Billboard Featured Us — Here ’ s What That Means for Your Ears

When Billboard — one of the most recognized names in music media — covers a product, it means something. Not because of the logo or the reach, but because Billboard's audience is exactly who we built Unplugs for: people who live for live music and refuse to choose between the experience and their long-term hearing health.

In May 2026, Billboard published a feature on Unplugs, calling them "a premium pair of earplugs specifically designed by audiologists to protect your ears from the outside world with a simple click per plug." That sentence captures exactly what we set out to build — and we want to take a moment to unpack why it matters.

Why Hearing Protection at Concerts Is No Longer Optional

You know that ringing in your ears after a loud show? That's tinnitus — and it's not just an inconvenience. It's a symptom of noise-induced hearing damage, and unlike most injuries, it doesn't heal. The hair cells in your inner ear that process sound don't regenerate. Once they're gone, they're gone.

A typical rock concert runs between 100 and 115 dB. The threshold for safe, sustained exposure is around 85 dB. Every minute above that threshold is doing measurable damage — and most people spend two to three hours at a show without any protection at all.

The reason? Traditional earplugs are terrible. Foam plugs muffle everything into an indistinct blur. You can't hear your friends, you can't hear the music properly, and you end up pulling them out after ten minutes. So people skip protection entirely.

That's the problem Unplugs was designed to solve.

What Billboard Said — and Why It Resonates

The Billboard piece highlighted what makes Unplugs different from anything else on the market: the click mechanism. As their writer described it, "whenever you're in a booming and thunderous atmosphere, like a concert, sporting event, on a busy city street or during a flight, click the heads to block out the outside world to isolate yourself by 19dB. And when you want to connect to the outside world again, give the earplug heads another click to bring in sound."

That's it. Two states, one motion. No fumbling, no removing, no losing them in your pocket. Protection when you need it, full conversation when you don't.

Billboard also noted that even in the unclicked state, Unplugs provide up to 7dB of passive protection simply by being in your ears. That matters — because at a 100dB show, 7dB of passive attenuation already puts you closer to the safe zone before you've even activated the full protection.

The Numbers Behind the Feature

The math is simple: a 19dB reduction at a 100dB concert brings you to approximately 81dB — below the threshold for sustained damage. You can stay for the whole show, hear every note, and walk out without the ring.

What Comes in the Box

Billboard's coverage also highlighted the accessories that ship with every pair of Unplugs.

• FitWings (valued at $10) wrap around the earplugs to secure them in your ears — essential for high-energy shows where you're moving, dancing, or in a crowd.
• Mag Leash (valued at $15) attaches to the earplugs so you can wear them around your neck like a necklace, keeping them accessible between songs without the risk of losing them in a pocket or bag.

These aren't afterthoughts. They're part of how Unplugs are designed to be worn in the real world — not just placed in a drawer and forgotten.

Available in Four Colors

Unplugs come in four colorways: Black, Silver, Nude, and Iridescent. The first three are priced at $65 per pair; the Iridescent edition is $75. The goal was always to make hearing protection something you'd actually want to wear — not something that signals "I'm being responsible" but something that fits naturally into how you dress for a show.

The Bigger Picture

Being featured in Billboard isn't a milestone we take lightly. It's a signal that the conversation around hearing health in music culture is shifting — and that people are starting to take it seriously before the damage is done, not after.

If you've been to a show and left with ringing ears, you already know what's at stake. Unplugs exist so that doesn't have to be the trade-off anymore.

Protect your hearing — shop Unplugs