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

US Supreme Court can’t overturn landmark termination rights ruling, because too many judges have book deals with BMG sister company Penguin Random House

10.20

The US Supreme Court will not intervene in the music industry’s big dispute over the termination right in American copyright law, leaving a songwriter-friendly ruling in the Fifth Circuit Appeals…

Read at Complete Music Update ↗

More from Complete Music Update on XLR MAG

Industry🎧 Approved: Rayland Baxter Complete Music Update

IndustryThe three big debates around music and generative AI Complete Music Update

IndustryAs streaming services set out proposals for US songwriter payments post-2027, NMPA labels Amazon “the worst offender” Complete Music Update

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

IndustryPolydor President among the senior execs to depart as Universal completes its two year €250 million saving corporate “redesign” Complete Music Update

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest