In Digest 970819, Don Teach describes the acquisition of the Pianocorder
technology by Yamaha.  Here are two brief articles from the industry
press about that situation.

From THE MUSIC TRADES (Jan 1990):

  The Winners and Losers of the 1980's:  Losers:  Marantz Pianocorder
  (The Perils of a Bad Forecast)

    In 1977, Joe Tushinsky, chairman of the $200 million (sales) Marantz/
  Superscope Corp., introduced the revolutionary Pianocorder Player Piano.
  Marantz's home audio business was flagging, and Tushinsky looked to the
  Pianocorder to save the company.

    "As long as the American public loves to listen to the piano, we have
  a great market for this product," he declared in a 1979 interview
  in Music Trades.  Tushinsky's idea of a "great" market was 60,000 units
  annually.  After failing in his attempt to acquire Aeolian Piano, he
  purchased Grand Piano Corp. of North Carolina to produce pianos to house
  his Pianocorder.

    As events would have it, Tushinsky overestimated the Pianocorder
  market by a factor of 10; furthermore, the idea of installing a $2000
  reproducing system in a shabby $1000 piano wasn't magic with retailers,
  either.

    Marantz/Superscope went through a number of corporate restructurings,
  and Tushinsky was ousted in 1984.  The Grand Piano Co. was closed down
  in 1985.  For the four years preceding Yamaha's purchase of Pianocorder
  in 1988 [actually 1987], the company filled demand simply by working
  down finished inventory that had been warehoused in California.
  In the end, total Pianocorder losses exceeded $20 million.


From THE MUSIC TRADES (Nov 1987):

    One month after acquiring the assets of the Pianocorder Division of
  Marantz, Yamaha Music Corp. has announced that it will discontinue
  production of the digital cassette-driven player piano.  Terry Lewis,
  general manager of the Piano Division, stated, "During the past three
  weeks, Yamaha has carefully reviewed all opportunities to continue the
  Pianocorder business.  However, we must regretfully announce that it
  will be impossible to resume production.  The logistics and economics
  are overwhelmingly against any plan to restart these manufacturing
  operations."

     Marantz ceased production of Pianocorders in the spring of 1986;
  currently, there are 1,100 finished units in inventory.  Lewis said,
  "In fairness to all, Yamaha will limit sales of Pianocorder units
  to a maximum of 50 per dealership until the present inventory level
  is depleted."

    Yamaha will continue to honor all warranties of existing Pianocorders
  and is currently in the process of establishing an adequate supply of
  repair parts.  The company is also in negotiations to establish an
  outside distribution system for Pianocorder tapes."


Some notes:

According to several people I've asked, approximately 16,500 Pianocorder
units were sold over the entire lifetime of the product.

The distribution of Pianocorder tapes was turned over to QRS, who
continues to sell tapes to this day (both original Superscope tapes
and tapes they've arranged in-house).

The entire Pianocorder music library itself remains the property of
Yamaha Corp., according to Yamaha's Cathy Macbride.  As about half of
the library was derived from reproducing rolls, it is probably a shady
issue how much ownership Yamaha can legally claim of those performances.
However, Yamaha has converted some of the more popular recordings Marantz
made for the Pianocorder to Disklavier format (such as the Liberace tape
from the Contemporary Artists Series).

I've dug up quite a bit of material on the Pianocorder system, and
despite its technical shortcomings, it does have an interesting history.
In the coming months, I'll try to get some of it documented on the web.

Some of Tushinsky's statements are absurdly grandiose -- e.g., in the
late 70's, he referred to his fledgling Pianocorder system as the "fourth
most innovative home entertainment development of the Twentieth Century"
(the others being the phonograph, AM/FM radio, and television).

Mark Fontana

 [ Gee, Joe didn't mention the Mills Violano -- tsk tsk!  ;)
 [
 [ My telephone appointment with Jim Turner is re-scheduled; maybe
 [ next week I'll have the promised interview with some futher history
 [ about Pianocorder.  -- Robbie