Piano Cos. Tune To Flat Sales

Are you better off than you were four years ago? If you asked acoustic piano manufacturers and retailers, the answer most likely would be no.

Aside from being a musical instrument, the piano is a luxury item and a piece of furniture. Various market conditions affect its retail viability. In recent years, those conditions have challenged well-known piano manufacturers.

The economy obviously influences piano sales. Sales of grand pianos, which can retail for $60,000, are especially vulnerable to dwindling consumer confidence.

More vexing for established manufacturers is the double-digit increase in pianos imported from China and Indonesia last year compared with 2002.

These imports contributed to a 6.8% decrease in dollar volume, according to Music Trades magazine, which compiles statistics for NAMM, the International Music Products Assn.

Also troubling retailers is the increasing quantity of imported used pianos. Distributors of used Asian-made pianos were prohibited from exhibiting at the 2004 Winter NAMM show, held in Anaheim, Calif.

"The piano market is unfortunately not growing like we hoped it would," NAMM president/CEO Joe Lamond says. "There's a number of [reasons], including a huge glut of used pianos out there."

'REVAMPING THE LOOK'

Manufacturers are responding to these challenges, however.

One approach is to attract and retain artist endorsements, which, as with guitars and drums, can greatly influence brand recognition and sales.

Henry Juszkiewicz's ideas for the 142-year-old Baldwin brand might be considered blasphemous.

Juszkiewicz is CEO of Gibson Musical Instruments, which bought Baldwin out of bankruptcy in 2001—when U.S. acoustic piano sales had dropped 16% below the previous year.

Juszkiewicz doesn't feel bound by tradition, an attitude that has helped Baldwin gain traction among recording and touring musicians.

"You go into the piano hall at Frankfurt and see this massive sea of black stuff," he says, referring to Musikmesse, the world's largest musical instruments trade show, held in March. "There are all these guys dressed like funeral directors, and there's this spooky music. I personally love classical music, but we have to be relevant to the younger generation.

"While I think black is a beautiful color," Juszkiewicz adds, "there's a huge spectrum of possibilities, particularly in the grand piano area. I want to introduce modern styling into the business."

As part of that strategy, Baldwin's custom division allows buyers to choose from colors like "Jubilee Red" and "Beale Street Blue," along with other bright options.

Baldwin also makes the Gibson Studio, an upright piano featuring the cherry sunburst finish of a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar; and the Elvis Signature model, featuring the gates of Graceland etched into the upper frame.

"They have a great selection," says singer/songwriter Keri Noble. She sits at a red Baldwin grand piano in a picture from her Manhattan Records debut, "Fearless."

"They're revamping their look. There are options to have a hipper color and all kinds of things. It's a fun company, and a fun piano to play."

Amy Lee of Evanescence is another fan. "Baldwin is just a great, standard classical playing piano," she says. "We do rock music, but what I really like is bringing the classical influence to it."

SERVING ARTISTS

Yamaha, the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the world, maintains its roster of high-profile artists with a comprehensive artist-support network.

The manufacturer will open its third Yamaha Artist Services location this month in midtown Manhattan. The facilities serve resident and visiting artists who use Yamaha pianos and band and orchestral instruments. They also support performing arts organizations.

"We support our artists very well," says Paul Calvin, GM of the piano division of Yamaha Corp. of America. "If they have a problem when they're on the road, we take care of them. The sensitivity of the touch, the sound, the overall performance, [and] knowing they're not going to have problems in the middle of a concert—that's what we offer them, top-quality products and services."

Yamaha's impressive roster includes Ray Charles, Norah Jones, Michael McDonald, Sarah McLachlan, Chick Corea and Elton John.

An artist endorsement "speaks to the product quality and prestige of the product," Calvin says. "If you know somebody like Elton John or Chick Corea is playing a Yamaha, [you think], 'It must be good enough for me.' "

"I am exceptionally happy with the Yamaha pianos that I play on tour and in the studio," John says."The long-term relationship with Yamaha has been fantastic. I even give [the pianos] appropriate nicknames."

Yamaha made a nine-foot concert grand piano for John's Las Vegas show at Caesars Palace, "The Red Piano."

"She's [called] Nikita, by the way," he says.

"Yamaha makes a beautiful acoustic piano," Michael McDonald says. "It's a real world-class instrument. We've found that they have continued to research all the different things that make an acoustic piano sound beautiful."

For Steinway & Sons, which recently marked its 150th anniversary, inexpensive imported pianos are not affecting sales. Nor, says senior director of communications Leo Spellman, is anything else.

"None of that is relevant to Steinway," Spellman says. "Our sales have been up for the last couple of years. We're not competing with Japanese or Korean or Chinese piano product––they're competing amongst themselves. We attract a different audience."

Indeed, a vast majority of symphony orchestras use Steinway pianos. Steinway's impressive artist roster also includes Billy Joel, Diana Krall, McCoy Tyner and Randy Newman.