''XLR8R'' (pronounced "accelerator") is a website that covers music, culture, style, and technology. It was originally also a print magazine.

History and profile

''XLR8R'' was founded as a newsprint

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in 1993 by publisher Andrew Smith in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

. It has offices in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

and

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. While ''XLR8R''’s initial focus was on electronic music, it has widened its scope to include

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produ ...

, hip-hop, and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The R ...

music as well as related trends in style, art, fashion, and technology. ''XLR8R'' was published 10 times per year and distributed internationally. Special issues included a Music Technology issue, a year-end "Best Of" issue, and an entire issue devoted to the music scene of a particular city (

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, etc.). Subscribers receive ''Incite'', a free monthly CD of tracks hand-picked by the magazine's editors. Standout features of the publication include "Audiofile," a collection of short pieces on up-and-coming musicians; "Machines," a section devoted to technology (reviews, recording techniques of various artists, etc.); "Vis-Ed," a showcase of emerging illustrators, photographers, and designers; and "Bitter Bastard," a curmudgeonly rant on various frustrating topics within the music world. Each issue traditionally has hundreds of reviews of various albums, singles, compilations, books, and DVDs. ''XLR8R''’s website features breaking music and culture news, high-resolution music videos and free weekly MP3 downloads and podcasts. Additionally, back issues of the print magazine are accessible from 2003 to the present as freely downloadable PDFs. In March 2007, ''XLR8R'' launched XLR8R TV, an internet TV show hosted by Revision3, with a new episode appearing every Tuesday. The show features musicians, artists and scenes covered in the pages of ''XLR8R'' magazine. In 2011, ''XLR8R'' ceased publication of their print magazine and became a web only publication. In 2012, ''XLR8R'' was acquired by

Buzz Media MRC II Distribution Company L.P., doing business as MRC (formerly Media Rights Capital), is an American film and television studio. Founded by Mordecai (Modi) Wiczyk and Asif Satchu, the company funds and produces film and television programming. ...

. BUZZMEDIA Acquires Music and Culture Mag XLR8R
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References

External links

*{{Official website, www.xlr8r.com Defunct magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1993 Magazines disestablished in 2011 Magazines published in San Francisco Magazines published in Seattle Monthly magazines published in the United States Music magazines published in the United States Online magazines with defunct print editions Online music magazines published in the United States