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 July 2026 issue (#219) of Songlines is out now. In our A Conversation with feature, we meet Brazilian singer-songwriter Seu Jorge, who discusses his Carioca roots, family musical ties, his love of bossa nova and the David Bowie connection. We celebrate the enduring legacy of Pentangle, the jazz-folk pioneers whose influence continues to grow – speaking to the musicians they inspired and to founding singer Jacqui McShee, now the group’s sole surviving original member. Our Folk Frontiers feature profiles a new wave of English folk talent, with Brown Wimpenny, Wakefire and Jim Moray pushing the genre in bold new directions. We also publish our annual Folk Calendar, a guide to the most important folk festivals and rituals on the British Isles. Our Beginner’s Guide is devoted to Charanjit Singh, the Indian synth master and Bollywood session veteran whose 1982 album Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat made him an unlikely godfather of acid house. We travel to Maa Country to meet the Maasai and Samburu artists fusing traditional song with contemporary production across Kenya’s Maa heartlands. We report from SPOT Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, where the Nordic folk scene is thriving. And we meet Tara Fatehi and Pouya Ehsaei, the London-based duo whose improvised night From the Lips to the Moon channels poetry, electronics and revolving guests into a revelatory live experience. Elsewhere, Ailbhe Kenny explores the role of music-making among people seeking asylum for Field of Research; Miss Pat Chin, the pioneering co-founder of VP Records, recalls a lifetime shaping reggae’s global industry for Fireside Stories; we trace the rich sounds of the Bahamas in our Essential 10 Bahamian Albums; Zakia Sewell reflects on how Pentangle opened up a hidden Britain that spoke to her multi-ethnic heritage in My World; and Erin Cobby meets Israeli oud maestro Yinon Muallem for Songbook, tracing ‘Misirlou’ from its Eastern Mediterranean roots to surf-rock glory. We also meet Rosalía, Super Panela, Olivia Chaney, LUIZA, Milo J, Natacha Atlas, Balladeste and Outhere Records, and capture the Mozambique Music Meeting in pictures – 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 ‘Pentangle-influenced’ selections to accompany the issue.