The Wire covers a wide range of global alternative, underground and experimental music and the most visionary and inspiring, subversive and radical, marginalised and undervalued musicians on the planet, past and present, dealing in the likes of avant rock, electronic music, hiphop, new jazz, improvised music, modern composition, traditional musics and more.
Based in London, 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'.
For more than 15 years the magazine was owned by Namara, an independent London-based media company. In 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.
In February 2023 The Wire underwent a redesign with a new A4 format and new visual identity.
