PIANO STORES CLOSING AS FEWER CHILDREN TAKING UP INSTRUMENT - Important News Item

Came across this and found it very interesting. I am still thinking on conclusions and ramifications without coming up anything definitive. The article certainly raises many questions.  Charlie

"The best year for new piano sales in the U.S. was 1909, when more than 364,500 were sold. But after gently falling over the years, piano sales have plunged more recently to between 30,000 and 40,000 annually."

""We actually found ourselves competing with our own pianos that came back on the market and, frankly, nothing was wrong with those pianos," he said. "We had serviced them and made sure customers took care of those pianos. There were lots of really excellent pianos on the market for a fraction of what the new piano would cost."

The average cost of a new grand piano last year was just over $16,000.

Well-maintained pianos can make music for 50 to 70 years, said Peter Stumpf, a piano technician for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Carnegie Mellon University, also in Pittsburgh."

Full AP Article by David Pitt