A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture. Such magazines typically include music news, interviews, photo shoots, essays, record reviews, concert reviews and occasionally have a covermount with recorded music.

Notable music magazines

Music magazines were very prolific in the United Kingdom, with the NME (short for New Musical Express) leading the pack since its first issue in 1952. NME had a longstanding rival in Melody Maker, an even older publication which had existed since 1926, however by 2000 falling circulation and the rise of internet music sites caused the Melody Maker to be absorbed into its old rival and cease publishing. Several other British magazines such as Select and Sounds also folded between 1990 and 2000. Current UK music magazines include Q, Kerrang! and Mojo (all published by EMAP). Magazines with a focus on pop music rather than rock and aimed at a younger market include the now-defunct Smash Hits and the BBC's Top of the Pops, which outlived the television show on which it was based.

Major music magazines in the United States include Rolling Stone (founded in 1967) and Spin (founded in 1985). Smaller magazines, such as Blender and Paste are similarly starting to rise in popularity, with their focus on more independent acts.

Covermounts

Several music magazines include a free album of music (usually a compilation of tracks by various artists), known in the publishing industry as a covermount. The practice began in the 1980s with UK magazine Smash Hits giving away flexi discs, and graduated to mixtapes and compact discs in the 1990s, with modern magazines such as NME and Mojo frequently including cover compilations.Geoghegan, Tom: Are free CDs killing music?, BBC News Magazine, 13 July 2007.

The tracks are cleared for release by the relevant record companies, and are usually released for promotional purposes. Some artists are unhappy with the practice, however, feeling that giving away their songs for free devalues the music in the eyes of the consumer.