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

Beats Per MinuteScenes

Festival Review: End Of The Road – 3-6 September 2026

September 13

Thursday As we sat in the unmoving line of traffic snaking through the countryside, with the car park supposedly some three miles or so off, everyone was thinking the same things: “This doesn’t usually happen” and “Are w

Read at Beats Per Minute ↗

Also covered by: Under the Radar

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

Festival Review: End Of The Road – 3-6 September 2026

Related

ScenesAlbum Review: Rebecca Black – Age of the Exhibitionist Beats Per Minute

ScenesAlbum Review: Carmen Villain – Memoria Beats Per Minute

ScenesValerie June collaborates with Sam Amidon on cover of blues standard, “Trouble in Mind” Beats Per Minute

ScenesTeenage Fanclub reflect on yearning and the echoes of Glasgow on new single, “Be With You Tonight” Beats Per Minute

ScenesJess Kerber announces new album, embraces her gossamer reflection on “Changing” Beats Per Minute

ScenesAlbum Review: Jorja Smith – What Are The Odds Beats Per Minute