Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Newspaper Article About Dwindling Piano Stores

Well, it takes talent to rise to the top in any genre, but perhaps not the same type of talent that makes you a top pianist.

Avicii making a song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dIcuU58Oy8
This guy practically lives on a private jet...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK6bFbA0Q3Y

Something else to consider is while the economy was tanking individual states all scrambled around to do whatever it takes to generate revenue. I inherited my piano business in 1992 and really did nothing with it until I decided to move to TN from Florida in 2008 but we got away from new sales way back in the late 70s sometime.

My business license in Florida was like 60 dollars but when I moved to TN I was hit with a Bi annual business license based on revenue which was like 8500.00 !! Getting the trucks re-registered and forget about employees when there is a trust for workmans comp which is like 4500 per man and people wonder why there are no jobs, It's pretty normal for 47+ % of gross income to go totally to workmans comp payments.

All that stuff adds up so if you are paying big rent in some mall somewhere and then have floor plan fees and investments in stock. You have to sell at least 4 times what your bills total each month to stay afloat.

I learned that lesson a long time ago so no heart attacks for me. I am basically a one man show anymore and what I can't do I just pass to the next person. When I see big fancy dealerships even if it's not a piano dealership I just cringe at the massive expenses they must have. I want to have fun doing what I do until I can't do it anymore.

That song is great! I was singing along by the end. (I really am a thrift store shopper. Always have been, not just since the economy tanked.)

Yes, people often make the mistake of thinking that selling luxury items make dealers rich. Often it's quite the opposite.

Selling to the 'small people' on the other hand is very profitable ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th3LtLx0IEM
(So are you perfect in your 2nd language? :-)


Ikea posted some record yearly numbers lately
http://www.di.se/artiklar/2013/1/23/ikea-om-vinstrekordet-vi-ar-aldrig-nojda/

(lazy cur. conv.)
Sales 24 000 000 000 GBP, +9%
Profit 3 400 000 000 GPB, +4%
Cash 15 500 000 000 GBP

Wal Mart are doing fine too
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324556304578120643989361884.html

I totally agree with you, to be the best at anything you need to have real skill and dedication. I should have been more clear - I think in general a lot more people are not learning piano as much as they used to. More musicians are using technology such as computers rather than the lengthy incredibly hard process of learning the piano.

I left the piano business in 2004, so I can’t speak to the situation in other areas. But as a born & raised Clevelander, who lives only about two miles from the Mattlin-Hyde dealership, I’d like to add my two cents.

First, the local piano market has indeed collapsed over the last decade. The last strong year in sales I saw was in 2000. Even before 9/11, sales in 2001 were on a downward trend. Consider that Graves Piano (disclosure: I worked there), which was a HUGE dealership, closed in 2002. Sumwalt, which was the Kawai and M&H dealer, closed around the same time. Great Lakes Piano (where I worked after Graves closed) opened in 2003 and closed in 2005. Falls Music in nearby Cuyahoga Falls closed around the same time. Lentine’s (which was not a piano specialist but carried a few budget brands) closed all their stores in the early 2000s. (Motter’s Music House – which literally is an expanded house – is similar to Lentine’s and not really a piano dealership.)

The closure of Mattlin-Hyde may be a reflection of changing economic conditions and an overall drop in demand for pianos. But in my opinion, that store has been going downhill for two decades. Both in quality of merchandise and general condition of the facility, it in no way resembled the store I used to drop by while a student in high school (which was considerably more than two decades ago) – when Bill Mattlin would say to me “Hank, Ashkenazy’s playing that D next week at Blossom. Try it out & tell me what you think”. Steinway issued a directive about a decade ago that mandated all stores carrying their brand meet a minimum standard in terms of showroom appearance, size, and maintenance of the instruments. I never saw evidence that any effort was made in this area. I was last in the store in 2007, when I helped a friend in his piano search. We were appalled at how poorly the instruments were tuned and maintained, and the showroom looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in eons. Ironically, the salesperson was none other than the former owner of a competing chain. I drive by the dealership every day on my way home from work, and for years I’ve wondered when they would pack it in.

All business comes down to profit – garnering enough sales to exceed expenses. In the case of Bill Kap, low overhead has helped keep him in business (he owns the building, which is in the worst area of northeast Ohio) despite a 70% drop in sales. As for Classic pianos, their lavish showroom is in the most expensive shopping center in the Cleveland area. Their expenses must be astronomical, although this may be alleviated by their status as part of a chain where they can get special pricing. Perhaps they believe with less competition, they can “own” the market. Time will tell.

Paradoxically, there is no evidence that musical culture in Cleveland is on the downswing. The orchestra is reporting record ticket sales and the audiences are younger than one would expect – the last several concerts I’ve been to at Severance Hall have been sold out; every piano recital I’ve been to at the local conservatory has been well attended.

Interesting write-up, Hank... very interesting.

I wish the best for the piano dealers who are still fortunate enough to remain in business. Surely they will not all close.

Rick

Kids are more interested in Justin Bieber than Chopin. A friend of mine told me that 90% of kids that taking piano lessons are Chinese in Toronto.

China has a lot more media exposure to Classical music than north america even before Langlang and Yundi Li.

For me, without the movie "The Pianist" i wound't get exposure to Chopin and the eager to self learn piano.

There was a series of TV programs in the UK last year which invited members of the public to audition to learn a new skill, something they'd never done before. They are then coached by professionals and then do it for real after a couple of months. The skills include rock-climbing, navigation in the mountains, lie-detecting, singing operatic music etc (maybe rapping also).

What was significant was that learning to play a classical musical instrument like the piano or violin wasn't one of them. Because it takes years?

And it's the reason why learning to play a musical instrument well just isn't fashionable in the West anymore. (East Asians, however, are still instilled with a strong work ethic from childhood). People want instant gratification, not years of hard graft, of practising several hours a day. Which is also why people prefer just to buy some keyboard and sit down and 'improvise', rather than learn to play properly....

Kind of reminds me of the Asimov quote “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

One hardly needs to be surprised.

A smaller market obviously doesn't need mega-size music outlets but smaller, dedicated dealers sincere in their efforts to get their customers the very best pianos for their money.

If this means avoiding or shedding certain brands over some others, so be it.

It's not an easy ride for sure but can be highly rewarding.

The problem is that few having been used to the "easy life" when times were good don't wish to work any harder than they were used to and when making money was easy.

Let alone taking some of the more established brands by the horns....

Although there's lots of opportunity in today's market to do so.

Norbert

I think there's no cause to worry about declining piano sales: these are highly cyclical.

I found canadian statistics of musical instrument stores; their revenues closely follow the state of the economy: http://www.ic.gc.ca/cis-sic/cis-sic.nsf/IDE/cis-sic45114rdpe.html

Some express concern that people are becoming lazy because of the possibility of instant gratification, but that has always been the case. It is part of human nature. There's only a small percentage of the population that can succeed at mastering an instument - and piano is certainly not the hardest: try learning violin, if you dare!

The argument on cultural grounds is also dubious. Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber are not responsible for common people being musically retarded; common people have always been that way. I remember that while in Paris in the 1770's, Mozart was complaining to his father of the exact same thing: people interested only in popular music, no demand for his compositions, etc.

As for the digital pianos, they have several advantages, and year after year, they emulate even more closely the real thing, at a cost that may be a bit less. Maybe the traditional piano is on its way out, but it does not mean that people will stop playing pianos.

Like it or not, playing piano is an elite thing. Higher rates of learning in Asian countries such as Korea (the highest in the world) and Chine have more to do with an obsession to get ahead socially, but in my experience, very few of Korean kids who are learning piano continue to do so in their adulthood.

Disclosure: I was a piano teacher to several Korean families. Many kids were under duress from their parents to learn piano and were receiving physical punishment if they did not practise enough. I can certify that no great talent emerged from that bunch.

Katai:

Interesting post!

However, music including music-making was hardly ever a numbers game.

Time and time again genius and real talent in conjunction with personal dedication, have won out in the long run.

And at no time in history had musicians have had better or more affordable instruments at their avail.

So, how are we to really 'measure' things?

Norbert

It's traditional Asian method for parents to to force wills to their kids.
I'm sure Lang Lang took more physical punishment than any other kid. The idea behind it is kids lacks perseverance and it's the best time for parents to kick in and get them back on track.

I will still keep my argument about media exposure to classical music. I remember in high school when I lend my Chopin ballade&scherzo cd to friends who normally listen to hard rocks they all think it's amazing. Classical music is for everyone.

Steven,

Experiences vary. I had to exert duress upon my parents for them to buy me a piano when I was 8. I had read in Robert Schumann biography that he threatened to commit suicide if he did not get a piano, and the same threat worked for me.

Your point about children easily giving up is generally true, though. However, it is not true for **all** children. Once I had my piano, nothing could unglue me from it, not even having to eat. I think I did not eat for two days when I first received it. And it was an old piece of junk, a Gaveau maybe 100 years old with broken keys. But it was heaven to me.

That said, there are other areas of my life that would have been improved if I had Asian parents. I really respect that kind of tough love, even if it is sometimes for base motives, such as climbing the social ladder.

And I could easily find examples contrary to what you say about Chopin's cd to friends: I remember sending a YouTube video to a dear friend of the beginning Matthaeus-Passion with Karl Richter and she said it was "boring".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf4UNJqv_-A

I was so angry at her that I stopped communicating with her. The most sublime music ever composed by any human being, and a truly inspired interpretation, "boring"! To this day I feel angry with that description.

Also, I find the reaction of most people when listening to opera **most annoying**, as if the experience was truly a pain to them. I remember showing the following delightful aria sung by a delightful soprano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kvdf-fRNM8

to my cousins and I was horrified by how the music made them feel physically uncomfortable. I guess there is something about human voices in the treble range that some people cannot physically endure, no matter how beautiful they sound to the trained ear.

Mind you, in Montreal's subway, a few years back, they had a problem with bums squatting inside when in Winter. Some genius working for the city had the idea of blasting a viola da gamba music cd by Jordi Savall, and presto, the bums were out in no time - they apparently could not endure the cruel and unusual punishment of listening to Marin Marais' formal ordres. I found that episode clever but pretty depressing (using classical music as a repellent), but I've resigned myself over the years of the fact that not everyone can appreciate the good stuff.

I haven't heard that Karl Richter performance for a long time - it was the first recording of the St Matthew Passion I bought (on cassette tape, to use in my Walkman), and despite the fabulous singing, does sound rather slow now - especially since the likes of John Eliot Gardiner and other HIP recordings, who perform it with rhythmic buoyancy at a dance-like pace......(maybe your friend might have enjoyed HIPs better).

And classical music is frequently used in the UK to keep teenagers away from congregating around street corners, bus stops, malls etc. Even Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik is effective.......

Well, that confirms the Fall of the British Empire!

I await bad Bluegrass at Proms.

i just find people who accept "rock" generally has a easier time to accept classical music compare to "pop" people.

there are pros and cons with asian method. but physical punishment is not an option for asian parents in north america:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5jlrxcpkI

Yo-Yo Ma has already brought his Silk Road Ensemble to the Proms, and on his next visit, will no doubt bring his Bluegrass friends (Edgar Meyer etc) for a Proms gig. But it will be elevated Bluegrass

If I remember correctly, a few decades ago, classical music was piped into New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal specifically to chase away the drug dealers, panhandlers and homeless (I don't think the term "homeless" existed back then).

New York is a different place these days, though the bus terminal is still not on the list of hot places to be seen.