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Nov 30, 2020 By Mark Redfern

Update: Under the Radar’s annual Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sale has been extended until 8:00 p.m. EST today (Tuesday, December 1). This year we’re offering 35% off all print subscriptions and 50% off all back issues. No promo codes are needed.

With this sale a four-issue U.S. subscription is only around $11.00 (usually it’s $16.99). Each issue also includes a free download sampler featuring at least 33 MP3s, as well as all the interviews and reviews. Every print subscription comes with free access to the digital version of the magazine (for smart phones and tablets) and every digital issue includes extra content not found in print, such as extra photos and/or interviews and/or reviews.

So for $11.00 not only are you getting four issue’s worth of America’s best print music magazine delivered to both your door and your smart phone/tablet, but also around 132 free MP3s when the four samplers are taken into account! Talk about value for money.

Back issues are only $3.25, versus the usual $6.50, so it’s a great time to stock up on some classic issues you may have missed, such as 2019’s My Favorite Album Issue (with Angel Olsen and Sleater-Kinney on the two covers), 2011’s 10th Anniversary Issue (featuring Joanna Newsome and Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold on the cover together), 2011’s Music vs. Comedy Issue (in which musicians and comedians interviewed each other, including Patton Oswalt vs. St. Vincent, David Cross vs. Wayne Coyne, Nick Offerman vs. Iron & Wine, and Aziz Ansari vs. TV on the Radio), 2009’s Best of the Decade Issue, and most of our Protest Issues (where we examined the intersection of music and politics, with the issues from 2008, 2012, and 2016 still available). If you want to dive deep into the magazine’s history, we still have some rare copies of 2002’s issue #2 (featuring interviews with The Divine Comedy, Elbow, Death Cab for Cutie, Stereolab, and more) and 2003’s issue #5 (featuring interviews with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Belle and Sebastian, Spiritualized, Broadcast, Broken Social Scene, Super Furry Animals, and more) available.

Like many small businesses, Under the Radar has been affected by the pandemic, with our last print issue delayed by several months when stores weren’t open to sell it (and with advertisers initially skittish to advertise in it). We got it out and have another issue we are finishing up, another one of our Protest Issues. But even before COVID-19, it was a challenging time to run a truly independent print music magazine. It’s a continued time of mass media consolidation, where many other music magazines and websites are owned by bigger corporations, and where there are hardly any print music magazines left in America, certainly not ones who reliably cover indie rock music (and associated subgenres). In this era of our current troubled political climate (which will hopefully soon be easing), a free press is more important than ever and especially so when it comes to independently owned and run media entities such as Under the Radar (which The Nation named “Most Valuable Music Magazine” in its 2016 Progressive Honor Roll). But a truly independent print magazine such as Under the Radar, one that is not beholden to corporate interests and that covers the music we’re honestly passionate about, depends very much on subscriptions and back issue sales to continue printing. Advertising is simply not enough these days. So if you’d like to see us continue then please support us this holiday season and also take advantage of these great limited deals.

For Black Friday discounts on print and digital subscriptions go here and for 50% off all print back issues go here.

Also, if you’d like to support Under the Radar in other ways you can sign up to our crowd-funding Patreon page for a regular monthly donation, starting as low as only $1.00. You’ll get access to some exclusive content, as well as lots of cool rewards, including subscriptions, rare back issues, limited edition photo prints, and more. Having more regular funds would help us enormously in our quest to cover even more bands, review even more albums, and put out the best print music magazine we can.

Keep in mind that all print subscriptions start with our next issue and if you subscribe for four issues then you will receive our next four issues, regardless of when they come out, meaning that you aren’t buying a one-year subscription, but a four-issue one.

As with every year, we are very thankful for our lovely readers and hope you have a wonderful holiday season.