Best Music Magazines & Journalism for Vinyl Collectors
Every collection is shaped by criticism as much as taste. The magazines below are the ones that built the canon — the reviews, the reissue coverage, the arguments about what mattered and why. Most of what appears on this site traces back to writing that first ran in one of these.
This page contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you purchase through them, at no extra cost to you.
Rolling Stone
Founded in 1967, Rolling Stone is the closest thing rock criticism has to an official record. Its album reviews have made and broken reputations for over half a century, and its retrospective "greatest albums" lists remain a reference point even for critics who disagree with them.
NME (New Musical Express)
The UK's weekly music paper covered punk, Britpop and everything since with a house style built on strong opinions and sharper headlines. If an album mattered in Britain between 1970 and 2010, NME almost certainly said so first — and said it loudest.
Mojo
Launched in 1993 for readers who wanted depth over speed, Mojo built its reputation on archival features and reissue coverage — the magazine collectors actually keep. Its writing on classic-era rock, soul and folk is some of the best sustained music journalism in print.
Uncut
Mojo's closest rival covers similar ground with its own critical voice — strong on Americana, alt-country and the albums that don't always get their due elsewhere. Its year-end lists are a reliable second opinion.
Record Collector
The magazine literally built for people who own physical records. Pressing details, rarity guides and price data sit alongside features — essential reading if the condition and provenance of a specific pressing matters to you as much as the music.
The Wire
For anything outside the mainstream — free jazz, musique concrète, experimental electronic, the outer edges of any genre — The Wire has covered it seriously since 1982, when almost nobody else would.
Classic Rock
Founded in 1998 to cover the artists the weeklies had moved on from, Classic Rock treats 60s and 70s rock as a living subject rather than nostalgia, with the reporting depth to back it up.
Kerrang!
The UK's metal and hard rock authority since 1981 — the magazine that took heavy music seriously when the mainstream press mostly didn't.
Pitchfork
The most influential music criticism of the streaming era. A high Pitchfork score can still make an unknown record's career, and its reviews are often the first real critical response an album receives.
Read them all in one place
Individual subscriptions add up fast. Magzter GOLD bundles thousands of magazine and newspaper titles — including several on this list — into one digital subscription, readable on any device.