What an interesting strand this is!  Demand can best be increased in a
systematic way, and organisations are a great way of doing this.

The Player Piano Group here in the UK was founded in 1959 by Frank Holland
with the express purpose of 'Promoting the player piano', an ideal which
it continues to follow, broadly interpreting it to justify a wide variety
of activities.  These aim at raising the public profile, and hence
demand, of player and reproducing pianos, and also encouraging owners
of instruments to get more out of them.  Perhaps MMD members would be
interested in a few of the things we do to this end, and may even wish
to copy some of them!

The PPG has for many years given regular concerts in high-profile venues,
typically these days combining Pianola and Duo-Art performances using
pushups on new concert grands (although they used to cart pianos around
as well).  Although the concert Dan Wilson reviewed last week in the MMD
was promoted by the Pianola Institute, it is essentially a continuation
of the same series of concerts by the same people.  (The PI is a spin-off
of the PPG focused mainly on the academic musical side of players, not
the mechanics or nostalgia.)

These concerts get good reviews, raise the musical community's opinion
of the player, and act as openings for radio and TV appearances.  They
also raise the aspiration of player owners to get their pedaling or
reproducers to the quality they have just heard.  Low aspirations for
instruments are one of the hobby's real banes, and the saviour of sloppy
restoration!

Another venture that we have tried with some success is to take a stall
at the 'National Vintage Communications Fair', which is mainly concerned
with gramophones and radios.  The first year we managed to get a newly
restored upright player along, and had a crowd round it all day!  We
also had a new glossy recruitment leaflet produced, which we handed out.
I also wrote a single sheet on how player pianos work, which we gave away
with free copyright, and that has been reprinted in a number of places.

Within the group, we try to encourage owners to restore instruments, and
to use them properly to make music, not just noise.  I also make a point
(as bulletin editor) of covering new roll releases in the bulletin to see
they get the highest sales possible.  We don't charge for such adverts,
as we believe giving this information is all part of what the members
join the group for.  (Roll producers, just let me know and I'll try to
give you a mention).

The group organises monthly social meetings where it is possible to meet
others, discuss music making or restoration, whatever takes your fancy.
They used to be quite stuffy events with formal music recitals (such was
the seriousness with which things were taken), but are a rather lighter
these days.  Even so, music making is an important activity: they aren't
just about admiring big collections, and we have wonderful meetings at
venues with a single upright pedal player.

You don't have to have a big collection to be taken seriously -- and
that's an important lesson to learn, particularly for new entrants to
the hobby who can feel inadequate when they hear the all-too-common
discussions about huge collections of vastly-overpriced instruments!

Publicity is good, and the PPG's glossy leaflet is posted out to all
mechanical musical museums and other interested ventures at the start
of each year.  There clearly is a demand out there, because we have
increased membership by some 20% in three or so years, and seem to keep
the new members.

When it comes to player pianos, I don't think value (for which I mean
price, really) is an important consideration.  Supply is high and prices
low (consider just how expensive a new piano is).  Knowledge is limited,
and I have come to the conclusion that for the vast majority of buyers
the price they pay and the quality of the instrument they get are
completely unrelated! Assisting newcomers to select a good piano with a
good player action is a valuable service that organisations can offer.

What I would say is that players require a different approach from (say)
the musical box or band organ parts of the hobby.  The cheapness and
commonness of players makes them the poor relation when it comes to gee-
whizz factors, so player enthusiasts should join a society that treats
their particular aspirations seriously.  This is why groups such as the
PPG and AMICA can co-exist with the MBSI and MBSGB (and all the others
around the world).  Good luck to the lot of them!

Julian Dyer