About Us

Joyzine is dedicated to sharing the new independent music, film, books, art and theatre that we love to make your world a more Joyful place.

Founded in 2003 and run entirely by volunteers, we focus all of our coverage on artists, releases and events that excite, intrigue or move us – if something doesn’t do it for us, you won’t find it within these pages. Joyzine has been advert free since 2003, which allows us to retain our independence with no external pressure to write about anything that we’re not taken by.

Joyzine came into existence in Croydon record shop Shake Some Action when editor Paul Maps, who at the time was running an online fan page for his favourite groups, was asked by the person looking after the shop that day to review his band’s demo. Since then we’ve organised gigs and festivals that have raised tens of thousands of pounds for good causes, including the online Balcony Festival during the 2020 lockdown in conjunction with a group of friendly blogs and promoters, created the world’s first online music downloads advent calendar (as far as we’re aware at least) and shared our love for thousands of bands, films, books, artists and more.

If you would like your music, film, book, art, play or event featured on Joyzine or are interested in writing or taking pictures for the site, please visit our contact page to find out more.