I just encountered this story relating to the economy and piano sales:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-piano-sales-down-economy-20110214,0,5678786,full.story

Edit: (Edited link as per Ryan Sowers' recommendation )

Interesting and disturbing.

The same thing is happening with all kinds of 'commodities,' including art, and, of course, real estate. It's as though anything that you can't eat is cheap. Except the stock market, for some reason -- that's real high. Or is it....

I hope tuners/techs are mostly doing OK even though your work is sort of a "luxury." I've been glad to see that the techs that I use seem to be busy enough.

If you put url in brackets at the beginning of a link and /url in brackets at the end it will functional link.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-piano-sales-down-economy-20110214,0,5678786,full.story

Thanks

I don't find it disturbing. I think businesses were spoiled before the housing bubble popped. People were living under a fantasy that it could just keep going up forever. "housing prices never fall" is what I kept hearing from people. But if you talk to older folks, they've seen these cycles before. Nothing new.

When money dries up it really shows where people's priorities are. One problem with the piano market is that they sell bunches of them when times are fat, the market gets saturated and then when people have to tighten their belts, retail sales nosedive.

I believe Craigslist has become a serious competitor on the piano market. It is arguably the largest venue where piano sales are taking place, yet these are not included in official statistics on pianos sales. Yet most of these "under the radar" sales, and there are millions of them to be sure, will require moving, tuning, servicing, etc. Piano is still a very popular instrument. This is why piano technicians and movers are still doing pretty well, overall.

Retail piano sales are a misleading indication of the overall health of the culture's love affair with the instrument. The best piano teachers are very busy and in many cases you have to get on a waiting list. Buying a new piano doesn't make sense if you are looking for the most "bang for your buck" and on a tight budget.

I agree with almost all the rest of what you said, but to me it's still highly disturbing, because:

-- People are having to give up their pianos
-- Dealers are hurting.

(I also don't agree on how you put it about buying a new piano, although what you said would be good advice for many people.)

We don't know how many people are giving up their pianos. Most likely they weren't really playing them anyways. Besides it's like the housing market - When people give them up, it makes more opportunities for those who are ready to buy.

Remember the media is grossly biased towards negative stories, and don't mention the millions of wonderful things that are happening every day.

Dealers are hurting because 1. they didn't have any reserves for natural downturns in the market. 2. They didn't cultivate enough trust and respect in their communities. 3. They don't own their own real estate.

I know some dealers who are busy right now buying up inventory from dealers who are going under. When things turn around they are going to make a lot of money.

Taken from the latest Renner report.

"Industry Flash
U.S. unit piano shipments were up significantly for the year 2010. The Piano Manufacturers Association International reports unit grand piano shipments up 13% and vertical piano shipments up 7%.

The piano rebuilding market was also up substantially, having fared much better than new piano sales during the economic downturn. We estimate that over 70% of quality grand pianos being purchased now are used or rebuilt, because of the unique value they represent."

Sure wish "they" would buy mine...lol

I thought I read in Music Trades that sales of acoustic pianos are actually significantly higher than they were ten years ago. I'll try and find the article.

Just quoting from the text in the article:

The housing and piano markets are so weak, they can buy pianos here, ship them across the continent and still make a profit. Last year, Vonderbecke sent more than $100,000 worth of pianos to Canada.

It's good to know that new piano sales (& used) are up. I think it's interesting (though depressing) background info connecting used piano sales to the real estate crash. Just another piece of the puzzle

Fortunately (or unfortunately) that isn't the case here in Canada.
When I was in the market for a grand last year I intended to buy used but was appalled at the prices people were asking in the Toronto area. Especially when I compared them to the used prices I saw in the US through this forum. It practically made me cry when I saw the deals that could be had down there in the used market.

Sales of Acoustic pianos in the USA were around 200,000 per year in the 1980's, 100,000 per year in the early 2000's, and down to 33,000 in 2009. These are not exact numbers, but the trend is apparent. BTW, 100,000 digital pianos were sold in 2009, three times the number of acoustics.

We’ve received numerous calls over the past few years from people wanting to sell their pianos but I can’t recall one of these coming from someone who actually played the piano. (Well, I can, but they were from folks who had upgraded to a better piano and were selling—or trying to sell—the old one.) These calls have been coming from folks who had “inherited” mom’s old upright, or had purchased the piano for their kids to practice on while they were taking lessons and the kids are now grown and either have pianos of their own or no longer play, or they found the piano in a house they just bought, or some such story.

The people who play their pianos are not parting with them. Or if they are we’ve not been hearing about them. Not even here where the economy is relatively poor. Rather, at least some of the people who do play are taking this opportunity to upgrade their instruments at prices lower than they have been for years.

ddf

That counts only the sales of new pianos. The life expectancy of pianos is measured in decades, if not centuries. Significantly more used pianos change hands every year.

The life expectancy of digital keyboards is measured in months and years. When the original purchaser is through with the thing it often ends up in the garage or basement until it is well and truly obsolete and/or it ceases to function after which it ends up in a land fill someplace. Only the very top end of this market retains enough function and value to end up being resold for extended use.

ddf

Del, exactly what I was thinking of writing. Now I don't have to.

The local piano dealer here closed, leaving no dealers in my market.

A lot of the pianos I see come from Craigslist. I serviced a Baldwin studio a few weeks ago that was purchased on Craigslist for $350. Good solid piano.