The best Experimental Music newsletters

A weekly Berlin-based music newsletter featuring concert previews, album reviews and interviews centered on experimental music, improvisation and jazz. Each issue profiles artists performing in the city with detailed critical listening and context.

Long-form interviews with experimental musicians, collectives and occasionally filmmakers, each opening with a detailed biographical and discographic introduction. Readers get artist-led conversations about influences, process and current projects in avant-garde and underground music and art.

The Tonearm publishes long-form essays on albums, bands and artists across indie, experimental, soundtrack and library music, tying them to wider cultural and historical context. Issues also link to a companion podcast featuring interviews with musicians.

A weekly newsletter on electronic and experimental music, combining artist profiles, concert reflections and album picks. Readers get informed, personal criticism with context on labels, collaborators and scenes.

A round-up of writing, reviews and recommendations on experimental music, mixing album reviews with the editor's personal listening notes, live show reports and interview updates. Coverage spans experimental electronic, hip hop, noise, drone and world-influenced improvisation.

A Brooklyn-focused newsletter pairing weekly live music listings with the author's own commentary on improvised, experimental, and rhythm-driven music. It also promotes the author's own Dada Strain concert series at a Greenpoint loft.

A monthly roundup of recent experimental music releases curated by critic Marc Masters, with short original reviews of each album and a bonus list of further picks. It also includes occasional single-album features and behind-the-scenes posts about how he tracks new releases.

A newsletter covering new and notable music from China, spanning experimental electronic, psychedelia, shoegaze, noise, folk and chamber pop. Each issue pairs in-depth features on a few releases with shorter roundups, plus links to free playlists and artist support.

A musician from 65daysofstatic shares notes on solo music projects, audio coding, the UK live music scene and technology policy. Issues mix personal reflection, technical development logs and polemic.

Long-form essays on experimental, jazz and avant-garde music history, profiling landmark albums and overlooked artists such as the Roots, the Visitors and Julius Eastman. Readers get context on musicians' backgrounds, scenes and legacies.

Arcade publishes long-form features and interviews on contemporary art, artists and cultural institutions, with a strong focus on Toronto and programming at Koffler Arts. Readers get reported profiles, histories and conversations that place artists' work in its social and political context.

Arcade is an arts publication from Koffler Arts in Toronto that publishes features, artist interviews and profiles tied to its exhibitions and the city's cultural life. Readers get reported, personal writing on contemporary art, experimental music and the conditions artists work in.

Diana Babylon is a newsletter of short literary fiction in a weird, atmospheric vein, alongside occasional curated lists of favorite books, music and films. Readers get dark, uncanny prose pieces and an eclectic set of cultural recommendations.

A poetic, personal newsletter by Iris Falls that writes about independent music labels, ambient and experimental artists, and niche online music archives. Each issue pairs lyrical reflections on specific albums and projects with scene context and track-level listening notes.

Mack Hagood's Phantom Power newsletter explores sound studies and the sonic arts, using long-form pieces on topics such as instrumental transcommunication, analog electronic music pioneers, and experimental music. Readers get critical listening perspectives and cultural context on sound, media and music history.

A personal newsletter from a musician-listener covering monthly listening picks in experimental, drone and heavy music, alongside long-form essays on 2007-2012 experimental music history and a hands-on account of buying and repairing vintage hi-fi receivers. The writing is conversational and opinionated, mixing reflection with practical detail.

A personal newsletter from a Minneapolis-based cartoonist and musician, mixing diary-style essays, event announcements and reflections on art and community. Recent issues cover a monthly silent sound-gathering, living through ICE enforcement operations in Minneapolis, and attending a comics and zine festival.

A studio artist's newsletter mixing personal updates, experimental music releases, live show announcements and essayistic reflections on art, culture wars and economic power. It also documents a street-poster art project in Eugene and Portland.

processed.works publishes arts coverage centred on performance, dance and experimental music, mixing event reviews with long-form interviews with artists about their creative processes. Readers get detailed first-hand accounts of New York avant-garde and contemporary dance and music performances.

Canned Parasite is an experimental multimedia project by Michael Todd Klapwyk sharing avant-garde audio pieces built from synths, samples and layered processing, with notes on his process. Each issue pairs a track with a short, idiosyncratic written commentary on how and why it was made.

Which Sinfonia is an interview-driven newsletter about experimental and contemporary classical music, featuring conversations with performers and composers about their upcoming releases and creative processes. Readers get artist profiles, behind-the-scenes talk about projects, and personal reflections from the interviewers.

A Danish-language newsletter from the Danish/German poet and musician U L Y D, announcing poetry releases, book launches and experimental live performances. It covers the collection iodheer and electroacoustic and feedback poetry shows combining spoken word, synths, echo effects and phone-microphone distortion.

A personal newsletter from electronic musician Mike Hodnick covering weekly livestream track lists of experimental electronics and occasional technical posts about hacking workflows, such as syncing Bandcamp purchases to Android with a custom TypeScript tool. Readers get track lists to discover off-kilter electronic artists and practical, nerdy how-tos for music and Termux-based tinkering.

New Memento is a New York record label that sells tapes and zines, and this newsletter promotes its Environs concert series of experimental and improvisational music held at Dada bar. Issues announce upcoming performances with artist lineups, ticket prices and venue details, plus short recaps of past evenings.

A label newsletter from Basspistol announcing electronic music releases such as techno and experimental EPs, with artwork credits and catalogue details. It also includes occasional personal reflections from artists on music, identity and creative burnout.

ATTN:Magazine publishes short review notices for experimental and electronic albums, each announcing a release with a brief description. The excerpts consist of one-line summaries and link-style text rather than full critical writing.

A sound and interaction design studio's newsletter announcing releases and projects, such as the Transmission Control Protocol LP made over a networked lockdown-era improvisation. Issues are mostly promotional announcements and credits, with little original analysis or practical detail.

A music newsletter presenting experimental sound pieces, with lyrics shared in the issue and full tracks reserved for subscribers. Readers get early access to original songs and sonic experiments from the artist.