There are bright spots in the outlook for mechanical music.
Maybe it is true that younger people don't seem to be attracted to
the hobby at this moment, but notice efforts like "Animusic", the
virtual music-making machines in very realistic-looking computer-video
animation.  They have gotten millions of looks online and in DVD sales.

Also, the most thrilling thing I heard at the annual AMICA event a
couple of years ago was an innovative marriage of digital electronics
and history (sorry, I don't remember whose genius it is; you can fill
it in): a MIDI-playable ~150-year-old barrel-organ.

Just the fact that this venerable instrument played only one tune for
all that time and now could be programmed with unlimited music was a
charming idea, and to boot it was playing duets with a similarly
equipped harpsichord -- just magic!

This has got to interest music-lovers and mechanical device lovers
and others as well.  It even fits the normal evolutionary history of
mechanical music.  This happened once before as some barrel-players
were retrofitted with roll-playing systems 100+ years ago.

I guess what I am saying is that there is no lack of innovative energy
out there, and perhaps we just can't see which direction it is going
to take just now.  It may not look like the historical preservation of
instruments in private collections, or the music museum format, but
something will come along.

I'm pretty sure that there is a lot better chance for the old
instruments to survive than there is of anyone opening a museum of
cassette-players and Walkman radios.

Jim Katz  =^..^=
Senneville, Quebec, Canada