Rolling Stone Magazine Reviews

A gave 2 stars because the previous version was so bare bones. Seems like some thought was put into new layout. However, there is no way to USE the new version because you cannot log in/link account. Furthermore, if you contact them, no one knows who owns the new app, and you get the runaround. After four times I finally got a hold of someone who seemed to know about the issue. They took my email and said they’d get back to me in a couple business days. That was more than 2 weeks ago.

RollingStoneMagazine took a giant step backwards. The focus is now “online content,” and the magazine itself it buried on the last tab with no way to navigate through its table of contents — the only option now is an awkward scroll through every page. Worse, there is no way to save where you left off in an article, even if you just leave RollingStoneMagazine for a minute. Without the ability to get cozy with deep reads of the magazine, RollingStoneMagazine is just basically a website of tabs and links, but less elegantly usable than an actual website.

Navigation is smooth and intuitive. I was quickly reading about and watching video clips from some of my favorite artists. Wish it was free but it’s time to accept good journalism is worth paying for!

A few years ago you updated the magazine interface from what was basically pdfs of each page to a very usable interface. Articles again scrolled and the text was such that they could be easily read. You are back to what is basically a pdf of text so small it is unreadable. Requires you to expand portions of the page and then watch it float around while you try to read it.

What happened???

I got a Rolling Stone subscription to read older articles. I got RollingStoneMagazine to avoid some of the janky issues with the website. But there’s no easy way to find older articles with RollingStoneMagazine. It’s fine if you want to read the current content or you enjoy browsing year by year, but terrible for accessing some of the best historical music journalism of the last 60 years.

I’ve been a Rolling Stone subscriber for years, with both print and digital access. With this latest app update I lost all digital access.
According to Rolling Stone customers service I have to pay for the digital content of RollingStoneMagazine even though I already pay for digital access through my print subscription. Rolling Stone is truly a reflection of today’s culture. One big con job.

The new design of RollingStoneMagazine is so much better than the old version!! This is what I would expect from Rolling Stone.

I love this new version!! It is so simple to use, and it’s great to be able to read the articles with ease! Also Lists are amazing!

Thank you for putting up this cool content that might otherwise get lost.

I am a print & digital subscriber and am unable to access content or read articles. The digital subscription and RollingStoneMagazine are useless. Obviously there’s a huge disconnect between account subscriber management and the developers of this (cr)app. Don’t waste your time subscribing or downloading this.

Wants to take u down? I am coming back. Even better that that puts Wenner is gone!!!

RollingStoneMagazine is snappy and the content is great. I love it this update

I love Rolling Stone magazine!! The only problem is RollingStoneMagazine could a glitchy sometimes.

It seems that there is no way for print or digital subscribers to log in as there was with the previous version.

Missing this key element, especially useful on iPad

Subscriber and can’t get app to work or refresh subscriptions.
Unable
To contact anyone at support for help either.

That’s it

Though I am a paying subscriber I have no way of logging in. RollingStoneMagazine is beyond pointless, it is maddening!

Opened the new app and I’m bombarded by every digital posting. Where are my archived and downloaded magazines now?

I'm a long time print subscriber on auto renew which is also auto renew so now I have to figure out how to cancel my print subscription. It's only $20 but I have to admit I thought about it before I downloaded RollingStoneMagazine. That said, great app and I love the links out to music so I can hear what the reviewer is talking about. Previously I had to log onto something else and run my own search to listen before I buy. Nice layout, easy to use. Love the new app. I'd give it 5 stars except for what feels like a double ding since all my other magazines with a reader allow for sign in with print subscription or a lesser annual fee for electronic only.

Absolutely terrible customer service. I didn’t receive my new issue physically or online and they sorry we’ll extend your subscription one month. I haven’t missed an issue of Rolling Stone in decades and their reaction is meh. I don’t know what ever happened to one of the most iconic publications of all time but evidently they could care less

I find myself restoring my account EVERY TIME I open RollingStoneMagazine .

I used to subscribe to the print issue for years but canceled when the iPad digital age came to life. Who needs to waste all that paper?

Well, it took them long enough but Rolling Stone has finally issued a digital version worthy of paying a subscription. It's easy to navigate and easy to read. And it's only $20 a year.

It seems that most of the negative reviews are from print subscribers who are annoyed that they are being charged additional money for a digital version. Well, sorry, that's how it works. I'm paying for the digital version so how come I don't get free access to the print version?

Don't get why people with a mag subscription are even bothering to buy a digital version of the same mag they get in the post every month.... The whining in reviews about standard practice of all major magazine apps is tiresome. Cancel your print sub... Logic. I think that's sort of the point of many of these publications going digital. Print is dying, time to transition people into the new era.

I love buying Rolling Stone (among other music publications) when I'm traveling....but purchasing RollingStoneMagazine makes so much more sense, as I get to enjoy every month's addition now, and I save money ofc, by not paying stand prices + no magazine to carry around and lose before I'm done with it. Digital magazines just make sense, because I always found myself wishing I could listen to the songs being reviewed as I read. With RollingStoneMagazine I can do that, watch interview/trailers (just overall get more content) and be directly linked to downloads ect.

Everything looks great, navigation is easy, no major technical glitches...not much more to ask for really.

Every other magazine I subscribe to allows me to adjust the text size but Rolling Stone. You've shrunk the type so small it's unreadable. You have apparently done away with the interactive features that used to exist. And finally, to make matters worse, you require print subscribers to buy a digital subscription too to have digital access, unlike virtually every other magazine in existence. As a result of the deficiencies and your failure to address these concerns voiced by thousands of subscribers besides me, I will not renew either of these subscriptions until you address these concerns. Read the reviews on iTunes and you'll see I'm not alone. Despite many, many people raising similar concerns, you do nothing which leads to only one, inescapable conclusion: you simply do not care about your customers. So, count me among the many, recent former subscribers. Let me know when you start caring about the people that actually buy your product, and I'll consider another subscription. Sad part is, I really love the content, but that love is substantially outweighed by my hatred of your obvious disdain for your customers.

I'm a print subscriber who used to enjoy digital access as well. I could download the digital version before my print copy arrived. I could flip through & enjoy the interactive features until the print version arrived, though I preferred to read the articles in the actual magazine.
After the most recent update, it took over a week to restore my previous purchases. And when I got them back, it was without any of the features I had enjoyed before. Adding to that, there's an issue that RollingStoneMagazine insists that I need to pay for even though I've been a continuous subscriber.
I no longer get notification when there's a new issue available. Tonight I went to download the latest issue,it wanted me to pay for the issue. After signing out & signing back in, I had lost my entire library. Since restore purchases still doesn't work, I'm in the process of downloading each issue one at a time. Again.
And to top it all off, when I do try to read the digital version, there's no way to save my place.

It’s a shame, really. Rolling Stone was the perfect magazine to adopt the bells and whistles of a truly digital edition. You could put ears to the featured artist playlist without the hassle and legwork of seeking out each track yourself. The issue’s reviews were just a click away for your own consideration. Navigating the stories was always intuitive and enjoyable.

It was quite possibly, in this writer’s opinion, the gold standard and the point of a periodical even offering a digital-only subscription.

Enter the new and suddenly lack-luster Rolling Stone “App” — read: PDF clone-viewer. The once splendid and feature-rich digital edition now reduced to a shell of its former glory, no more usable than looking at a print copy through a window five feet away. You can still zoom, edging it arguably closer to the adjective legible. But should you decide to do so and then have the audacity to scroll through a multi-column article that way, be prepared to restart your enjoyment of that particular article by selecting it from RollingStoneMagazine ’s main menu. Scrolling seems to be more difficult a task for RollingStoneMagazine to manage, crashing it often enough to reconsider your stance on the ease of digital subscriptions.

I understand that publishers have to do what they have to do. But it’s a shame, really, to have learned what it felt like and seen what it looked like to thumb through a proper digital magazine.

Not an Update! A downgrade.
They've gone and made RollingStoneMagazine worse. It's just a blurry PDF now- for the same price! There is no magazine better suited for digital than rolling stone. What a disappointment. To make matters worse, they're charging the same price for this pdf as they were for RollingStoneMagazine !!! I've cancelled as of today.

I've been subscribing to Rolling Stone for at least 30 years (yeek) and I've been waiting for an iPad version since the first iPad. Can you imagine what a great Rolling Stone app could be? Deep dives into artists history and back catalogs, full streams of songs on the albums reviewed, interactive stories with live maps, interviews, anything to add insight. Instead what we get is nothing much more than a glitchy PDF. Please, Jenn, check out the Esquire app or the wired app and see what a magazine app can be. Also have the sense to include RollingStoneMagazine with the print subscription. Nobody should have to pay for the same content twice.

I have subscribed to the digital version of Rolling Stone before thru the Zino appt. It was just like the paper version. The interactive features of this new and improve app are brilliant. It is great to read about an artist or song and be able to listen to it at the same time. The negative reviews of RollingStoneMagazine that I have read seem to be subscription related only. I did not have these issues fortunately. The features and quality of RollingStoneMagazine are worth recommending and trying it out in person. Easy to use features and choice of navigation are a plus for sure. After the experience of RollingStoneMagazine, it would be very difficult to go back to the print version.

This is one of the goofiest apps I've seen. It won't accept an annual subscription using a valid iTunes ID and password. I called iTunes for help and they told me to call Rolling Stone. I called RS and they told me to call iTunes. I tried to force the subscription to work by buying one issue, which worked, but this is not exactly what I wanted. I got help with the Report an Issue area and they lectured me. No joke. They told me not to do it again, but did not solve the problem. I waited a couple days and tried the annual subscription again, it worked (glitch fixed?). I downloaded the current issue at the time (DiCaprio on cover), read the issue, etc. Went back today to download the latest issue and it's back to thinking that I don't exist. The prior mag is not in my library and it wants me to subscribe, again. But do iTunes or RS seem to care, nope. And how is the magazine subscription business doing these days?

I have no idea if RollingStoneMagazine or the iPad version of Rolling Stone is any good because the publisher has taken a totally backwards approach to their digital version. I am a long term subscriber to Rolling Stone. I like receiving the print magazine. And it's easy for my wife to grab my copy when I'm not reading it. I tried to get the digital version on my iPad but RS sells that separately; not even a discount to add digital to my print subscription.

Come on guys. I know publishers are struggling to remain profitable but don't charge me twice. I should be able to pay one price and then read your magazine in whatever format I choose. Digital is handy at night. I can read without turning on a reading light and disturbing my partner. And it's great to be able to carry a bunch of reading material when I take a trip. But I can't easily share the digital version with my wife. I want both for a single price. Don't make me choose.

I have to add my voice with the overwhelming majority of this APPs negative reviews. The first 2-3 years of the digital version of Rolling Stone were fine with nary a hitch. Then suddenly, about three years ago, all hell started breaking loose. Issues wouldn’t download, I couldn’t log in (after mysteriously being logged out), getting ahold of someone to help was an impossible and mind-numbing experience. I was so frustrated that I decided my subscription wasn’t worth the pain and just deleted RollingStoneMagazine , halfway through the annual period, which I already paid for. (I was concerned that I would be automatically re-subscribed, but thankfully that did not happen.)
This scenario happened about 2 years ago, but I surmise it’s still a nightmare. Sad, too, as I was a decades-long reader of the mag. The experience turned me off to it. (I get what I want from the free online abridged version.)

I've been a loyal reader for years, and as much as it pains me to delete RollingStoneMagazine, I must because I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO READ CONTENT THROUGH IT FOR OVER A YEAR. Have you tried to contact RollingStoneMagazine developer? Don't bother. The form doesn't work. The link to "Click here to see answers to the most frequently asked questions" doesn't work. So I'm going to email bomb every email address at Rolling Stone that I can to try and get them to get a decent app developer to provide a good app for their publication, because Werner Media, whoever they are, ain't it.

The worst part is that Wenner Media is the owner/publisher of Rolling Stone, They clearly don't have the resources in-house to write a good app and provide proper support for it. I wish RS would look to RollingStoneMagazine writers for Wired or The Atlantic for a model that supports paid subscribers and allows free limited browsing for casuals.

I have been a Rolling Stone print subscriber for about ten years. I have been hoping they would put out an iPad edition for a while now and was very excited to finally see one a month or so back. At least until I discovered it was not going to be included with my existing subscription. What a rip off! I also subscribe to Entertainment Weekly and don't have to pay extra for the iPad edition. And I know there are many many other magazines on here that are free with an existing subscription too. I was hoping it was just an oversight by RS and would be fixed in the first update, but that's out now and you still have to pay twice. Which I certainly won't be doing. At least I can still access RS on my iPad through Safari. But it would certainly have been nicer to have it conveniently located in my Newsstand app.

I have been reading Rolling Stone on my iPad via the Zinio app for awhile, and this iPad-native presentation is superior. Instead of duplicating the print layout, as Zinio does, articles are laid-out for the iPad screen in RollingStoneMagazine.

This review can have the fifth star if I actually get the refund for the free trial issues. My account was charged $1.99 immediately. This is my third attempt to subscribe to a magazine via the iPad, and none have gone as planned.

As far as free sampling goes, please note how the publishers of The New Yorker made one full issue free to download. I think that implementing that policy here would save a lot of confusion and potential ill will.