Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum What is causing the decline of acoustic pianos in the USA?

As for the decline of accordions...

I'm reminded of a classic FAR SIDE cartoon. One panel shows St. Peter welcoming a new arrival at the Pearly Gates with "Welcome to Heaven. Here's your harp."

The second panel shows Satan greeting a condemned soul with "Welcome to heck. Here's your accordion."

:-)

People like you are retiring, that's why sales are declining.

To elaborate a bit on such a flattering comment, I don't think that sales decline because of the object, but because of a dwindling supply of people whose expertise and selling ability make the product relevant and interesting.

As we continue to move towards an era where consumers only look at model numbers and prices, sooner or later people will realize that their homes are filled with worthless junk that is only as valuable as the next cheapest product number that replaced it. Price pressure therefore chokes the talented people out of perfectly viable products, like pianos.

As proof, there are certain brands of pianos that are not being squeezed as badly as others. Why? Because people are talking about them. They get excited about them and tell their friends and elevate them. Those that rely simply on some feature of the piano itself usually disappear quickly.

The products that are booming right now are the ones that have visionaries behind them, shouting out the relevance and importance of the product, creating demand -- and hence sales.

The piano has been around for 300-plus years. I believe that its relevance is as firm as a a musical scale or the circle of fifths.

We are coming into a time where economic challenges will put the squeeze on everyone, but I DO think the piano will rebound -- perhaps in a different kind of way -- but it will.

It has the momentum of 20 generations of music makers behind it. Its design is the basis for all of western music.

As for the accordion? I think that was more of an evolutionary thing and something of a fad. Fads come and go.

But at the end of the day, it's the people that give an industry critical mass -- not the product.

Great thread reference, turandot.
Don't know how I missed this one before.
Yet more food for thought.

Hey theJourney and turandot,

I finally found enough time to finish reading that thread.
Yes a great read.
Thanks for pointing it out to me.
Wish I had known about it and read it before starting my thread.

Bear

Hi John,

Thanks for the compliment.
I appreciate it very much.

Sincerely,

Bear

Don't give up on the accordian either. 10 - 1 says that the accordian will also return to popularity. It's portable unlike the other boards instruments.

The other thing to consider is if the Acoustic continues to decline can I get that Bosie grand for $1,000 ?

You can add classical church organ to the list.

The total amount of pianos that are still out there floating around from household to household that are trading hands as kids grow up to new families with young kids is tremendous. The acoustic piano will be around for decades yet even if they stopped making them today.

A part of the problem is who recommends the digitals and why? Often times, music teachers recommend them in an attempt to keep the childs interest peaked in practicing. Salesmen sometimes recommend them because the profit margin might be greater than the acoustic. I can't blame either one but, as mentioned too, eventually, people may realize that the long term value of a digital is nothing in comparison to an acoustic instrument.

But Jerry, don't you think that at a certain price point, say $1,000, a digital is a reasonable alternative to an older used upright?

Organ folks dying, not many good reps left, war, gas is high, no margin in digitals, PW dimwits quoting C3 prices, actually, its kinda like the business was when you came into it Bear:) Korea, Kiddies got that new teknologee (TV,)inflation, wierdo reps, gas was high (.26 a gallon used to be .12)
So what to do? what to do?. I like CT techs answer the best.

Seems Roland doesn't believe the accordian is a 'dead' instrument. Currently 'Featured Products' include:
http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=930&ParentId=72

I like your positive thinking

No, I don't Doug. How can we compare a $50,000 Steinway to a digital?

I take this into consideration as well. 30 years from now, your piano will probably be worth what you paid for it provided you didn't get bilked to begin with. The digital will be worth next to nothing in just a few short years.

I bought a very nice 88 note digital many years ago. Yeah, I have one too! But, I also have 2 real pianos as well. At the time, my digital retailed for around $6,000. I went to sell it about 5 years later only to discover that it was then worth about $1,800. So, I kept it.

Plus, when you work on them full time all day long for a living like I do, we can really tell a tremendous difference between the two and there really is no comparison.

In my view the current and further decline of the popularity of the acoustic piano can is attributed to the emergence of absolute popularity and, indeed necessity, of computers in our everyday life.

Today’s piano players not only want to play but also to compose, publish and market worldwide their works of music. Equally, they also want to share around with others their works.

Instead of buying one single instrument, a piano in our case, today people buy whole symphony orchestras, recording studios, publishing hoses and world marketing houses in the shape of a computer with programs allowing them to express themselves in a way that it would never be possible with just a piano. All these “other” instruments of the music trade are what people have always desired to have but could only afford due to the computer technology.

2 reasons that I see...

First, price tags on all pianos have a bunch of zeroes at the end. Before the dot. A halfway decent guitar can be had for $200 to satisfy the musical urges.

Second, it takes a lot of time and energy to keep your young child engaged day after day at the keyboard. I started lessons only two years before my son, and so I can pretty easily relate to the frustrations and the difficulties he encounters. More importantly, I can actually show him how to overcome those issues by just sitting next to him at the keyboard. If I had no prior experience with piano, I sure I would have quickly allowed my son to abandon his lessons, because after a while I wouldn't have known what else to do, and I wouldn't have had time to figure it out.

The multiple preset digital keyboards which arose in the eighties as Craigen mentioned. Only the true die hard organists kept this instrument alive with the need of the multiple manuals,drawbars and full pedal board. Other than the Hammond B3,C3,A100 etc. the organ industry is history (Church organs are also the divine exception).

I remember years ago in my study group in Law school telling the group that one can endure this for three years with "no life per se" and hopefully pass the bar but after three years of piano lessons you're still a beginner.

Absolutely ridiculous. My two boys play/played baseball, basketball, and football. Both still play the piano. (Ages 15 and 19). I think it's important to exercise BOTH sides of the brain.

Concerning the topic...

Are we even sure there actually IS a decline in the acoustic piano? Or is the market just saturated?

More and more manufacturers--with the help of automation and cheap labor--are putting out a LOT of pianos. For instruments that last 30 to 50 years (or whatever), how can there continue to be enough buyers?