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Your Mojo subscription is about to end

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Keep it going for another 12 months, swap to Uncut, or stop being a dinosaur as print magazines are an anachronism

Hmm … swap to Uncut? The most obvious direct competitor. Plenty of other mags, but not perhaps wit the same breadth as Mojo and Uncut.
Last time I regularly bought Uncut it all went a bit “Americana is the only thing worth talking about” and Wilco appeared in every issue.
But Mojo is endlessly treading the same ground and no longer feels vibrant, vital, or even interested half the time.

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  2. I subscribe to both but prefer Mojo, although Uncut improved markedly when it ditched the Americana ….there’s not really much difference in the content these days when you compare them, but both offer good deals if you subscribe, certainly compared to the ridiculous cover prices.

    • “not really much difference in the content these days” – I’m thinking toss of a coin,
      Sub price same for both, so maybe go to Uncut for 12 months (the thrill of the new) and swap back if unconvinced.

      • I also subscribe to both and read about half of each. I like new finds, which makes me reluctant to ditch them – I buy at least a couple of new to me CDs per month based upon reads.

        And what else would I read on the loo? Crohn’s means I spend more time in the woods than the average Pope.

    • I subscribe to both and will continue to do so until all those saying print is an anachronism manage to persuade the publishers that print is out of date.I seem to recall that Kindles were supposed to be the end of printed books yet book sales are at their highest levels in many a year. I don’t want to read a book or a magazine on a fucking kindle and would prefer to have a choice in the matter not have it forced down my throat.I think both magazines have merits and both have ups and downs. Last months Uncut 300th issue was excellent.

  4. Stopped my Mojo subscription about six months ago and I haven’t been persuaded to buy any single issue of it, Uncut, Shindig, or RC since, even when facing long journeys back to London.
    I think I miss my Radio Times subscription more.

    I’m in the market for the specials, but it seems to be either retreads of The Beatles, Dylan etc. or (increasingly) also-rans.

    Now if any of them were to do a Zappa or Beefheart special…

  5. Readly all the way. £7.99 p/m Mojo, Uncut, Empire, Shindig, Record Collector, What Hifi, Guardian, Independent, Amateur Photographer etc etc.

    • Now there’s a thought – just need to get over my irrational “don’t do electronic” stance.
      Plus I like to see how many back-issues I can pile up before Mrs D asks “do you really need all those?”
      (current record is 8)

    • Thing about Readly is there’s just too much sometimes. I just can’t keep up and I’m way behind on all the mags. And now they’ve just dumped every issue of Boxing Monthly on there, going right back to the first issue in 1986 (where Gypsy John Fury was one of the leading heavyweights, according to the list in the magazine. I’ve made it worse by fiddling with the regions, so I’m getting the American, Australian and British Rolling Stone magazine for starters. And then they go and start putting newspapers on there…

      • First world problem there, Paul. Whole months go by without me reading Mojo, Uncut or *blush* Australian Wood, but they’re there if I want them. And they’ve cost me pennies.

  6. Mojo you do get a picture of The Beatles or The Who with articles like “Sgt. Pepper – the untold story” etc every other month. I don’t buy either any more but if I do it’s more likely to be Uncut.

  7. Gave up on Mojo years ago but I still have an Uncut subscription. I liked their Americana bias but content is probably more balanced these days. Of the two I much prefer Uncut, though I seldom read many of the long articles any more. I got tired of their interviews which became little more than transcripts without much authorial input or contextualising. Lazy journalism.

  8. I’ve been re-reading David Cavanagh’s wonderful book on John Peel this weekend and Peel, and all the stuff he championed, would make an excellent subject for one of those Uncut/Mojo Specials.

  9. I had same dilemma but about Uncut. It’s dreadful now in my view yet I keep renewing. The reviews at the front don’t work, the good features now feature artists most haven’t much interest in (I’m assuming the big names can’t be arsed) and then there’s the endless “top 50 songs of x” crap

    It’s a crying shame when I read one of the old Uncuts circa 2000 in my toilet, full of interesting features, movies and so on..

    Mojo by comparison is a bit dull but still worth reading sometimes.

  12. Don’t bother with music mags any more and don’t miss them at all.
    I used to buy Word, Mojo, Uncut, Songlines, Electronic Sound and Jazzwise regularly [*], plus FRoots and Wire occasionally.
    I was a cover disc collector, for checking out new stuff I might otherwise not get to hear. That’s no longer necessary, with the way streaming services operate if you use them regularly.

    [*] Subscribed to all of these at one time or another except Uncut.

    • Took fRoots recommendation to subscribe to Songlines when the former folded, but I have now cancelled the Songlines subscription. My needs are eurocentric and Songlines diversity, while admirable, didn’t really suit. If it had been about foreign roots music, that would have been fine, but the free CD reveals that really it’s just foreign anything, and some of the features seemed wilfully obscure.

      • Devoting lots of space to what is effectively music tourism is what has turned me off Songlines.
        Plus the decline in quality (IMO) of much “Roots Fusion” music they feature. It could come from almost anywhere in the world, it’s become so homogenised. Considering giving up listening to BBC R3’s “Music Planet” for the same reason.

  13. Gave up on mojo about 15 years back and ucunt about five years later. Cannot recall the last time i so much as picked one up in a newsagent.

    Anyone here remember how wonderful Q was during its early years?

    It was effectively The Word before The Word became flesh

    • In 1998, I went to visit my best mate, who became my Best Man, in his new abode in Coogee, Sydney.

      I bought Q in WH Smiths at Heathrow. I think half the passengers of the 747 has read that copy cover to cover by the time we landed in Oz.

      Robbie Williams, The Corrs, Prince, Embrace – past its best by then, but still a good read.

      • The first Q I bought was the 20th anniversary of Sgt Pepper, issue 9 I think. I was looking for something to read in the launderette at Belmont Circle and it was the most interesting thing on the shelf. I’d already given up on the inkies by then so this was a real step up. Shame none of them can manage the breadth of coverage they used to. I haven’t bought a music mag for 5 years, probably more.

        • Q was great in its early 6ears. Its content seemed to be based on “this is what we like at the moment” not driven by this is what the advertisers and record companies would like us to talk about.

  14. Don’t know if this applies to the rest of the country but, with a library card and a kindle, you can borrow magazines from the library service here in Northern Ireland, including the latest issues of both Uncut and Mojo (and many others, including the buyer’s guide to buying a pontoon…always useful information to have available).

    If you have a kindle or other tablet, it’s via the Overdrive app. Like I said, I don’t know if it works outside of Northern Ireland but it has all issues of both magazines and the specials.

    The only drawbacks are that someone else may already have borrowed the magazine at the time you intend to and, unfortunately, having to read the magazine on a tablet.

    • I was going to recommend this option in preference to Readly. Most libraries offer some form of e Library service, which will include magazines & books.
      If your library offers free access to Press Reader, even better. You can get your daily paper, download & stockpile unread copies of Mojo (no different to how my subs copies ended up) and you’re not limited by other people having borrowed the copies.
      You’re paying for this out of your council tax anyway, so give it a go.

      • A fortnight ago, I had a rogue hour to kill in Ilford and decided to spend it in the library rather than potentially being killed on the streets of Ilford.
        Two months before I’d done the same thing and read a huge interview with Paul McCartney in GQ… this time there were no physical magazines or papers as everything seems now to be online.

        It’s always feast or famine (see – the record industry).
        Surely part of the enjoyment of, say, reading a Sunday newspaper is the actual paper itself.

        • @deramdaze

          Know your constant harrying of our unloved and unlovable PM is a bit OTT, D, but to suggest he might have you rubbed out in a drive by or hit and run on the streets of Ilford would seem to be stretching it a bit

  15. Subs to both. I still find enough of interest in both of them to keep the subs going. The current 300th edition of Uncut has a great list of 300 albums they’ve nominated as the best ones to come out during the magazine’s lifetime – it’s let me find three or four things I’d missed along the way which have now been promoted to the inbound wishlist. Ultimately, not sure when the ‘still finding enough’ will stop doing what it says on the tin; at some point I suspect both subs will have to be binned. Probably shortly after I run out of breath. Music is pretty central to my artistic consumption – to my life in general, really – and some form of wider ongoing contrafibularity of reviewing intake seems important to maintain.

  16. Mojo is now my only print mag and I still enjoy it. Time was when I had Uncut, Q, Word and Mojo arriving every month! Q was the last one to go, and then it closed anyway, so I kind of feel responsible….

  18. On a long(ish) drive to my father’s place yesterday I went through my Apple Music playlists and chose something that would hit the spot. Sounded great on the drive, but I realised it had been ages since I’d actively sought out new music at the scale that would allow a new playlist of a couple of hours duration. I’m guessing that me stopping buying so many physical magazines (and I *loved* Q) a while ago is not uncoincidental.

    While I read Mojo on the iPad and will buy the very occasional Uncut, a new digital edition just doesn’t have the same type of engagement as seeing one on the newsstand. I know it’s a very boring-old-man-who-only-buys-vinyl-but-isn’t-against-streaming-per-se type of complaint, and very much a first world problem. Think I might go back through the last few digital editions and pay a bit more attention.

  19. I don’t have any urge to find out what pop groups were doing x years ago. I don’t have either the time or the inclination to discover more old music — I have plenty already — let alone read about it. It’s a “no” from me, Clive.

    As for new music, 6 Music is where I hear most of it, and apart from that this very site will do for its occasional threads on recent songs (waves at @Bingo-Little).

  20. I subscribe to Uncut but also buy Mojo on a regularish basis, especially if the cover-mount looks interesting. I just noticed an ad on Facebook inviting me to apply for Mojo ‘membership’. Print, digital, print/digital options. No mention of the print edition including a CD. Are they dropping this from the publication I’m wondering.

    • I think the CDs days may be numbered – there was a survey a year or so ago about it’s worth to subscribers.
      I missed the date to cancel, so have got another 12 months just paid for (and actually the current issue is a good read) – the subscription is 12 months print edition plus digital membership

      • Actually this months Mojo has a pretty good Grateful Dead compilation which is worth the cover price even if I wasn’t a subscriber which I have been for several years. The majority of the cover mount cd’a are unplayed landfill but the specialist ones are keepers The best for me being the Amorphous Androgynous one that encouraged me to buy all of their releases.

  21. I subscribe to both. The subscription deals are very reasonable and tend to work out much better than frequently buying off the shelf. There’s always something in there. I look forward to them arriving.

    Still miss Word too!

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