There's been quite a lot of talk about the decline of the player piano
in recent weeks.  Because most player piano histories have concentrated
on the products and their technicalities the business history is
virtually unknown, but it's a fascinating area in its own right.

The piano did not sell itself, buyers needed to be convinced to buy
them.  This was true of the whole mechanical music business, and
especially the domestic player pianos.  The invention of the Pianola
and its marketing by Harry B. Tremaine and the Aeolian Company is a
case in point: he managed to convince everyone they wanted one of these
devices so successfully that by the early 1920s they formed the
majority of piano sales.  Conversely, Ampico's decline and closure was
entirely due to mis-management of sales (see separate message).

The player piano was an early example of the modern consumer culture of
being sold what you never really wanted! All these markets are very
fickle, as we know from stories each Christmas of some particular toy
which is an unobtainable must-have but cannot be given away next year.
A novelty such as the player must always have been prone to such a
fate.  Indeed, during the 1920s fashion turned rapidly away from all
forms of piano, as the US Census Bureau sales statistics show:

  Year  All Pianos       Players

  1921    221,210       114,288
  1923    347,589       194,855
  1925    306,584       168,393
  1927    218,140        95,454
  1929    130,973        37,004
  1931     51,370         2,744

The stock market crash was October 28th, 1929.  In 1927 player piano
sales had already dropped 51% from the 1923 peak, and by 1929 had
dropped 81% (although total piano sales had dropped only 62%).  All
this before the depression, which hit its depths in 1930/31.  Whatever
the reasons for the player's decline, they had already removed 81% of
its sales before the crash.  The 1929 crash quite obviously was NOT the
cause of the demise of the player piano, although it almost certainly
prevented any recovery plan from being successful.  The piano as a
domestic instrument remained out of fashion for decades.

A contemporary analysis by the Harvard Business School summarised the
statistics as follows: "Various causes were adduced by those interested
in the piano industry to explain the decline in demand for pianos.
Among these were the counter-attraction offered by automobiles and
moving pictures for recreation outside the house; the trend toward
apartment living quarters in cities; and the development of the
phonograph and radio.  Some thought a trend in fashion to have been at
least partly responsible; they contrasted with the existing situation
former conditions under which the possession of a piano had been
regarded more seriously as an indication of social position."

Julian Dyer