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.

More than three hundred sources, in sixteen languages: 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

ChartmetricIndustry

How Is Germany Becoming A New Hub For Afro House Music

09.28

Germany's clubs have absorbed foreign sounds before and made them their own. A new data report suggests it may be happening again — this time with afro house — at the same moment techno, the genre…

Read at Chartmetric ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

How Is Germany Becoming A New Hub For Afro House Music

More from Chartmetric on XLR MAG

IndustryThe New Sound of Global Music: How Music Is Crossing Borders in 2026 Chartmetric

IndustryIntroducing the Chartmetric Top 50: A New Cross-Platform Music Chart Chartmetric

IndustryIntroducing Chartmetric Flow: AI Built for the Music Industry Chartmetric

IndustryChaotic Good, Explained: Inside Music's TikTok Marketing Debate Chartmetric

IndustryHow Madonna Became a Gen Z icon in 2026. Chartmetric

IndustryThe Future of Folk Music: How the Genre Is Being Redefined Chartmetric