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

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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.

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Lighting&Sound AmericaLive & DJ

Bandit Lites Illuminates Neyland Stadium with Tribute in Light for 25th Anniversary of 9/11

September 15

Knoxville's Neyland Stadium became the setting for the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, as Bandit Lites provided a large-scale Tribute in Light honoring the lives lost and the enduring spirit of

Vintage & reissues Business News

Read at Lighting&Sound America ↗

Also covered by: Lighting&Sound International

ScenesPrimal Fear Announce 30th Anniversary Australian Tour For 2027 Music Feeds

Japanピンク・レディー伝説――森高千里&渡瀬マキから城田優&田村芽実、鈴木愛理まで華やかな11組が50周年を祝うトリビュート作!VA『ピンク・レディー伝説 Now and Forever -50th Anniversary Tribute Album-』 - コラム Mikiki

Scenes“Dark Winds” – Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, and Jessica Matten on Season Four Under the Radar

“It’s the only guitar that I’ve ever had stolen, and the neck was like a ’50s Les Paul. It was amazing”: Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr have a theory about Stratocasters – and one legendary Strat in common

Gear“It’s the only guitar that I’ve ever had stolen, and the neck was like a ’50s Les Paul. It was amazing”: Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr have a theory about Stratocasters – and one legendary Strat in common MusicRadar

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