Three pins, and nearly every signal in this business passes through them.

The magazine is named after the cable: the microphone in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX run that fires the lights. Studio, stage and rig share the same cable. Most magazines pick one of the three. This one covers all of it, because the people we read do too — the engineer mixing a record on Tuesday is on front of house by Saturday.

Around a hundred and sixty sources, in English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Chinese and Italian: makers and their release notes, reviewers who put a hand on the thing, studios and touring crews, the producers and collectives surfacing this month and the scenes they came out of. Synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lighting. What the trade is talking about is counted and plotted. The editor's letter has just started; it will find its rhythm.

For each story: a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link out. We never reprint the article, and the picture belongs to the maker or the photographer. A German review appears in German and a Japanese one in Japanese, as the writer published it; the link goes to the original.

Nothing is sold on this site. When a link leads to a shop, it is the maker's shop, not ours.

← XLR MAG Archive

Complete Music UpdateIndustry

“Sanity must prevail” says Robbie Williams as everyone agrees not to sue Olivia Rodrigo over her new familiar sounding Christmas song

11.10

We love a good song-theft legal battle here at CMU, even if many of the lawsuits that accuse one song of infringing the copyright in another seem at best ambitious and at worst misguided, and mainly…

Read at Complete Music Update ↗

More from Complete Music Update on XLR MAG

Industry🎧 Approved: Father Hell Complete Music Update

IndustryK-pop trade body says New York Times’ explosive reveal of NewJeans deal is a “one-sided and biased assessment” Complete Music Update

IndustryWith MLC data now included, what does CISAC’s annual report on song revenues still exclude and why? Complete Music Update

IndustryCMU Selects - the last week’s standout releases Complete Music Update

IndustryIMPALA responds to Warner’s Zebralution deal as another indie distributor becomes part of the major-controlled digital music ecosystem Complete Music Update

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest