There always has been, and will continue to be, a demand for three levels of pianos: High end performance, mid level teaching, and low level in home use. (with exceptions, of course). To that end, there will always be a demand for high end and mid level pianos, although on a lessor scale. But there has always be a demand for cheaper pianos. Even when pianos were first starting to be made, there were cheaper made pianos. Piano manufacturing shifted to areas of the country, and the world, where the price of labor and land are cheaper. Look at our own industry. In the late 1800, piano manufacturing was mostly in the Northeast. Then it shifted to the Midwest and the South. After WWII, it shifted again to Japan, Korea, and now China, Indonesia, etc. My prediction is that Africa and the Middle East, after the conflicts are settled, is where the new inexpensive pianos will be made. In my book is a chapter dealing with the shift of piano manufacturing. Here are the last 2 paragraph of that chapter. A Cultural Side Benefit There is a second, but very important side benefit of the low-end piano manufacturer situation. When the piano factories moved away from the cultural centers, first from the big cites to the country, and then to other countries, for the first time in their lives many of the people making these pianos were introduced to music in general, and piano music in particular. People learned to play and listen to music of Western culture. As the people in Japan, Korea, and now China, are exposed to this music, they learn more and more about Western Culture. As they learn about “our” culture, they begin to understand it. As they learn to understand it, they will embraced it and become our friends. It is my belief that over the next 50 years, piano manufacturing will be introduced to other third world countries around the world, including Africa and the Middle East. As these people learn about the piano, they will learn and understand Western Culture. This, I believe, will add greatly to the unification of our world. Music is not only a universal language, it will also have a great influence in bringing about world peace. Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician Honolulu, HI Author of The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com -----Original Message----- From: Elwood Doss <edoss at utm.edu> To: College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org> Sent: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 7:26 am Subject: Re: [CAUT] endangered European piano- newspaper article As the Asian market takes over more of the piano production, the workers ill demand more income and a more lavish lifestyle. That will continue o raise the price of overseas pianos. The energy crisis will make it ore expensive to ship overseas pianos to the US. All of this will ause the piano manufacturers to move their operations back to the US. he electronic keyboards will be made more and more cheaply which means hat, instead of having a life of 50 to 100 years, consumers will only et 5 to 7 years out of one, and the cost of repair will be prohibitive, et alone trying to get parts for them, and the consumer will continue o purchase new and used pianos. The cost of purchasing a keyboard that as the same touch as an acoustic piano will continue to go up and be omparable to a used upright so the consumer will opt for the instrument hat will last the longest...I could go on.... s the acoustic piano doomed? Not on your life! oy! lwood Elwood Doss, Jr., M.M.E., RPT iano Technician/Technical Director epartment of Music 45 Fine Arts Building he University of Tennessee at Martin artin, TN 38238 31/881-1852 AX: 731/881-7415 OME: 731/587-5700 -----Original Message----- rom: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of ichard Brekne ent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 1:07 PM o: caut at ptg.org ubject: [CAUT] endangered european piano- newspaper article It is as I have said many a time... the acoustic piano is doomed. Sooner or later the public market will not be large enough to be able to upport the industry.... and factories will close. The public... too uge a majority will opt for cheaper and, to their ears.... just as good an option be it the cheaply made asian instruments or later on in our mmediate future inexpensive, highly versatile, portable and maintenance free electronics. The piano industry... and the acoustic industry as a hole will be reduced to what is left of the Harpsichord industry oday.... if that much. Its a Brave New World out there folks... few seem to be very much aware f whats just around the next corner. You think the Matrix movies were ll that far fetched ??? Think again, and ponder the consequences. Cheers icB -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080430/ac130ce6/attachment.html
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