![]() Since I seem to have become something of a small grand piano specialistĪnd because, collectively, short grands make up the largest segment of the worldwide Traditional piano can be made more competitive in our changing and evolving To offer some suggestions: there are at least five areas in which the And it is with this in mind that I would like That too many of today’s pianos really areįit the modern home or lifestyle. Relevant in the new age in which we find ourselves. Market there are still some things we can be doing to help our industry stay Yes, I know I am making an apples-to-oranges comparisonīut sometimes when people go shopping for apples they end up buying pomegranates. The cost spectrum that are trying, now, to more closely emulate the look andįeel of real pianos. They are going to get better, especially those at the high end of We love to hate those digital keyboards, but they are not going Must become adept at competing not only with other contemporary piano manufacturersīut also with those electronic keyboards and the used pianos available to the To survive in today’s market the modern piano maker Want that market to continue into the foreseeable future we must acknowledge,Īccept and align ourselves with the societal changes taking place around us. Mid-market grands ranging from approximately 150 cm to 185 cm in length. Byįar the largest selling grand pianos in the world are those entry-level and ![]() People in this category do not buy pianos running six digits-euros or dollars. Need a strong and innovative base of pianos that appeal to and can be affordedīy that great “middle class” the economists keep telling us is in trouble. Performance, are not going to maintain a viable piano industry. Pianos, no matter how intellectually interesting or however wonderful their Into large, expensive pianos that are outside the scope of this paper. Pushing the envelope of modern piano design, but most of their work has been going ![]() Wayne Stuart, Stephan Paulello, Richard Dain, David Rubenstein and others are all There are some obvious exceptions: Udo Steingraeber, Piano innovations must target the mid level market Never done that before.” “We can’t make changes, it might not sell.” Posit, is that, as an industry, we have lost our imagination-our ability toĮnvision anything other than what our predecessors did a century or so back. Piano has not developed to counter that competition. One of these is our failure to fully identify and counterĪll of the piano’s competition and consequently the fundamental design of the Several explanations seemĪpparent, however. To why piano sales are declining in most Western nations. View is completely accurate, but there is something to be learned from Others see a golden renaissance justĪround the corner as societies return to a simpler, less hectic lifestyle. Outmoded relic of a long-past era society has changed and the piano carries Many pundits now write off the piano as an Is the future for the piano in its current form, or something different?Ībout the future of the piano. With other lifestyle choices, but those are beyond the scope of this article. Certainly all those keyboard manufacturers considerĮlse would they call their products “pianos”? Pianomakers must also compete Must also compete with the digital keyboards To be sure, the manufacturers of Brand A pianos know they must compete with Brandī pianos, but in today’s society, the competition does not end there. “competitors” without really understanding the full scope of that competition. Very little recognition of competitive forces developing around us. Our product development efforts have taken place with seemingly Result of decades of design lethargy and an inability to evolve with changes in Least some of the wounds crippling our industry are self-inflicted. While acknowledging this I also believe at Traditional pianos now compete with other choices ![]() Through apathy and shortsightedness both music and the visual arts are now greatlyĭiminished or absent from our halls of learning. Music-although some of what I hear does stretch the meaning-surrounding usĭaily, but making our own music is no longer a fundamental part of growing up. Our societies are changing becoming increasingly electronic. Items and when incomes are threatened, luxury items are the first to go. Pianos of any kind are generally considered to be luxury The global recession that began in 2008 hit those in the middle income brackets the most and this was the largest group of piano buyers. We can cite many reasons: the global economic turmoil, our changing society, and educational priorities among them. It is an unpleasant reality that the piano market in most of the Western world has been shrinking for some time. Taking a fresh look at short grands and their role in today’s piano market
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