus-wide digital subscriptions for institutions, please email support@exacteditions.com.

Special bumper double issue! On the cover: 2023 Rewind, The Wire’s essential guide to the last 12 months in underground sound and music, from the releases of the year to our critics reflections and analyses of 2023’s key trends and topics. Plus, inside the magazine: interviews with Fred Frith, Laetitia Sadier, Thomas Ignatius, Lisa Ullén, HUUUM, Phil Geraldi; Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Invisible Jukebox; Global Ear: Chicago; Unlimited Editions: Bead Records; Unofficial Channels: Lanner Chronicle; The Inner Sleeve: Vince Clarke; Epiphanies: Mariam Rezaei; and 40 pages of reviews including Myra Melford, Valentina Magaletti, Archie Shepp, Val Wilmer, Ain Bailey, and many more.