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

ConsequenceScenes

Spotify Removed More Than 50 Million AI “Slop and Spam” Tracks This Year

10.21

People listen to Spotify and apparently Spotify listens to people as evidenced by the fact that the streaming platform cut more than 50 million “AI-generated slop and spam” tracks from…

AI in music

Read at Consequence ↗

Also covered by: Thomann Blog

IndustrySpotify’s ‘AI-Generated Slop’ Crackdown Continues — DSP Says It’s Booted Over 50 Million Machine-Generated Tracks from Recommendations During 2026 Digital Music News

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Spotify Removed More Than 50 Million AI “Slop and Spam” Tracks This Year

Related

IndustrySpotify’s ‘AI-Generated Slop’ Crackdown Continues — DSP Says It’s Booted Over 50 Million Machine-Generated Tracks from Recommendations During 2026 Digital Music News

ScenesSpotify Removes 75 Million Songs Identified as ‘AI-Generated Slop or Spam’ Rolling Stone Music

Scenes‘Human Made, Human Paid’: The Largest U.S. Musicians Union Is Demanding AI Protections Rolling Stone Music

IndustryTicketmaster targets ‘AI-powered’ future with trio of hires IQ

GearApple’s latest acquisition suggests Logic Pro is getting Melodyne-style polyphonic note editing MusicRadar

IndustrySpotify Excludes 50M AI Slop Tracks From Recommendations Hypebot