An interesting research article, published a few days ago in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA,
concludes that the audience is influenced more by the visual aspects
of the performer than by the music that the performer produces.
Study participants who viewed _silent_ videos of piano competitions
could pick out the competition winners more often than those who
could also hear the music.

In the study conducted by Harvard graduate Chia-Jung Tsay, nearly
all participants, including highly trained musicians, were better
able to identify the winners of classical music competitions by
watching silent video clips than by listening to audio recordings.

"In this case," says Tsay, "it suggests that the visual trumps the
audio, even in a setting where audio information should matter much
more. ...  Even with professional musicians, who are trained to use
sound, and who have both expertise and experience, it appeared that
the visual information was overriding the sound."

Maybe this means that audiences at mechanical music concerts will
prefer instruments with exciting visual effects!

Ref.:
  http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/08/the-look-of-music/ 
  http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/08/16/1221454110 

Robbie Rhodes
Mechanical Music Digest