1. What is The Wire?
The Wire is an independent print and online music magazine covering a wide range of global alternative, underground and experimental musics. The Wire celebrates and interrogates the most visionary and inspiring, subversive and radical, marginalised and undervalued musicians on the planet, past and present, in the realms of avant rock, electronic music, hiphop, new jazz, improvised music, modern composition, traditional musics and more. Passionate, intelligent and provocative, The Wire wages war on the mundane and the mediocre. Its office is based in London, but it serves an international readership.

2. How old is The Wire?
The magazine was founded in 1982, primarily as a jazz and new music magazine, with a brief to "unravel the mysteries of music and musicians for those who look for fundamental answers about the nature of music...". Between 1984-2000 it was owned by Namara, a small independent London-based media company that also owned Quartet Books, The Women’s Press and The Literary Review. In December 2000 it was purchased in a worker's buy-out organised by the magazine's then six full time staff and has been run that way ever since.

3. Who is The Wire?
The magazine is run by a team of full-time staff based in its London office, plus a large international roster of freelance writers and photographers, stationed at points across the globe.

4. What's The Wire's agenda?
There's no written constitution and no hardened editorial policy for inclusion or exclusion. The Wire seeks out the most galvanising current musics in, and between, all genres; and is committed to investigating music's past as well as its present and future.

5. How can I get hold of The Wire?
The magazine is available at all good newsagents and record shops in the UK - find a stockist here. Click here for distribution details. The magazine is also available at large retailers in the US such as Barnes & Noble, as well as selected shops and newsagents in Canada, Australia, most European countries and beyond.

Wherever you live, the best way to get the magazine each month is to subscribe: you receive each new issue by direct mail, save money on the cover price, get access to the complete online library of back issues, and receive exclusive free CDs and downloads in our Wire Tapper and Below The Radar series.

The digital edition of the magazine is hosted by our friends at Exact Editions and is readable on web browsers, as well as on smartphones and tablets with The Wire app. All print subscribers get automatic access to the digital edition and complete online library of back issues. Current print subscribers can set up digital access here.

7. How do I submit something for review?
All records, books, etc for possible review in The Wire should be sent direct to our postal address. Downloads or streams of music for consideration for review can be sent to Joseph Stannard (joe@thewire.co.uk). We can never guarantee to review or give feedback about any unsolicited material, but we check out everything that comes our way (and there's a lot of it). Send to individual writers as well if you like, but bear in mind that they may not receive packages for several months, or may not tell us they've received them (so we'll be none the wiser). All unsolicited items become property of The Wire: send at your own risk.

8. How can I become a contributor to The Wire?
We are always interested in hearing from new writers. If you are interested in writing for The Wire on a freelance basis, contact one of our commissioning editors outlining any particular areas of interest, some suggested feature/review ideas, and enclosing some examples of your writing (either published or unpublished). We are always interested in submissions to our regular Global Ear section, which consists of monthly reports on underground or experimental music scenes around the world.

All the original portrait photography in The Wire is commissioned by photo editor Sean Charlton White and art director Guillaume Chuard.

9. Do you publish writers' guidelines?
No.

10. What are your monthly deadlines for listings, reviews, etc?
For listings in the print magazine, normally two months in advance. For reviews: we normally commission about 5-6 weeks before each issue is published. As a general rule, always send material as early as possible.

11. How do I advertise in The Wire magazine or on the website?
Click here to see our rate card.

12. What else does The Wire do?
We host a weekly radio show on Resonance FM.

We regularly host talks at venues and festivals including Cafe Oto (London), Unsound (Krakow), CTM (Berlin) and others.

And we have also published a number of books: Invisible Jukebox (Quartet 1997), Undercurrents: The Hidden Wiring Of Modern Music (Continuum 2002), The Wire Primers (Verso 2009), No Regrets: Writings On Scott Walker (Orion 2012) and Epiphanies: Life-changing Encounters With Music (Strange Attractor 2015), and we have worked with Strange Attractor on the collected comic strips of Savage Pencil: Trip Or Squeek's Big Amplifier (2012).