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Wrong With TheWhat Went

{PAGE 36} BY GREG BILLINGS

BLUES BUSTERS: SUMMER PROMOTIONS TO DRIVE TRAFFIC, SALES PAGE 50

Piano Industry...And How to Fix It

JUNE 2009 I MUSICINCMAG.COM

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36 I MUSIC INC. I JUNE 2009

{WHATWENTWRONG}

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JUNE 2009 I MUSIC INC. I 37

By Greg Billings

Piano Industry

What wentwrong

with the

Coming off the worst year any of us can remember,with unit sales of new pianos plummeting anddealerships closing, we may be standing at theprecipice of the end of the modern piano dealer.Soon, like the home organ dealer before us, we

could be reduced to just a few niche-market specialty stores.Many of us remember when new piano sales were measured

in the hundreds of thousands per year. How did we get to thelow tens of thousands? It’s time to take a good, hard look atwhat went wrong and what we can do about it.

IT’S NOT THE ECONOMY

S teve Thomas, president of Scott’s Music in Grand Forks,N.D., pointed out that the miserable economy is a tempo-

rary factor, at most, in the piano industry’s decline. “The econ-omy is the least of our problems,” he said. “The decline inpiano sales started while the economy was still booming. It isdirectly linked to a decline in the perceived value of music edu-cation among this generation. And many who are interested [inlearning music] have been siphoned off by big-box retailers,often with products from our own suppliers.”

Certainly the demise of the housing market is a factor, butthe housing crash may be as coincidental as it was causal.Through most of the 20th century, it was nearly impossible toget a mortgage for more than four times your annual incomewithout at least 10-percent down or with a payment exceedingone week’s pay. By 1990, the rules were rewritten. In the mostextreme cases, buyers financed homes they weren’t going tolive in with lenders who weren’t going to hold the paper. Cananyone be surprised that the bubble burst?


“It was apparent in the ’90sthat easy home-equity dollarsdrove the sale of grand pianos,”said Craig Gigax, president ofMeridian Music in Indianapolis.“Easy cash has dried up, and sohave piano sales.”

KIDS, PARENTS & TEACHERS

It’s convenient to blame thekids. Some say kids today are

more interested in skateboards,karate and video games than instudying piano — or any otherserious endeavor, for that mat-ter. But hasn’t there alwaysbeen competition for kids’attention? (My grandmotherwas convinced that the hours Ispent watching “The MickeyMouse Club” and building tinylog cabins would spell mydoom.) And if distraction is themain problem, how can weexplain the boom in schoolband enrollment and the sale of400 million Harry Potter books?

Paul Calvin, vice presidentand general manager ofYamaha’s keyboard division,said the problem may lie morewith parents than kids. “InChina, playing the piano ismuch like soccer is to parentshere in the U.S.,” he said. “It’sjust something you get yourkids involved in. The kids feelit is a competitive thing.

“The Chinese immigrantshere also have a strong passionto play piano and are helpingdrive our sales.”

I see this in SouthwestFlorida. The Asian populationis tiny, but the majority of win-ners in our annual SteinwayPiano Competition have beenChinese for the past nine years.

“Most people would love toplay [piano],” said Brian Chung,senior vice president of KawaiAmerica. “But if their time islimited, they’ll usually choosethe activity that offers the mostfun with the least stress.”

And let ’s not forget to

blame the teachers. I recentlyheard the director of sales fora major piano manufacturerrant for 15 minutes about thelack of formally certified pianoteachers. I asked him if pianoteachers were certified whenwe were kids and piano studywas the norm. Of course theyweren’t. Piano teachers todayare generally superior to theirpredecessors, and you canhear the proof in their studentrecitals. Blaming piano teach-ers for the decline in pianosales is like blaming the cowsfor Mad Cow Disease.

That said, a kid who learnsthree chords on a guitar mightplay for the rest of his life, butevery day, we see people whohad five years of piano lessonsand can’t play “HappyBirthday.” Many piano teachershave done a good job teachingstudents to read piano arrange-

ments from a score, but they’vedone a poor job teaching peoplehow to play the piano for funand enjoyment. Sight-readingmusic is like typing poetry inreal time; it’s a formidable skillbut of limited usefulness andnot emotionally gratifying.

“How many times have youspoken with someone whosaid, ‘I took piano lessons years

ago but quit because the teacherwas forcing me to play in com-petitions and recitals?’” saidGeorge Benson, national salesmanager of Wyman Pianos.“Just think of the pianos thatcould have been sold if thosepeople would have kept playingthe piano because it was fun.”

NO PIANO TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS

Our industry must confrontan inescapable fact: We

have lost most of the last gen-eration of pianists, and we arein the process of losing thenext. Our biggest problem —and biggest opportunity — isnever discussed. It’s the 500-pound gorilla in the livingroom, the redheaded cousin atthe dinner table. Formal pianoinstruction in elementaryschool is almost nonexistent.

“There has been a con-certed lack of music educationin our school systems, bothpublic and private, and thislack of emphasis has led to ourchildren not being exposed tothe piano,” said Ron Losby,president of Steinway & Sonsand a former piano teacher.“Education is clearly the keyingredient, and we are all cul-pable in not supporting educa-tion at every level.”

Money isn’t the problem.School systems, after all, spendexorbitant sums for a bassoonor a tympani. When askedwhat instrument they want toplay, kids will usually saypiano (keyboard), guitar ordrums. Still, our schools arenot institutionally equipped todeal with hundreds of guitarand piano students.

The piano industry hasnever made a serious effort toestablish piano instruction inelementary schools. If schoolsstarted students on piano inthe first or second grade, theywould have flourishing bandand choral programs, not to

{WHATWENTWRONG}


‘There hasbeen a

concerted lackof music

education inour schoolsystems.’

— Ron Losby,Steinway

Steinway’s Ron Losby


Project5 5/4/09 4:13 PM Page 1

mention greater academicachievement, by the time thosestudents reached junior high.Predictably, many of the bestplayers in school bands are thekids who take piano or guitarlessons privately.

“As long as the school doesnot see piano instruction as ahigh priority, it will take a par-ent with guidance, time, moneyand priority for the student tosucceed,” said Tom Dolan,president of QRS Music andStory & Clark.

There is no real reason whyhorns should dominate schoolmusic programs. Piano is a bet-ter instrument on which toteach elementary music. Priorto the development of pianolabs in the 1960s, group pianoinstruction was impractical.But why we’ve sat out the last50 years is a mystery. Thesooner we start pressing thecase for piano instruction inelementary schools, the soonerwe will see results.

THE DIGITAL MYTH

We have also failed to makesure beginning students

have appropriate instruments.For the most part, digital pianosand electronic keyboards havereplaced the 10 million con-soles and spinets built duringthe previous two decades — aperiod in which piano drop-outrates have soared.

“The advent of the digitalpiano created the potential fora new product base as a sec-ond instrument for pianistsand institutions,” Thomassaid. “Instead, our industrymarketed them as an alterna-t ive to a qual i ty acoust icinstrument and encouragedconsumers to settle for some-thing easier and less expensivefor their first purchase. Ineffect, we devalued our ownbest seller, and the full poten-tial was never realized.”

There are many applica-tions where a digital piano isappropriate: class labs, ampli-fied stage performances, andanywhere headphones or com-puter interfaces are beneficial.

“Today’s digital pianosincorporate video displays,which can be used to read anddisplay music notation,” saidDennis Houlihan, president ofRoland U.S. “With simple soft-ware, you can easily print outyour music. That can be a verypowerful motivation to anaspiring piano student. And,we haven’t even talked aboutthe obvious benefits of no tun-ing, headphone jacks and MIDI.

“Music technology and thedigital piano go hand in hand.This is good for the piano busi-ness in total. Digital pianos arenot the enemy of the acousticpiano. Rather, they are an ally.”

“Kids who are succeeding

are those whose teachers arenot afraid of technology,”Gigax said. This is especiallytrue for interactive instrumentsand those with a USB port.

WHY CAN’T JOHNNY PLAY?

But are keyboards and low-end digital pianos a good

choice for beginning piano stu-dents? Many experts don’t

think so. “When succeeding isdefined as becoming seriousstudents developing lifelongpiano-playing skills, digitalpianos hurt or at least wastecritical learning time,” saidTed Good, CEO of MattlinHyde Piano-Cleveland andSteinway Hall-Akron. “Whensucceeding is defined as beingentertained or learning to readand compose music, digitalpianos have their place — eventheir superiority.

“But I wonder why it is rela-tively accepted for young pianostudents to start with a digitalinstrument and not for thosechildren who want to learn thetrumpet. Control of touch andtone by the piano student is afundamental part of creatingpiano music and requires accessto a quality acoustic piano, justas lip control and embouchureare critical to playing music onthe trumpet.”

“I don’t blame portable key-boards for our problems asmuch as I fault our industry forfailing to seize the opportu-nity,” said Brian Chung ofKawai, which makes everythingfrom small keyboards to concertgrands. “We haven’t doneenough to engage first-time key-board buyers in the learningprocess so that they eventuallywant to try learning on a piano,which is a completely differentand more satisfying experience.Because we’ve failed to connectthe dots for these aspiring play-ers, their learning has stalled —or stopped — at the portablekeyboard level.”

“If they start on a [good] dig-ital piano at home, it is essentialthat they have access to anacoustic for performance andthat they practice on an acousticby the time they are playingstandard literature,” said JoanneSmith, Music Teachers NationalAssociation’s National Teacherof the Year in 2002.

{WHATWENTWRONG}


‘College sales put theemphasis on

price and pricealone.’

— Steve Thomas,Scott’s Music

Carlson’s PianoWorld’s Ron Carlson


“As good as digital pianosare these days, they just can-not match the particular touchthat is unique to a fine acousticpiano,” said Dr. MichaelBaron, head of piano studiesat the Bower School of Music.“When I teach students whohave spent many years work-ing with digital pianos, I find asevere lack of artistic touch intheir approach.”

The natural sound of astring vibrating over a piece ofspruce is a powerful reward formusicians at all levels butnever more so than for begin-ners. If the reward is reduced,outcomes will be diminished.Ironically, like Nero fiddlingwhile Rome burned, the pianoteaching community is contentto engage in an arcane debateabout subtle differences inmethod books while their stu-dents struggle with inferiorinstruments.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

In the good-old days, a youngfamily would come into our

store looking for a used piano,often after considering a fewin the private market . Wewould sell them something foraround $1,000, deliver it, tuneit and sign them up with agood teacher. Often, we couldconvince them to buy a newpiano under $2,000 or tradethem up later. The kidslearned to play, and manybecame doctors and lawyers.

Today, moms and dads canfind a brand-name keyboardfor $399 or $699 at their localwarehouse club. We never seethese people, never get themconnected to the right teacherand never have an opportunityto sell them an appropriateinstrument. The promise thatplastic starter pianos wouldcreate a generation of pianoplayers never materialized. Wewould be overwhelmed with

business if even a small per-centage of the 1 million key-board buyers each yeargraduated to pianos.

“I ’m not sure any of ushave done a good job of mak-ing [ trade-ups] happen,”Calvin said. “As an industry,we need to make whole effortsto get people playing and havethem trade up.”

Mostly, keyboards end upunder beds or in attics. There’sa classic scene in the sitcom“Friends” where we see Ross’keyboard leaning against awal l in the corner of thegarage. Kids move on to otherinterests. The opportunity fora lifelong pianist is lost. It’s nouse ranting against big-boxretailers. Instead, we mustacknowledge that we are los-ing a generation of pianists,and the advent of cheap, unsat-isfying keyboards is a part ofthe reason.

DECEPTIVE SALES

College piano sales haveplayed a major role in the

domestic piano industry’sdemise. Customers wereattracted to these sale eventsunder the premise that theycould buy pianos the schoolswere retiring and that therewould be some financial bene-fit in doing so. Unfortunately,the pianos for sale usuallynever saw a single day of stu-dent use. Few, if any, werereally owned by the school.The whole enterprise wasbased on deception, and unfor-tunately, university adminis-trators and faculty got anup-close look at piano market-ing’s most vulgar practice.

“College sales were a short-term, short-sighted fix to ourreal problem,” Thomas said.“In truth, they lacked basicintegrity.”

Since typical piano storeswere not equipped to market

pianos on this scale, teams ofopportunistic carpetbaggerspicked up the slack. It was notunusual for a dealer to sell aquarter million dollars worthof pianos, often to customersthey already knew, only tohave the profit leave townwith the interlopers.

No one suffered more fromthe loaner programs than thefaculty and students of themusic schools. Often, manu-facturers provided pianos thatwould be easy to sell at theend of the year rather than thehigh-qual i ty s tudios andgrands usually purchased byschools. Furthermore, startingover with new, “green” pianoseach year eliminated the possi-bility of natural maturing thatpianos achieve as they aretuned and voiced. (As withrental cars, nobody puts a lot

of work into a piano that’s notgoing to be around long.)

The biggest problem withcollege sales was that theydiverted dealers from the mar-ket-building activities andcommunity involvement thathad been and should be theprimary thrust of their mar-keting efforts.

“Long-term, it has hurt,”Good said. “Many dealers andmanufacturers transferredtheir consumer service andmarket-development resourcesto the production of quick-fix,big, exciting events.”

“Col lege sa les put theemphasis on price alone, andas a result, we trained our cus-tomers to shop only duringthose times,” Thomas said.

It was a bad idea based ondeception. In the end, moredamage than good was done.

{WHATWENTWRONG}


In 1934, Steinway & Sons introduced a 45-inch mahoganyfurniture case piano. It was never especially popular,although Steinway sold thousands of institutional versionsof the same piano.

In the late ’80s, Baldwin, Wurlitzer and Kimball, havingsold millions of 36- and 42-inch pianos, all introduced 45-inch pianos in fancy furniture cabinets. These were miser-able failures. Eventually, all three companies went out ofthe piano business — some more than once. For somemysterious reason, our Asian friends copied the error andbegan building gothic uprights.

Given a choice, consumers prefer small, elegantuprights. (Possibly part of digital pianos’ appeal is theirsize.) Almost daily, someone tells us the reason they don’thave a piano is they don’t have room for one. And in 35years, I have not had a single customer ask for a big, uglypiano.

Customers prefer small grands, too. The increase ingrand piano unit sales coincided with the introduction of150-centimeter grands around 1990. Yet second-tier manu-facturers insist on marketing 6- and 7-foot grands, andfirst-tier manufacturers do the same with their economylines. Maybe manufacturers have spent too much timelooking at each other and not enough time asking cus-tomers what they really want. I know they have neverasked me what my customers want. — G.B.

bbIS BIGGERREALLY BETTER?


“Some may say that collegesales or urgent events smootheda greater downturn, but mypersonal feeling is that theyhave destroyed the image of thepiano as a valuable and impor-tant part of one’s l i fe andhome,” Losby said. “You willnever create the need for apiano by putting it on sale.”

A LACK OF DEALER FOCUS

I t would be unfair to criticizemanufacturers without tak-

ing a hard look at piano deal-ers, too. After World War II,the sons of piano dealers whohad survived the GreatDepression began to ride thecrest of the post-war popula-tion and housing boom. Newstores opened, and pioneeringpeople, such as Paul andJerome Murphy Jr. , VernSchafer, Paul Schmitt, ChuckHale and my dad, Zeb Billings,used creativity and persever-ance to sell pianos to our par-ents’ generation.

In the 1960s, piano dealersbegan to migrate to the higher-margin, lower-expense homeorgan business. By 1970, manydealers questioned why theyeven bothered with traditionalpianos. To use a sports cliché,the industry took its eye offthe ball.

Demographics have a wayof normalizing markets. By theend of the 1970s, the bloomwas off the rose, and organsales plummeted, seeminglyovernight. Many successfulorgan dealers never ful lyadapted to the hard realities ofthe piano business and were,at best, reluctant participants.Within a decade, a new gener-ation of easy-play electronicproducts emerged: digitalpianos.

But digital pianos appealedto a different demographic, did-n’t have huge margins andwere unlikely to be traded up.

As with home organs, manyunsuspecting piano prospectswere switched to easy-play dig-itals and lost as pianists for-ever. As technology improvedand prices fell, digital pianosand keyboards became com-modities, and mass merchantsbecame their primary retailchannel. The advent of digitalpianos left traditional pianodealers with a product thatcould not sustain them andstudents with an instrumentthat made their likelihood ofsuccess questionable.

The lesson learned twice,painfully, is the piano busi-ness is not the organ business.A piano dealer must be pre-pared to deliver and servicewhat he sells. Conversely, ahome organ or digital pianodealer needs to be able to wowcustomers with demos of thelatest features and engage cus-tomers to sell them over andover.

INELASTIC BANDS

In the late ’70s, the basic eco-nomics of the piano industry

changed. Just as the high-mar-gin organ business was fading,lower-priced pianos started toarrive from Asia. Many deal-ers lowered retail prices ratherthan boosting margins.

“There was an assumptionmade that there was an elas-ticity of demand and that byselling lower-price pianosthere would be more pianossold,” said piano industry vet-eran Bob Jones.

Indeed, dealers sold thesame or fewer units at lowerprices. Unfortunately, infla-tion drove up expenses, andthe low-cost pianos often hadhefty prep and service costs.

“Smaller dealers withoutfinancial strength or premiumlines found themselves in aposition where they could notsurvive,” Jones said.

{WHATWENTWRONG}


The piano industry’s best news of the last 25 years hasbeen the success of modern player piano systems. As thenumber of grand pianos sold has declined, the percent withplayer systems has grown. This technology has broughtnew customers to the market and resurrected an incrediblelibrary of music from vintage piano rolls. It’s especiallyencouraging that player pianos appeal to baby boomers, ahuge demographic with disposable income that’s about toexplode.

“People who would never have considered buying apiano have been drawn into the piano market because ofplayer capability,” said Craig Gigax.

Unfortunately, manufacturers have shot themselves inthe foot by refusing to agree on a standard software for-mat. “In the history of technology, there has never beensuccess until a standard was agreed upon — [be it] rail-road track gauges, phonograph speeds, video formats, digi-tal sampling rates or even player-piano formats,” said EdVodicka, president of WebOnlyPiano, a third-party playerpiano CD supplier. “Until player system manufacturers stopthinking that they can dominate the market by offering anexclusive format [of essentially the same information], theindustry will find its growth stunted.”

It has been more than 30 years since the MarantzPianocorder was introduced. It is long past time to have astandard format. — G.B.

bbSILVER LININGIN PLAYER PIANOS

WebOnlyPiano’s Ed Vodicka


ADVERTISING TRAP

There was a time when amedium-sized Yellow Pages

ad, 20 lines in the Sunday clas-sifieds and a few strategicallyplaced sale ads in the localnewspaper constituted a mar-keting plan. Add a few hundredstudents a week and an organclub, and you could run a nice,profitable business. When mydad produced his own TV show,displayed at home shows andthe state fair, and mailed outquarterly newsletters in theearly ’60s, he was hailed as avisionary. But times havechanged. The advertising andpromotional vehicles of the pastno longer work.

Dealers fell into the trap ofbelieving that advertisingshould be the most importantpart of their marketing effort.“The plethora of warehousesales, college sales, privatesales, et al., told the U.S. con-sumer, ‘You never have to paya decent price for a pianobecause they are always onsale,’” Houlihan said.

The total universe of pianobuyers is just too small to pur-sue with the same ad toolsthat automobile, furniture andelectronics dealers use effec-tively. If big media worked,Biasco, Hale, Schaffer andHolcomb-Lindquist would bein business and thriving.

“And maybe dealers havebecome a little lazy,” said RonCarlson of Carlson’s PianoWorld in Minneapolis. “Therewere things we did 20 yearsago to take our products to thepublic. We displayed at fairs,home shows and anywherethere was a crowd. Today, ourproducts are so much betterand more exciting. When wetake products like baby grandplayer pianos out and showthem to people, they becomecustomers. We have to exposeour products to more people.”

Unfortunately, many dealersand manufacturers believe 10days on a rug at Costco is a mar-keting program. And too manydealers are sitting in their storeswaiting for the elusive trafficthat never seems to materialize.

NO SERVICE

P iano dealers also got out ofthe service business

because they believed theycould deliver pianos right outof boxes. This was never true,but Asian suppliers encourageddealers to hand out a couple oftuning vouchers to independ-ent tuners and kiss their cus-tomers goodbye. Piano retail isnot a business for the lazy orinefficient. Once techniciansbecame independent, the profiton service was gone, and pre-sale preparation became a bigexpense. Too often it was for-gone. As customers were relin-quished to outside contractors,new business previously gener-ated from the service depart-ment disappeared.

In a radical ly changingmarketplace, some retailerssuccumbed to economic racismand made the nationality ofthe manufacturer an issue.(Very few industries make anissue of where their productsare manufactured.)

Customers don’t care whereproducts are made and cer-tainly don’t want cold waterpoured on their enthusiasmwhen they are shopping for amusical instrument. They careabout their passion for music,their hopes for their children,having fun, and impressingfamily and friends. Many cus-tomers decided to not buy apiano at all after hearing thisnonsense. (Fortunately, thecurrent economic situation iswashing out many of the trash-talkers.)

To be fair to salespeople,training has become almost

non-existent. There was a timewhen manufacturers and theirreps spent countless hourstraining retail salespeople.Those days are gone, and mostdealers haven’t filled the void.Today, it’s unusual for cus-tomers to meet a piano sales-person who is both technicallyknowledgeable and willing tohelp them make an intelligentselection. It’s even less com-mon to encounter a salesper-son with the discretion toknow how to apply either skillat the right moment.

“I’ve watched the declinein new piano sales follow thedecline in the number of pro-fessional district managersprovided by piano manufac-turers to train salespeople inprospecting, market develop-ment and the presentation oftheir products,” Good said.

Unfortunately, given thelack of training, it’s often thegreedy and unscrupulous sales-people who survive.

NO LEADERSHIP

Possibly the most importantreason for the decline of the

piano industry is its lack of lead-

ership. Piano ManufacturersAssociation International(P.M.A.I.) and its co-conspirator,the National Piano Foundation,are a group of well-intentionedbut ineffectual people, oftenwithout sufficient support fromtheir employers.

P.M.A.I. also suffers froma lack of industry support.Too many piano manufactur-ers here and abroad havefailed to join, resigned or del-egated representat ion tosomeone other than theirpresidents and CEOs. Andthe policy of a rotating presi-dency assures no strong leaderwill ever emerge.

“The P.M.A.I. has the abil-i ty to lobby and effect thechanges required to shore upinstitutional interest, promotethe industry and make thepiano culturally relevant,” saidTom Dolan, a P.M.A.I. mem-ber. “But the organization hasshown an inability to garnersupport even [among] its peers.It could be that a majority ofthe manufacturers are not U.S.-based companies, hence are notvested in U.S. culture. Theinvestment required to makethe U.S. market a revenue gen-erator is not understood. Lackof participation leads to a lackof funds and a continued spiraldownward.”

P.M.A.I.’s current effortsand minimal remainingresources are focused almostentirely on recreational musicmaking. This does not addressthe long-term viability of theorganization and only affectsa small portion of the busi-ness. P.M.A.I. seems ambiva-lent to the need for programsaimed at the much more prom-is ing baby boomer demo-graphic, which buys most ofthe player pianos, and is clue-less about the need for pianoinstruction in elementaryschools. MI

{WHATWENTWRONG}


Customersdon’t care

where pianosare made andcertainly don’t

want coldwater poured

on theirenthusiasm

when they areshopping for a

musicalinstrument


{THERECOVERYPLAN}


Now we must con-front the big ques-tion: What can wedo to reverse thetrend and re-estab-

lish the piano and piano study tothe stature they once enjoyed?

“There’s certainly plenty ofinterest in playing the piano,”said Tom Schmitt, president ofSchmitt Music. “When you go toYouTube and type in ‘How toplay Clocks by Coldplay on thepiano,’ there are more than 1 mil-lion views. ‘How to playUnfaithful by Rihanna’ has morethan 2 million views. Gen X’ersand Gen Y’ers are interested inplaying, and they’re playing themusic they listen to and love. Weneed to better understand whatthey want and give it to them. Ifwe can crack that code, I thinkwe’ll find lots of new customerswho will buy all sorts of stufffrom us, including pianos.”

“We’re finding the demandfor piano publications forbeginners is staying strong,”

said Larry Morton, presidentof print music publishing giantHal Leonard. “Somehow, pianolessons are continuing strong,and new piano students con-tinue to show up, but theymust be getting lower-pricedinstruments, whether they arenew or used acoustics , orchoosing digital pianos.”

One presumed solution isRMM, or recreational musicmaking.

“Teachers are saying thatwhat we’re doing is not neces-sarily creating more students,”said Paul Calvin of Yamaha.“We are all seeing that, and sowe need to do something differ-ent. [Students] want to makemusic, so how can we get themto where they have some sortof music making fun rightaway? [RMM] is a great oppor-tunity for us.”

Brian Chung of Kawai said,“the recreational music makingmovement is critical to ourindustry. Adults, particularly

baby boomers and seniors, wantand need a highly social, stress-free environment in which tolearn music. Right now, most ofthem don’t know where to go tofind that environment.”

But does one size fit all? Aresocially based RMM programsgeared to seniors really going toattract self-indulgent boomers?Whether RMM is an answer ornot, it certainly isn’t the answer.There are specific steps we canand must take to stop the pianoindustry’s demise, so it canreturn to its former, respectedplace in American culture. A feware easy, some are difficult andmost require major changes inhow we have been doing busi-ness for the last 20 years.

Here is a Piano IndustryRecovery Plan.

b NO. 1: LEADERSHIPPiano Manufacturers Assoc-iation International (P.M.A.I.)and the National PianoFoundation (N.P.F.) must either

step up or disband. Until theyprovide serious, dynamic leader-ship, they are taking up spaceand preventing the emergenceof real leadership. (See “How toFix P.M.A.I.” sidebar.)

b NO. 2: TEACH THE FUNTeachers and publishers needto take a fresh look at how weteach piano and devise anapproach that will get peopleplaying piano for life. A stu-dent who has taken a year ofpiano lessons should be able toplay a few songs for fun.

b NO. 3: MORE GROUP LEARNING“The way piano is taught tobeginners of all ages needs tofundamentally change from pri-vate lessons on acoustic pianosto group lessons on digitalpianos,” said John Norton,piano training manager forRoland U.S. “Dealers, manufac-turers and publishers mustaggressively advocate this changeby partnering with independentteachers to help lead them andalso by making in-store educa-tion the foundation of the retailstore business model.”

b NO. 4: GETKIDS PLAYINGFormal piano instruction inelementary schools is essen-tial. Traditional piano dealersmay not be the right people toimplement this — they haveshown little interest in schoolsover the last 100 years.

b NO. 5: NEW PRODUCTDISTRIBUTIONExisting school music dealers,on the other hand, have the

THE PIANO INDUSTRYRECOVERY PLAN

bbHOW TO FIX P.M.A.I.Few trade associations have an uninterrupted record of failure to match the piano manufacturers, and some of theirsharpest critics are their own members. Fortunately, many of their problems are systemic and relatively easy to fix. Toserve the industry effectively, Piano Manufacturers Association International (P.M.A.I.) must do the following:

• Establish a revenue stream, and devote those funds to market development and real research. NAMM shouldn’tgive P.M.A.I. another dime until it demonstrates that it’s willing to put its own money on the line. Tom Dolan ofQRS has made a proposal for a revenue stream generated by RFID, or radio-frequency identification technology.P.M.A.I. should embrace his proposal and consider other revenue sources, as well.

• Recruit non-member manufacturers and distributors. Dealers can help by pressing the presidents of these com-panies to get on-board.

• Open voting membership to digital piano manufacturers. Excluding Roland and other non-acoustic manufactur-ers deprives P.M.A.I. of revenue and participation from some of the smartest people in the industry — peoplesuch as Roland’s Dennis Houlihan, for instance.

• Restrict representation to each company’s chief executive.• End the musical-chairs rotating presidency. Pick the best leader, and let him or her lead.• The National Piano Foundation (N.P.F.) must end its incestuous relationship with P.M.A.I. One is a foundation, and

the other is a trade organization. Furthermore, the new management at the N.P.F. should be held accountable fordoing something useful for its constituents.

• Seriously re-evaluate recreational music making in its present form. — G.B.


relationships necessary to mar-ket piano labs and pianoinstruction to schools. Theyalso have much to gain becausepiano instruction in the earlygrades will cause their bandprograms to flourish in lateryears. Piano dealers can pro-vide logistical support andmight develop significant rentaland entry-level piano sales.The largest band instrumentvendors are also the largestpiano manufacturers. It’s timefor them to take the lead inmarketing piano instruction toelementary schools.

b NO. 6: BUILDUPRIGHTS PEOPLE WANTManufacturers must stop force-feeding big, ugly consoles onus. They need to determinewhat kind of entry- level ,

upright pianos consumers willbuy and build them at a mar-ketable price. If the BaldwinAcrosonic were introducedtoday in an appropriate cabinetat $1,995, we’d have troublekeeping them in stock — espe-cially if they had a USB port.The same could be said of theSteinway “40” (at a muchhigher price, of course).

b NO. 7: INSIST KIDS GETAPPROPRIATE PIANOSWe need to be honest withparents about the appropriate-ness of keyboards and low-enddigital pianos for beginningstudents. And the manufactur-ers supplying keyboards tonon-traditional retailers mustestablish a protocol for refer-ring consumers to qualifiedinstructors.

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QRS Music’s Tom Dolan


b NO. 8: GET TEACHER SUPPORTTeachers must plant their feetand insist students have anappropriate instrument beforethey accept them. Athleticcoaches insist on proper equip-ment, as do karate and balletinstructors. Why not pianoteachers?

b NO. 9: STANDARDIZEPLAYER PIANO SOFTWAREPlayer piano manufacturers mustsit down and agree on a standardsoftware format before theymove to the next generation ofproducts. Then, third-party pro-ducers will be viable, and the artform will evolve. Software sellshardware, and if we want to sellpianos to baby boomers, they’regoing to have to be player pianos.

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Group lessons for adult beginners are not new. The homeorgan industry has built its entire business plan aroundsocial learning programs for seniors. But recreational musicmaking is unlikely to reverse the downward trend of newacoustic piano sales. Here’s why:

• RMM is backward looking and skews the old. If theacoustic piano industry has a future, it has to start with ele-mentary school kids. Next, it has to address the 77 millionbaby boomers. If we focus our primary effort on senior citi-zens, we will just die slower.

• RMM’s primary thrust is retraining existing teachers toteach adults to play for fun. Teachers need to teach every-one to play for fun. Rather than trying to teach old dogs newtricks, we must make sure the next generation of pianoteachers knows how to give their students instruction thatwill last a lifetime. Those future teachers are in college now.Let’s start with them.

• Teachers don’t sell anything to anyone. Adult teach-to-sell programs only work when the teacher is a salespersonor a salesperson masquerades as a teacher.

• Most sales generated from RMM programs are digitalpianos and organs. No one’s against selling more of both,but how is RMM going to help the acoustic piano market?

• Older RMM participants often already have a piano theyare unable to play. While they might trade to a digital piano,it’s rare for them to purchase another acoustic piano. Again,how is this going to help the acoustic piano market?

• The name “recreational music making” is terrible.“Recreational” is not how our customers describe theirmusical activities. It has a negative connotation, reminis-cent of recreational vehicles, recreational centers, recre-ational drugs and recreational sex. Amateur musicians taketheir music seriously, notwithstanding their level of abilityor talent.

A trip to the beach or Disney World is recreational.Playing in a church worship team, New Horizons orchestraor Weekend Warriors band is a serious, creative activity thatalso happens to be fun. It’s insulting to our clients to reducemaking music to the level of a shuffleboard game or a tripto the carnival. — G.B.

bbWHY RMM WON’T SELLMORE ACOUSTIC PIANOS


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b NO. 10: END COLLEGE SALESDealers need to abandon college salesand other deceptive marketing practicesand focus on developing pianists in theirlocal communities.

b NO. 11: NO FREEBIESEveryone needs to stop giving awaypianos to schools.

b NO. 12: FOCUS ON SERVICEDealers should put piano tuners back ontheir payrolls, keep their service cus-tomers for life and prep their pianosbefore delivery.

b NO. 13: GET COMMUNITY-CENTEREDDealers should get involved in their com-munities and cultivate relationships withlocal centers of influence. Teachers,preschools, churches, interior designersand charitable organizations are goodplaces to start.

b NO. 14: USE 21ST CENTURYMARKETINGDealers need to shift their advertisingaway from radio, broadcast TV, YellowPages and newspapers. They must figureout how to use cable TV, the Internet ande-mail to reach customers. Most impor-tant, they must figure out how to get freePR for their community involvement.

b NO. 15: RETHINK RMMRMM is being embraced as the HolyGrail simply because no one has a betteridea. There’s nothing wrong with gettingolder adults actively involved with music— every good piano dealer has beendoing it for years, and the aging popula-tion provides an opportunity to sell moredigital pianos. But RMM for seniors isnot the magic solution to decliningacoustic piano sales. We need to reachbaby boomers and kids if we’re going togrow. (See “Why RMM Won’t Sell MoreAcoustic Pianos” sidebar.)

“It is all about education for the youngand old alike,” said Ron Losby of Steinway.“Seventy-seven million Americans arebaby boomers looking for life-enhancingexperiences, with $2.4 trillion in spend-able income, 47 percent of which is spenton non-essentials. You don’t even have to

be that good to sell a couple of hundredthousand units to 77 million people.

“The good news is we have a market.The question is, how do we access it cost-effectively?”

The piano business is in tough shape.It took us a long time to get into thismess, and there’s no easy way out. Ifwe’re going to survive, we have to look atwhat hasn’t worked and abandon it. We

have to find new ways to reach our cus-tomers and present the extraordinaryintellectual, physical and societal benefitsof playing the piano.

Most of all, we have to get 6- and 7-year-olds playing the piano and playing itwell. If we don’t do that immediately, wemight as well take a ride down to the mall,plant ourselves on a bench in front of theorgan store and watch our future. MI


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