XLR

Latest

On the calendar

· Trade shows and launch events, this week's stories from each corner of the industry, and what its press is covering.

On view

This week, from that corner the newest stories from the corner of the industry you picked

The wire their own posts, translated

How records get made in 2026 from the industry's own reports

Sources

Fetched every three hours, linked to the original

About

XLR is a magazine, a radar and a diary about music gear and the making of music — for the people who make records and put on shows, wherever they do it.

The name is the three-pin connector that every signal in the business passes through: the microphone on stage and in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX cable that runs the lights. Studio, stage and lighting rig share it, and so does this magazine. Every few hours XLR collects what the makers shipped, what the reviewers heard, what the studios and the touring crews are doing, which producers and collectives are surfacing and what they are saying — synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lights, the rooms and the people — from a few hundred sources in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and more, then plots what is moving. The editor writes a letter every few days. Nothing is sold here; when a link leads to a shop, that is the maker's shop, not ours.

← XLR Archive

Rolling Stone MusicScenes

All of Ed Sheeran’s Openers Abandon Tour After Macklemore Debacle

September 15

Finneas, Lukas Graham, and Aaron Rowe withdrew after Macklemore was forced off the trek following a pressure campaign over his comments in support of Palestinians

Read at Rolling Stone Music ↗

Also covered by: Rolling Stone India, Happy Mag

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

All of Ed Sheeran’s Openers Abandon Tour After Macklemore Debacle

Related

ScenesAll of the Easter Eggs in Taylor Swift’s Emmys Skit Rolling Stone Music

ScenesMuna’s Naomi McPherson Will Miss Gigs to Care for Mother With Terminal Cancer Rolling Stone Music

ScenesThe Veterans Who Built a Movement for Disability Rights Rolling Stone Music

ScenesNashville Indie-Rockers Lombardy Run Through the Jungle in Fiery ‘Bazooka’ Video Rolling Stone Music

ScenesEd Sheeran Breaks Silence on Macklemore Leaving Tour: Venue, Promoter Made ‘Final’ Decisions Rolling Stone Music