The Lost Art of the Ticket Stub — and its Futuristic RevivalIn an age where concert entry constitutes little more than a digital barcode, it feels like music fans have lost a once crucial part of their connection to a favourite artist. With e-tickets deleted the morning after and print-outs often primed for the trash, it’s a sad development – especially for those who, like this writer, have actively kept gig and festival tickets archived in a folder for the past decade and a half.
For avid gig-goer Nathan Flaskett, who has also collected signed albums and posters for many years, his ticket stub collection (which recently went viral on TikTok) is full of nostalgia. “I like to look back at memories I’ve had over the years,” he says, “even just to keep track of who I’ve seen because it’s easy to forget.”

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Having kept a physical record of these memories, and particularly the variety of gigs he attended — from Justin Bieber to Bring Me The Horizon —makes him feel connected to artists he grew up as a fan of. It also often prompts him to get back into certain artists that he feels he’s grown out of. “I may see the ticket and think, ‘I’ve really got to listen to them, it’s been forever,’” he says.
A Grateful Dead ticket from 1990. Image courtesy of Blaise Hayward, Tickets Please.
With most tickets now being digital, Flaskett feels that the art of ticket stubs has been truly lost – especially when it comes to festivals. “I remember Reading 2015; I have a ticket and it’s pristine. I know you still get wristbands, but they get dirty. There’s nothing quite like a ticket you can keep.”
In a 2023 article, journalist Scott-Ryan Abt observed this unfortunate change, suggesting that two things are now “missing from the concert experience and not coming back”. Ticket stubs and cheap t-shirts, he argued, were once “the evidence that it actually happened and that you were there. But advances in technology insist that there is a better, more efficient way”, he added. “As a result, we are missing something without the physical paper tickets that used to be a part of going to a show.”
With all this in mind, it seems unfathomable to think that concert tickets were once treated like pieces of art — a timeless collectable, even — by the biggest bands of the 60s, 70s and 80s, including Led Zeppelin, Motörhead, The Grateful Dead and The Beatles.
“It’s actually pretty tragic,” says Blaise Hayward, a Canadian artist who has lived and worked in New York since 1996. His recent online art collection, Tickets Please, chronicles some of the most iconic gig tickets ever printed. Full of colour, character and personality, these are items that a collector would be ecstatic to own.
A Dolly Parton ticket from 1983. Image courtesy of Blaise Hayward, Tickets Please.
An avid music fan and admirer of fonts and graphic design, Hayward began making his collection in March 2023. The inspiration? He walked by Irving Plaza concert hall in New York and noticed groups of music fans heading into a concert, flashing their phones. “It made me start to reminisce about my youth,” the 60-year-old photographer and sculptor recalls. “I began thinking about how I cherished my stubs as a teenager.” During his youth, he’d purchase tickets at a physical outlet, keep them safe in a scrapbook and pin them on a wall.
“It was all part and parcel of the experience,” he enthuses; “you would treat them like gold and make sure they were very secure in a pocket and want to go home to put them somewhere safe so you wouldn’t lose them”.
Around the same time, a friend lent him some ticket stubs to photograph, and Hayward’s “labour of love” quickly escalated into an official project. Curated from a number of music memorabilia websites, eBay, private collectors and word of mouth, he describes himself as “pretty selective” when sourcing tickets, adding that he “doesn’t always buy the first one I see”. Some, he says, have proved elusive, such as The Last Waltz, though he does have Japanese tickets and one for a Russian Nine Inch Nails gig among his collection.
With Tickets Please now spanning 1964-2015 and including artists as wide-ranging as Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, he hopes to have a ticket from every country.
While his ambition for “music and authenticity” is unending, Hayward finds it “a shame [that] it went from beautiful ticket stubs to terrible-looking QR codes”. But why? Hayward thinks that while environmentalists would be happy that paper and harmful inks are no longer being used, the main reason is likely band economics.
A Smashing Pumpkins ticket from 1992. Image courtesy of Blaise Hayward, Tickets Please.
“I think it’s a cost-cutting measure, and it’s just moved with the times that we live in now – everything is digital and on your phone,” he says. “[Artist] management would probably say, ‘Why do we want to spend $50,000 on printing these tickets if we can just do it on a QR code? It’s lost money?’ But I don’t think they’re thinking it through.”
Hayward also feels that bands have missed out on an artistic aspect of their livelihood. “Ticket stubs allowed bands to stretch their artistic muscles, brand themselves and have fun with it,” he considers, citing that groups would collaborate with artists to work on the graphic design. “They’re all out of business, and no one’s doing it anymore.”
Now, the only band Hayward is aware of that still issues physical tickets (“with stunning designs”) are American rockers Phish, who send tickets via post (for a small fee) for use at the point of entry.
LP Giobbi, meanwhile, focuses on physical concert programmes as opposed to tickets. The electronic artist hopes her handwritten, beautifully designed creations, which outline what to expect at her gigs, will have a similar impact to Phish’s stubs.
“I grew up playing in high school bands, and there was always a programme handed out so people could get excited about certain parts or know where to go to the bathroom during others,” she says. The idea with her programmes is for her audiences to have “an open mind and be ready to go on a journey”. Beyond that, she hopes her fans will want to keep them. “I definitely wanted people to walk away with something to remember the show by,” she says. “I used to love collecting concert tickets, so maybe this can be that for them…”
A Motorhead ticket from 1984. Image courtesy of Blaise Hayward, Tickets Please.
With plans for a book and gallery shows to present his Tickets Please collection in different ways, Hayward is optimistic about a potential return to the golden age of ticket stubs. “It would take a popular younger artist of the current generation — Taylor Swift, or Post Malone, or Billie Eilish — to come in and say, ‘We are now going to be issuing the coolest tickets’ to start the ball rolling. And I guarantee, if one of them did it, others would follow suit, and it could be a rejuvenation of the entire concept.”
Crucially, Hayward’s confident that “their fans would go absolutely bonkers for them”. He adds that the merchandising opportunities are endless: “they could take the art they do for the ticket and print it on hoodies, t-shirts, beanies, keychains and coffee cups”.
However, Ticketmaster, which offers the option of souvenir tickets at the point of purchase, argues that it’s already on the way there. Having first launched souvenir tickets in 2021 at Sheffield Arena, they have since been rolled out across hundreds of events, covering everything from music and comedy to sport, family shows and theatre.
Front of a Ticketmaster souvenir ticket for Isle of Wight festival 2024
“These are collectable versions of traditional paper tickets that fans can keep as a memento after the show,” a Ticketmaster spokesperson tells MusicTech, adding that these are “especially popular” for milestone gigs or special one-off performances. “We’re the only ticketing agent offering this kind of souvenir in the marketplace,” they said – “it’s a simple, unique way for artists and event partners to add a personal touch to their fans, giving them a special way to remember the moment forever”.
Ticketmaster feels that feedback on these souvenir tickets has been extremely positive —“We’ve seen great uptake so far, and fans love having something tangible to remember the event by” — but not everyone seems to have been impressed by what they receive in the post.
In a Reddit thread from three years ago, a concert-goer branded the souvenir ticket he ordered for metal band Ghost’s Manchester show as “bog standard”. He added: “when they eventually turned up, they looked like the tickets that we would have originally received pre-Ticketmaster-app.” Concluding the post, he said: “Absolutely would not do it again”.
Back of a Ticketmaster souvenir ticket for Isle of Wight festival 2024
Having paid £3 to commemorate their first ever gig experience, a third buyer said their souvenir ticket for Conan Gray was “just paper with a shiny stamp on it. I thought it was going to look much more special,” they added.
Ticketmaster’s efforts are certainly positive steps towards a more artistic ticketing experience, but the current offer to customers is a far cry from the eye-popping stubs of the past.
Savvy tech companies seem to have noticed this fandom-led gap in the market in recent years, with the likes of Tixologi offering attendees the chance to ‘immortalise their tickets as a unique printed memento’ in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) — a term that, frankly, may elicit a groan from many readers. But Tixologi is optimistic: “We don’t offer hard copy tickets today, but our tickets are digital collectables that live on forever as a memory of the event,” Asher Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Tixologi, told Forbes in 2023.
Weiss added that the original idea for Tixologi came from fans and attendees missing the collectable aspect of the ticket. “We have found a way to bring that back in a mostly digitally-ticketed world and give attendees something to hold onto for years to come,” he told Forbes. “Today, our tickets can include special imagery from the event, and in the future will include event highlights, videos, songs, and partner offers…We see this as the rebirth of ticket stubs, but better.”
In a 2023 article for NFTnow, journalist Langston Thomas seemingly backed this claim, arguing that NFT tickets are actually the future of live events. Crucially, Thomas suggested there are benefits for both parties. “Issuers can keep a more in-depth record of attendance numbers by utilising the blockchain as a ledger, and then send out notices, host surprise giveaways and create token-gated sites and services,” they said. Some might question the ethics of such data-mining, but Thomas adds that “NFT tickets grant holders access to exclusive experiences, including fan clubs made up only of holders of similar NFT tickets”.
A 2015 ticket for Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well Tour. Image courtesy of Blaise Hayward, Tickets Please.
Also in 2023, Mixmag argued that the adoption of NFT ticketing was “inevitable for music festivals”, citing EXIT in Serbia as the first large-scale festival (bar Coachella) to employ the technology. One of the main advantages, it said, is “the potential to create a sense of exclusivity and reward for dedicated fans”, with the ability to add perks such as backstage passes, meet-and-greets or exclusive merchandise to the digital collectible.
Perhaps younger music fans and new artists are unaware of what came before — “I’ve had people completely unaware that ticket stubs ever existed”, Hayward says disheartenedly — but there’s no denying the longevity and sense of connection that comes from physical tickets.
In fact, a scan on Etsy reveals several homemade tickets for Sabrina Carpenter, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Busted and more with different designs that fans can snap up to commemorate her BST Hyde Park show in London this July. They’re unofficial and fan-made, but the attention to detail is very impressive, and it’s easy to imagine fans purchasing them as keepsakes of an unforgettable concert.
If artists and labels start paying attention, the comeback of physical stubs might not just be wishful thinking — it could be the return of a merch goldmine.
Check out Blaise Hayward’s Tickets Please collection at blaisehayward.com
The post The Lost Art of the Ticket Stub — and its Futuristic Revival appeared first on MusicTech.

KV331 Audio SynthMaster One is just $9 + you get Bitwig Studio 8-Track for free
KV331 Audio’s SynthMaster One, a powerful wavetable synthesizer, is currently available for just $9 on Plugin Boutique until June 9. And there’s a cherry on top—if you purchase it before the end of May, you’ll get Bitwig Studio 8-Track for free. This is an excellent opportunity to get one of the most user-friendly and feature-rich [...]
View post: KV331 Audio SynthMaster One is just $9 + you get Bitwig Studio 8-Track for free

Anthony Fantano on politics in music: “Advocating that art should avoid any topic generally speaking is just lame”Should music stay out of politics? Should every protest anthem blow your mind? And is it really fair to expect a chart-topping banger to double as a political manifesto?
Anthony Fantano, host of The Needle Drop and one of the internet’s most influential music critics, says no – and thinks our expectations around political music might be the real problem.

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“I think advocating that art should avoid any topic generally speaking, like broadly speaking, is just kind of lame,” says Fantano on a recent episode of Joshua Citarella’s Doomscroll podcast.
But that doesn’t mean political music gets a free pass. Fantano argues that while injecting big ideas into your art is a good thing, it’s also incredibly hard to pull off – especially when fans expect deep ideology and catchy hooks in the same breath.
“Making political art is difficult because not only does that require you to put yourself in a position where you’re saying or advocating for something that you know may automatically turn off,” he explains.
“But also in terms of the people that do actually agree with you… you’re faced with the difficulty of putting it in such a way where it’s said well and advocated for well and doesn’t come across as just like some dumb sloganeering.”
In short, it’s tough to strike the right balance. Fantano adds that even when an artist and their fans share the same worldview, disappointment can still set in if the message doesn’t go deep enough.
“There’s a lot of people that have the expectation that… even though this band may align with me ideologically, they didn’t say anything that blew my mind or caused me to have a revelation… which I feel is kind of an unfair expectation especially if you are somebody who’s politically well read.”
His advice? Don’t expect a three-minute track to change your life: “We have to kind of like set our expectations a little bit when it comes to a song,” says Fantano. “It’s not a political dissertation. It’s not an article. It’s not a think piece. Not every song is going to be like System of a Down’s Prison Song where they’re rattling off statistics or whatever.”
Watch the full interview below.

The post Anthony Fantano on politics in music: “Advocating that art should avoid any topic generally speaking is just lame” appeared first on MusicTech.

“If artists are lucky, we get in your ‘For You’ page”: Loco Dice on the harsh truth of modern music discoveryLoco Dice has played the biggest clubs in the world, collaborated with legends, and just dropped a new album packed with stars like Skrillex, Carl Cox and Marco Carola. But in 2025, even he’s at the mercy of the algorithm.
Speaking to Billboard about his latest project Purple Jam, the German DJ and producer shares how making great music is only half the battle – getting people to actually hear it is the real challenge.

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Asked what success for Purple Jam looks like, Dice says, “That a lot of people get this album. These days it’s not like you put it in the record store and people know… These days we are driven by algorithm, so we’re kind of screwed.”
“If we are lucky, we get in your ‘for you’ page. If we are not lucky, you find out a year later, or never.”
The harsh reality, Dice explains, is that even in front of a packed dance floor, the artist often goes unseen.
“[At live sets] maybe 20% of people know [who I am], but for sure 50% don’t care,” he says. “They just come because you’re a badass DJ, or because the party is great. So this is the difficulty, and that’s why, when you ask what is success for the album, it’s that everybody gets a chance to listen to and appreciate it.”
According to Loco, the deluge of new music across digital platforms has also made “finding good music” an uphill task.
“There’s too much music. I’m flooded with music on WhatsApp, iMessage, Instagram here, there. I can’t follow up anymore,” says the DJ. “Then you spend like, four hours of your time and don’t find one track. It’s kind of demotivating.”
“Everybody’s trying to do the copy/paste or trying to pick up samples that you played live. It’s devastating. For me this is the most challenging part – finding the right artist, sent to me through the right channel, music that I can play it, release, or just get inspired by to make more music out of it.”

The post “If artists are lucky, we get in your ‘For You’ page”: Loco Dice on the harsh truth of modern music discovery appeared first on MusicTech.

How This Artist Manager Deepens the Fan Relationship and Prioritizes Mental HealthThis week, Ari is joined by Jaclyn O'Connell—artist manager and media strategist—to talk touring, fan growth, and career sustainability.

Growing BTC reserve requires Congressional legislation — VanEck execBuilding a permanent US strategic Bitcoin reserve would likely require targeted legislation rather than executive action, according to VanEck’s head of digital assets, Matthew Sigel. Speaking at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, Sigel said the most viable path forward may involve inserting Bitcoin mining incentives into the congressional budget reconciliation process.According to Sigel, the most effective path to growing a US strategic Bitcoin reserve would be through targeted amendments to congressional budget legislation. These could include tax credits for mining companies that use methane gas and other incentives aimed at encouraging miners to share a portion of their mined BTC with the federal government. He argued that such an approach would allow the reserve to grow organically over time. Sigel also highlighted the limitations of executive actions in achieving this goal:"The problem with executive action is that it's going to prompt lawsuits. And anything over $100 million is going to get sued by the Elizabeth Warrens of the world. So, I would say start with something maybe in the Exchange Stabilization Fund for $100 million."US President Donald Trump established the US Bitcoin Strategic Reserve through a March 7 executive order. According to the order, the US government can only acquire Bitcoin through budget-neutral strategies or asset forfeiture, prompting a range of different ideas on how to add to the government’s stockpile of nearly 200,000 BTC.From left to right, Alex Thorn, Matthew Sigel, Matthew Pines and Fred Thiel. Source: Turner Wright/CointelegraphRelated: Bitcoin’s new highs may have been driven by Japan bond market crisisLawmakers, officials pitch different ideas to grow strategic Bitcoin reserveWyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, the US lawmaker who introduced legislation for a Bitcoin strategic reserve in July 2024, proposed converting a portion of the gold certificates held by the US Treasury to Bitcoin.Converting gold to Bitcoin would allow the US government to purchase more Bitcoin without incurring a cost to the taxpayer, Lummis said.Bo Hines, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, echoed the idea in March 2025.Hines called on the US Treasury to revalue its gold holdings, which are currently priced at just $42.22 per troy ounce, and convert a portion of those gains to Bitcoin. This strategy would also be budget-neutral, Hines said.The price of gold reached an all-time high of $3,500 per ounce in April but experienced a minor pullback to around $3,300 on May 27.Magazine: TradFi fans ignored Lyn Alden’s BTC tip — Now she says it’ll hit 7 figures: X Hall of Flame

Snoop Dogg embraces AI in new music video — and, yes, it’s kinda weirdLegendary rap artist Snoop Dogg has just dropped the official music video for his single, Sophisticated Crippin’, from his album Iz It A Crime? And it’s packed to the brim with generative AI footage.
The music video starts out with a suited-up current-day Snoop Dogg having a conversation with a younger Snoop Dogg, wearing crip colours — older Snoop pleads that younger Snoop “keep crippin, but keep it ‘sophisicated crippin’”. If you’re somehow not convinced that these two Snoops aren’t made with a generative AI model, the next scene definitely will. The video cuts to the front of a music venue with “Snoop Dogg” in lights at the top, and random, gibberish text underneath to represent other artists.
The rest of the music video, directed by Jesse Wellens, seems to be mostly AI, too. Generated clips of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Warren G, Nate Dogg and Tupac and more all appear, alongside some classic photos of Snoop Dogg that have been ‘brought to life’ with the generative AI software.
Check it out below.

The video is sure to unsettle some viewers, with its uncanny valley-esque animation and bizarre twists and turns — not to mention the conflict over the use of AI in the film indsutry right now. Others, however, may see the inspiring side of the video, knowing they, too, are able to harness the AI tools Snoop and his team used to make music videos.
This isn’t the first time Snoop has used generative AI on an official music video. In April, the artist dropped the video for Last Dance with Mary Jane ft. Tom Petty & Jelly Roll, was made using AI image creation software developed by Temple Caché. However, according to a report by Little Black Book, none of the scenes in the video were completely AI-generated. “To achieve subtle details and ensure consistency across shots, each frame was touched by human artists – reanimated, composited and layered manually,” said Psyop’s head of studio partnerships, Andrew Linsk.

Snoop Dogg’s Iz It A Crime? is out now. 
The post Snoop Dogg embraces AI in new music video — and, yes, it’s kinda weird appeared first on MusicTech.

James Taylor at the Santa Barbara BowlJames Taylor played the Santa Barbara Bowl (SBB) on May 13th and 14th. Taylor most recently performed at the SBB on May 31st, 2023. Last year, Taylor played the Hollywood Bowl and every time Taylor tours, you can expect a new show and different setlist from the previous one. Last year's show was broken into two sets, though this time around his performance was just one set. Not only were there a few changes to the setlist, but the first two songs of the encore had changed. Taylor played an incredible show of hits, covers, and rarities with his band. Opening the show at 7 p.m. was the trio Tiny Habits. Taylor took the stage at 8:20 p.m. and played an hour and 40 minutes.His “All Star Band” really is elite with session greats Michael Landau (Guitar), Chad Wackerman (Drums), Jimmy Johnson (Bass), ‘Blue’ Lou Marini (Sax), Larry Goldings (Keys), and Luis Conte (Percussion). There were also four backing vocalists including Taylor’s son Henry, Kate Markowitz, Andrew McCuller, Dorian Holley, and Andrea Zonn. Wackerman is filling in for Steve Gadd while out with Paul Simon. The 21-song setlist included many hits like “Carolina On My Mind,” “Mexico,” and “Sweet Baby James.” "Steamroller" featured Landau on one unforgettable guitar solo and Goldings on an organ solo. The visuals were spectacular with the screen above the stage changing for each song. This was also a night of storytelling, including a bit about how a contract Troubadour founder Doug Weston had artists sign to come back and play there even once becoming famous and working with Carole King.On top of "Steamroller," during the encore, Taylor performed "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” and “You Can Close Your Eyes.” From Taylor’s self-titled debut in 1969 to his latest album American Standard released in 2020, all have made the charts—with the highest being 2015’s “Before This World” at number one. Of all those albums, 15 went between Gold and Platinum in the U.S.Taylor has been nominated for 19 GRAMMYs (and won six) on top of being a Kennedy Center honoree, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, MusiCares Honoree, an honorary doctorate from Berklee School of Music in his hometown of Boston, MA, and is even an Emmy winner. Taylor is also a member of both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. SetlistWandering

I’m A Roadrunner-J.R. Walker & The All Stars

Walking Man

Stretch of the Highway

My Traveling Star

Jump Up Behind Me

Mexico

Carolina in My Mind

Only A Dream In Rio

Up on the Roof- Carole King

The Frozen Man

You’ve Got a Friend- Carole King

Sweet Baby James

Fire and Rain

(I've Got to) Stop Thinkin' 'Bout That

 Shed a Little Light

Shower the People

Your Smiling FaceEncoreSteamroller

How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)- Marvin Gaye

You Can Close Your Eyes Photos by Alex KluftThe post James Taylor at the Santa Barbara Bowl first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Anthropic launches a voice mode for ClaudeAnthropic has begun to roll out a “voice mode” for its Claude chatbot apps. The voice mode (in beta for now) allows Claude mobile app users to have “complete spoken conversations with Claude,” and will arrive in English over the next few weeks, according to Anthropic’s official account on X and updated documentation on the […]

Spotify has reached 100m paying subscribers in Europe, Daniel Ek confirmsSpotify reported on April 29 that it grew its global Premium Subscriber base to 268m paying users in Q1
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How to chop samples like a pro
Expert producer vvundertone breaks down the art of sample chopping, covering everything from sound design to the joys of using analog hardware.

8UP 8-Bit Pain8-Bit Pain is a collection of NES-era damage sound effect samples, capturing the classic sound of getting hurt by taking a hit. These are the 8-bit sounds of getting stabbed, scratched, shot, whacked, burned, bashed, and clobbered. The samples are organized into five sound categories: Slashes & Scratches – noisy swipes from blades or claws. Blows – bigger hits from heavy weapons and punches. Blunts – taking damage from dull objects like bats, bricks, and bullets. Low Buzzes – short, stinging hits with a low-pitched buzz. Moving Tones – painful shifts in frequency and pitch. This pack contains: 101 8-Bit Pain Samples (Slashes & Scratches, Blows, Blunts, Low Buzzes & Moving Tones). 1 SFX Patch for Native Instruments Kontakt, Ableton Live, Maschine, Logic Pro EXS24/Sampler, FL Studio, MPC Expansion Pack, and TAL-Sampler. 24-bit, 44.1 kHz WAV files. 6 MB. Pack Demo: Read More

Hand Truck Turned Into MotorcycleFor those motorcyclists looking to get a classic American-style cruiser, often the go-to brand is Harley-Davidson. However, these bikes not only have reputations for being stuck in the past, both in terms of design and culture, but they also tend to be extremely expensive—not only upfront, but in maintenance as well. If you want the style without all of that baggage, you might want to try out something like this custom motorcycle which not only looks the part, it reduces those costs by being built around a hand truck.
By the end of the project, though, the hand truck does not retain much of its original form or function. [Garage Avenger] has cut and welded it essentially into a custom frame for the diminutive motorcycle, while retaining much of its original look and feel. Keeping up with the costs savings aspect of this project, the four-stroke engine was free, although it did take some wrenching to get it running and integrated into the frame. A custom axle, a front end from another bike, a gas tank from an online retailer (that needed re-welding), and some wiring finishes out the build.
With a fresh paint job to match the original color of the hand truck, it’s off to the track. Of course it doesn’t have quite the performance of most street legal motorcycles, including some quirks with the handling and braking, but for the trails around [Garage Avenger]’s home it’s certainly a fun transportation mode he can add to his repertoire. If this is your first time seeing one of his projects, be sure to check out his other work including this drifting shopping cart and this turbine-powered sled.

Kali Audio introduce the SM-8 Combining Kali Audio's proven three-way coincident architecture with top-quality components and skilled craftsmanship, the SM-8 is aimed at critical production applications, and promises to deliver unparalleled imaging, accuracy and detail.

Arturia’s new “future-proof” AstroLab 88 keyboard will receive regular firmware updatesArturia has launched a new stage keyboard, the AstroLab 88, which the brand describes as “future-proof”.
The new keyboard offers a responsive hammer-action keybed with 40 onboard instruments and over 1,600 presets (powered by the Arturia V Collection and Pigments), updated CPU for improved polyphony and load times, and a “forward-thinking ecosystem that lets artists perform with all their signature sounds – laptop-free”.

READ MORE: At $60, Arturia’s MicroLab MK3 MIDI controller could be perfect for bedroom producers

AstroLab 88 has a performance-first design, and is the first stage keyboard that integrates seamlessly with your DAW through Analog Lab Pro (included). Users can take their studio-crafted sounds to the stage, with no computer required, and the AstroLab Connect app is also included, which acts as a command centre for browsing, organising, and tweaking your sounds on the go.
The keyboard will continue to evolve and improve via regular firmware upgrades, with a major update due by 17 July set to bring new and updated V Collection 11 instruments, playlist transfer between Analog Lab Pro and AstroLab, plus the ability to send programme changes to external devices, and more.
Other key features include:

A navigation wheel and OLED screen
Four macro controls
10 preset buttons for one-touch access to sounds and setlists
Integrated effects: Two dedicated FX (Delay and Reverb) and two assignable FX slots
Chord, Scale, and Arp modes
Multi-instruments: AstroLab 88 lets you assign different sounds across the keyboard with programmable split points
Loop and record (with up to 32 bars of MIDI looping)
A vocoder engine

Additional useful appointments include wireless playback, a ‘one-finger’ song mode (combine the Chord, Scale and Arpeggio modes to play a full song with one finger), a playlist mode to organise and build live sets directly on the keyboard, and a curated selection of sounds from iconic artists, all on board.
To find out more, check out the video below:
Find out more about the AstroLab 88 keyboard via Arturia. 
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