ROLI – the innovative company specialising in touch-sensitive electronic instruments – has entered administrationROLI – the innovative music technology company specialising in touch-sensitive electronic instruments like the Seaboard Block M and the Airwave – has collapsed into administration, it has been revealed.
Earlier this week (2 November), the company emailed customers to inform them that on 20 October, two insolvency practitioners had been appointed joint administrators of the company, according to Wired.
It follows the reported ousting of CEO and founder Roland Lamb earlier this year, after which a new company, Instrumental Intelligence, was registered in the UK under his name.

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Following the collapse, the ROLI community has taken to Reddit and other social sites and forums to report missing orders, and no information regarding refunds or when their orders – which range from hundreds to thousands of dollars – will be fulfilled.
One Reddit user even reports that they’ve been waiting to receive their ROLI order since October 2025. “I still haven’t received mine and customer support isn’t responding either,” they write. “My Airwave never came in,” another user writes, while another replies to share a similar experience. ROLI’s website has also been taken offline – with all products unavailable to purchase – as well as the company’s Discord server.
Like a lot of modern hardware, the ROLI ecosystem depends heavily on companion apps and software in order to connect and configure settings. Routine software and firmware updates are part and parcel of modern electronic music gear, and many ROLI customers fear the company’s collapse will, over time, leave their gear degraded or unusable.
Some users have even started conversations about reverse engineering or vibe-coding in order to keep their ROLI gear fully functional, while a new user-generated Discord server has been started, aimed at free and open-source “solutions and workarounds” in light of the company’s collapse.
One of the pioneering companies behind MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) – which lets musicians control pitch and timbre via touch-based movement – ROLI has enjoyed considerable success since it was founded in 2009, with celebrity endorsements coming from Pharrell Williams and Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess, and even an appearance in the movie La La Land.
The Covid pandemic changed the company’s fortunes, though, going into administration for the first time in 2021, even after benefiting from financial aid from the UK government designed to help struggling businesses during the pandemic.
Last month, rumours surfaced that ROLI had made a number of its employees redundant. The company did not respond to MusicTech’s request for comment.
MusicTech once again reached out for comment following the company’s entry into administration, and were met with an automatic reply confirming the appointment of Damian Webb and Joe Barry of RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP as joint administrators of Luminary Roli Limited.
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