Saturation of Piano Markets― History of the U.S. and Asian Piano Industries ―Tomoaki TANAKA
1. Technical development of the piano and how its market grew
The first acoustic piano was made in 1709 by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who was a harpsichord producer for the Medici family in Italy. The piano was originally built in the shapeof a harpsichord. At the beginning pianos were played in relatively small rooms, such as
in a salon of a noble residence. But pianos gradually came to be played at concert halls
holding thousands of people. The sound of pianos needed to be more powerful and emotional. The only way was to increase the tension on the strings. New materials were needed since the existing wooden plates could not sustain such tension. Alpheus Babcock, who
was a boiler shop owner in the U.S., invented the full iron frame piano in 1825. His pianos
succeeded in obtaining more powerful tension than wooden frames and expanded thesound range by octaves. In 1837, Jonas Chickering, a piano engineer and a founder ofChickering & Sons in the U.S., improved Babcockʼs frames and a patent was granted tohim in 1841. Steinway & Sons eventually played an even greater role in the evolution of
the piano.
Steinway & Sons was established in 1853 in New York by Heinrich Engelhart Steinway,
who was a German piano producer. This company made important inventions and improvements to the piano, for example the invention of the over-string scale（crossing the
middle and bass strings）for grand pianos, quick response hammer action, and improvement of the full cast-iron plate. These were referred to as the Steinway System. All pianos
use this system now. Steinway & Sons also had a positive attitude toward the marketingof pianos. In 1866 the company established Steinway Hall, which was the second largest
concert hall in New York City. The hall had elegant showrooms for Steinway pianos. The
company also presented their pianos to famous pianists and supported their musical activities in every respect. They came to be known as Steinway Artists. The company madeuse of their high reputation to increase their sales. They also sent their own products tointernational exhibitions such as the Paris Exposition in 1867. The company gained a high57Saturation of Piano Markets

reputation worldwide because of their excellent products and branding strategies. Sales of
Steinway pianos gradually increased from the late 19th century（Steinway 1953 ; Lieberman, 1995 ; Goldenberg, 1996）.
However, even though the Steinway System and their marketing strategies were excellent, the piano market itself only expanded slightly from 1850 to 1870. The worldwide piano market clearly expanded from the late 19th to the early 20th century（see Table 1）.
There was an especially big piano market in the U.S. The volume of American piano production increased about five times from 1890 to 1910. This resulted from a newly emerging consumer group, namely the middle-class family. Many people in this class bought pianos out of vanity to put into their living rooms. Their preference was for a reasonablepiano, in other word the commercial piano. Commercial pianos were less expensive thanartistic ones. They were made for profit, so artistic quality came after price. Joseph P.
Hale was the one who started making these products. He sold commercial pianos at alower price than the manufacturing cost of other excellent piano makers, and he made ahuge profit from this business. Other excellent piano makers（e.g. Baldwin）followed his
way later. This is how the piano boom started and many pianos were manufactured.
Steinway & Sons got off the ground on this piano boom（Ehrlich, 1976 ; Ripin, 1998）.
The Japanese piano industry developed slowly. Torakusu Yamaha started making musiTable 1.

Estimates of Piano Production, 1850-1984（Unit : Number of Pianos）

Source : Same‌data as Figure 7 ; Ehrlich, 1976 ; Ripin, 1989 ; The Records of the Korean Musical Instrument Industry Association.

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cal instruments in 1887 and established the Nippon Gakki Seizo（now Yamaha Corporation）in 1897. In the early days, Nippon Gakki Seizo mainly manufactured organs and harmonicas（Nippon Gakki, 1977）. The company started to produce pianos in 1889, but their
pianos were patterned after the models of American makers. The company purchased almost all piano parts（iron frames, keyboards, actions, tables and so on）from Shanghai
Moutoless Commercial Companyʼs Kobe branch office. In 1892, they exported their organs
from Kobe to London for the first time2）. At that time, nobody thought that Yamaha
would become the biggest musical instrument company in the world.
Koichi Kawai worked as Torakusuʼs right-hand engineer for pianos and organs. After
Torakusu passed away in 1916, Yamaha was thrown into confusion and a labor disputedragged on for months in 1926. Since Kawai wanted to concentrate on making pianos, heestablished his own company, Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing, in 1927（Kawai
Musical Instruments, 1997）. The Kawai brand is now one of the most popular pianos formusic lovers.

2. Piano market in the postwar period
The worldwide market for musical instruments grew steadily until the second half of the
1990s. In 2002, total export and import volumes increased to about 18 times what they
were in 1976（see Figure 1）. According to Figure 2, the U.S. has been the greatest exporting country in the world since 19903）. But exports from the U.S. have been declining
since 1997. Japan and Germany started catching up to the U.S. after World War II. Japan
has been the top piano producing country from around 1970, and Yamaha became the biggest piano manufacturer in the world. The trend of import volumes from 1976 to 2002 isshown in Figure 3. The U.S. has consistently imported more than any other country due
to the enormous musical instrument market in the U.S.
Figures 4 and 5 show the export and import volumes of the major companies making
pianos from 1980 to 2002. Japan was the largest exporter and the U.S. was the largest importer in the world. The U.S. used to be the biggest producer of pianos until the 1960（seeTable 1）, but due to the thrust of Japanese exports, the U.S. turned into the largest importer.
There were many famous piano makers in the U.S., such as Steinway & Sons（established in 1853）, Baldwin（1859）, Chickering & Sons（1892）and W. W. Kimball and Company（1857）. Most of their pianos were shipped to the domestic market. Table 2 shows the59Saturation of Piano Markets
Figure 1.

Worldwide Trade of Musical Instruments and Parts, 1976-2002

Source : United Nations Statistical Office, 1976-2003.
Notes : ‌Musical Instruments and Parts include music media（CDs, Tapes etc.）,metronomes, tuning forks,
tuning pipes and musical boxes.

Figure 2.

‌ExportPosition of Each Country in World Trade（Musical Instruments andParts）,1976-2002

Source : Same data as Figure 1.

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Figure 3.

第 300 号‌
ImportPosition of Each Country in World Trade（Musical Instruments andParts）,1976-2002

Source : Same data as Figure 1.

Figure 4.

Worldwide Exports of Pianos, 1980-2002

Source : United Nations Statistical Office, 1980-2003.
Notes : ‌1980, USA=USA and Puerto Rico. 1980-90, Germany=Federal Republic of Germany+German
Democratic Republic.

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Saturation of Piano Markets
Figure 5.

Worldwide Imports of Pianos, 1980-2002

Source : Same data as Figure 4.

number of American piano shipments from 1900 to 1955. Many acoustic pianos wereshipped in the 1900s. After the 1910s, shipments of acoustic pianos gradually declined,
while shipments of player pianos increased. The shipments of pianos as a whole largely
decreased in the first half of the 1930s due to the severe economic depression in the U.S.
and a consumer movement toward ready-made music from radios and phonographs. Except for this period and World War II, the demand for pianos did not drastically decrease（see Table 2）. This market structure differed from the Asian market as stated in Chapter
3.
Figure 6 shows the data of major piano exporters to the U.S. from 1980 to 2002. Japanand South Korea were by far the top two countries to export pianos to the U.S. until 2000.
But since then, the U.S. piano market has become increasingly dependent on Chinese
manufacturers. The volume of imports from China caught up with Japan in 2002. China
has become an important country for the U.S. piano market.

3. Unique characteristics of the piano markets in Japan and South Korea
Some countries in Asia both produce and export pianos. Some countries in Asia also havelarge piano markets. This chapter focuses on two countries, Japan and South Korea.
62東京経大学会誌
Table 2.

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Historical Piano Shipments in the U.S.
（Unit : Number of Pianos）

Source : The‌Internal Records of Steinway Japan ; Steinway Asia, LLC : Lieberman, 1995, Chapter 20,
endnote, 31, 36.
Notes : We left the cell empty when we could not find information.

Japanese piano production and sales increased exponentially until 1980（see Figure 7）.
In 1995, the volume of piano exports exceeded domestic sales. In other words, the Japanese piano industry was supported by domestic demand for a long time. The size of theJapanese market was comparable to the United States from the 1970s to the early 1990s（see Figure 8）, although the Japanese population was less than half that of the U.S. Additionally, we see that after Japanese sales increased at a rapid rate, sales marked a sharp
decline. This trend in Japan was similar to what happened in the South Korean market
63Saturation of Piano Markets
Figure 6.

Major Countries Exporting to the American Piano Market, 1980-2002

Source : Same data as Figure 4.

Figure 7.

‌Productionand Sales of Pianos in Japan, and Exports of Pianos from Japan to theWorld from 1954-2002

Source : Research‌and Statistics Department Economic, 2001-2002 ; Research and Statistics Department
Ministerʼs, 1955-1965 ; Research and Statistics Department Ministerʼs, 1966-2000.

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Figure 8.

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Comparison of Piano Markets in the U.S., Japan and South Korea

Source : Same‌data as in Figure 7 ; the Internal Records of Steinway Japan; Steinway Asia, LLC ; the Records of the Korean Musical Instrument Industry Association.
Notes : We could not find data about the U.S. from 1996 to 2001.

Figure 9.

Japan Piano Industry and Economics

Source : Same data as Figure 7 ; Maddison, 2001.
Notes : $=1990 Geary-Khamis Dollars.

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Saturation of Piano Markets
Figure 10.

South Korean Piano Industry and Economics

Source : The Records of the Korean Musical Instrument Industry Association ; Maddison, 2001.
Notes : $=1990 Geary-Khamis Dollars.

（see Figure 8）. Why did Japan and South Korea show drastic increases and decreases ?
Figures 9 and 10 provide more information on the Japanese and South Korean piano industries4） and their economic situations. Piano demand did not correlate closely with thegrowth of GDP because there is a limit to piano demand. Generally, it is said that the
maximum diffusion rate of pianos is 20-25%. Table 3 shows the diffusion rate of pianos
and consumer durable goods in Japan from 1959 to 2004. The diffusion rate of pianos inJapan stopped at around 21-23%. The South Korean diffusion rate of pianos also stopped
at around 22%（see Table 3）. In contrast, in Japan, the diffusion rate of so-called white
goods（household appliances like refrigerators, etc.）reached close to 100% and that ofcars exceeded 80%（see Table 3）. This situation resulted from the peculiar character ofthe pianoʼs origin. As mentioned in Chapter 1, the technology of pianos basically stayedwith the Steinway System and there were no big model changes like with cars. Moreover,pianos are products that last for a lifetime（Steinway pianos can play for 100 years）.However, the American piano market did not exhibit the same type of drastic changes as Japan and South Korea. This difference was caused by the different characteristics of musical culture in the countries involved.
American culture has been familiar with piano music for a long time, but before World66

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Table 3.

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The Diffusion Rate of Main Durable Goods in Japan（Unit : %）Source : Cabinet Office, 2005 ; The Internal Records of Steinway Japan ; Steinway Asia, LLC

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Saturation of Piano Markets

War II, people in Japan and South Korea considered pianos to be musical instruments of
distant countries. General customers were even less familiar with pianos than organs, because they were very expensive. Yamaha manufactured more organs than pianos（e.g.
they produced 1,219 pianos and 5,917 organs in 19305））until WWII, but that situation
changed in the postwar period. Asian piano manufacturers, especially Yamaha and Kawai,
succeeded in producing low-priced pianos with a cheap labor force and modern factories
which made possible mass production. Piano lessons by the Yamaha Music School werethe most popular culture lessons（o-keikogoto）in Japan. In 1993, 63.7% of culture lessons
for Japanese girls were related to music, most of them piano lessons（Ministry of Education, 1993）.
Yamaha established music schools in their directly managed stores and dealersʼ storesfrom 1954（the first school was established at the Ginza Yamaha Store in Tokyo）. There
were 150 students at the beginning. After two years（1956）, the number had increased to
1,000 students（10 schools）, and to 20,000 students（700 schools）in 1959. Yamaha expanded its music schools overseas in 1964. In 2000, it reached 610,000 students worldwide
6）（547,000 students in Japan）and 13,000 schools（6,000 schools in Japan）. The educational

system used by Yamaha Music School was innovative. Classes in the U.S. and and Europe
were standardized individual lessons. The method used by Yamaha Music Schools emphasized group lessons to children（especially kindergarten children）enabling them to keep
the price of lessons down. Music lessons in the U.S. usually start in elementary school, but
Yamaha Music Schools provided a unique type of preschool education7）. Figure 11 shows
the correlation of increasing piano sales with the number of kindergarten children. Thisshows how kindergarten children supported the growth of the Japanese piano market until the 1970s8）. The Yamaha education system was imitated by other Japanese musical instrument makers, e.g. Kawai and Roland. In this way, the piano became a familiar musicalinstrument for the general Japanese public. The Japanese piano market expanded due toreasonable pricing and piano lessons.
The drastic increase that went up to the demand ceiling caused a drastic decrease inpiano sales. The expansion of the used piano market from the 1980s also accelerated thedecrease of new piano sales. The accentuated shape of the demand curve for pianos in Japan was different from the gradual American curve.
The success of Japanese piano makers can be expressed as an analogy to large-scale
plantations in the desert（the Japanese piano market）, where plants ordinarily donʼt growwithout irrigation（potential piano market）. Since ground water or potential piano mar68

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Figure 11.

第 300 号

The Correlation between Kindergarten Enrollment and Piano Sales Numbers in Japan

Source : Same data as Figure 7 ; Ministry of Education, 2001.

kets are limited natural resources, excessive use causes the resource to dry up. As often
seen in large-scale farms around the world, e.g. Punjab in India and the American Middle
Western states（Kansas etc.）, or as seen in the demand for pianos in Japan and South Korea, drastic increases and decreases occur due to overuse of the resource. Japan andSouth Korea will probably have to wait about 100 years until the Japanese and South Korean markets return.

4. Conclusion―brief forecast of the Chinese piano market―
China is the last huge piano market in the world. Piano manufacturers around the69Saturation of Piano Markets

world pay attention to this market. As the last step in our analysis, we will discuss the
Chinese piano market and its future.
According to research by an American piano company reference, the Chinese piano
market has been expanding every year. Chinese domestic sales in 2000 were 181,710 units.
This sales volume was comparable to the peak of South Korean piano sales （186,584
units）. However, the diffusion rate of pianos in China in 2000 was 1.26%（Wángnàdá,
2003）. South Korean sales volume was 24,000 units when its diffusion rate became 1.20%
in 1975, and Japan sales were 30,071 units when its diffusion rate was 1.60% in 1959. Thismeans that Japanese and South Korean sales volumes reached a peak when their diffusion
rates were around 13-15%. That is to say, it is likely that Chinese piano sales will be
about 2,070,000 units9）at their peak. However, all sales volume will not come from the saleof acoustic pianos. In 2001, domestic Japanese electronic piano10） sales were 133,879 units,
and acoustic piano sales were 41,553 units. Eventually, it is likely that sales of acoustic pianos in China will be one-third of total piano sales, about 690,000 units.
The American musical instrument market（including pianos）in 2015 was 7.1 billion US
dollars which accounted for 44% of the world market（16.2 billion US dollars）.The second
market was China with 1.5 billion US dollars, and the third market was Japan with 1.2 billion US dollars（Music Trades, 2016a, p. 3）. These figures also indicate that China has already become an important market for the piano industry. This situation influences musical instrument trade shows. Music industry officials used to regard the National
Association of Music Merchants（NAMM）Show（held in the U.S.）,the Musikmesse（heldin Germany）and the Musical Instrument Fair（held in Japan）as the three largest world
trade shows. Although, there were still 115,085 visitors to the NAMM Show in 2018, theMusic CHINA show in 2017 was a second ranked trade show that recorded 105,125 visitors. The Musikmesse in 2018 saw 82,442 visitors and the Musical Instrument Fair in 2016
had 46,976 visitors. These previously international shows are gradually becoming local
events11）. Many musical instrument companies make product strategies aimed at the markets of the U.S. and China. The most popular piano maker in their markets and theworldʼs biggest company is Yamaha（estimated revenue in US dollars was 4.26 billion in2015 : Japan）. The second largest company is Gibson Brands（1.73 billion US dollars : U.S.）,
12）
and the third is Harman Professional（1.05 billion US dollars : U.S.）. Gibson Brands went

into bankruptcy in May, 2018, so Yamaha overwhelmingly gained ground in its ranking in
the world13）.
The market for pianos will dry up in China sooner or later. There is almost no doubt70

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that China will repeat the demand model of Asian countries（drastic increase and decrease）. It is most important for piano makers to find potential demand（unexplored piano
markets）quickly and protect themselves from the market forces that will dry up theirdemand.
Notes
1 ）See the following books for information about early piano technical history. Dolge, 1911 ;Omiya, 1994 ; Nishihara, 1995 ; Nakatani, 2001.
2 ）“Japan Woodwork Company and Nippon Gakki Seizo,” Nichigaku Shahou, no. 189, 1965, p. 22.
3 ）The U.S. recently became the fourth largest exporting country. The U.S. was still the top
importing country in 2016（United Nations Statistical Office 2017）.
4 ）There are two famous piano makers in South Korea, Young Chang Ltd（Founded 1956）andSamick Music Co.（Founded 1958）.
5 ）Local Management and Economic Conference, 1994, p. 71.
6 ）See the internal records of Yamaha Co. and Yamaha Music Foundation.
7 ）Music teachers and PTA in the U.S. were interested in the documentary movie of Japanese
Kindergarten children, “The Music Training of Kenchan” produced by Yamaha Music
School in 1966. “Yamaha Music School in the U.S.” Nichigaku Shahou, no. 192, 1966, p. 20.
8 ）The divergence of piano sales and number of kindergarten children is due to increased digital piano sales.
9 ）186,584×14 / 1.26≒2,072,948.24（units）
10）The major Japanese piano companies（Yamaha, Roland, Casio, Kawai and Korg）began tomake digital pianos in the early 1980s. The quality of digital pianos is approaching that of
acoustic pianos. In this paper, ‘piano’ means the acoustic piano. See this article about the historical relation between the acoustic piano and digital piano in Japan. Tanaka, 2012.
11）The association of Japan Music Fair（2016）“The Number of Musical Instrument Fairs in2016”; “2017 music CHINA” Japan Music Trades, November 1, 2017, p. 6 ; “2018 NAMM
Show” Japan Music Trades, March 1, 2018, p. 9 ; “Report on Musikmesse 2018 : Focus on all
the events. Business booms even though attendance is down. The remarkable trend towards
a consumer oriented show !” Japan Music Trades, May 1, 2018, p. 11.
12）Music Trades, 2016b, p. 16
13）“Gibson Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy” The Music Trades Online（Breaking News）, May
2, 2018.

Select Bibliography
Statistical Books & Papers
Cabinet Office（2005）“Consumer Confidence Survey”（Japan : Tokyo）.
Maddison, Angus（2001）The World Economy : A Millennial Perspective（Paris : Development

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Saturation of Piano Markets
Centre of OECD）.
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture（1985）“Field Survey Report about the Learning Activities of Children out of Elementally Elementary School in the 1985 Fiscal Year”（Japan :Tokyo）.
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture（1993）“Field Survey Report about Private Preparatory Schools etc. in 1993”（Japan : Tokyo）.
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture（2001）Outline of the Education Department（Japan :Tokyo）.
Music Trades（2016a）“Music Retail around the World”, Music Trades, May, pp. 1-16.
Music Trades（2016b）“The Global Issue”, Music Trades, December, pp. 1-20.
Research and Statistics Department Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry（2001-2002）“Yearbook of General Merchandise Statistics”（Japan :Tokyo）.
Research and Statistics Department of the Ministerʼs Secretariat of the Ministry of International
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Books and Articles
Bradley, Van A.（1957）Music for the Millions : The Kimball Piano and Organ Story（Chicago : H.
Regnery Co.）.
Dolge, A.（1911 ; repr. 1972）Pianos and their Makers（New York : Dover Publication）.
Ehrlich, Cyril（1976）The Piano – A History（London : J. M Dent & Sons Ltd）.
Kawai Musical Instruments 70th anniversary book edit team（1997）Aiming at Becoming the
Top Piano Maker : Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co. 70th Anniversary book（Hamamatsu : Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd）.
Lieberman, Richard K.（1995）Steinway & Sons（New Haven : Yale University Press）.
Local Management and Economic Conference（1994）“Music Industry and Local Economy : Relevance to the Process of Yamahaʼs Business Development and Changes in the Local Economy”（University of Shizuoka, Junior College, Economic Research Office）.
Nippon Gakki Seizo Co.（1977）The History of Our Corporation（Nagoya : Bunposha）.
NISHIHARA Minoru（1995）The Birth of the Piano（Kodansha）.

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NAKANISHI Takao（2001）A Component Theory of the Piano（Eideru Laboratory）.
OMIYA Makoto（1994）The History of the Piano（Ongaku No Tomo Sha Corp.）.
Ripin, Edwin M.（1988）PIANO（London : Macmillan）.
Ripin, Edwin M etc.（1989）Early Keyboard Instruments（London : Macmillan）.
TANAKA Tomoaki（2012）“Yamahaʼs Keyboard Instrument Business in a Mature Market” Japan Business History Review, vol. 47（no. 1）, pp. 49-74.
Wángnàdá（2003）“The Present and Future of the Chinese Musical Instrument Industry” Japan
Music Trades（Japan Music Trades Co., Ltd）.

Special Thanks
Robert F. Dove（Former President, Steinway Asia, LLC）
Alec Weil（Former Pacific Rim Representative, Steinway & Sons, Japan, Ltd.）
Terushiro Arai（Former General Affairs Manager, Steinway & Sons, Japan, Ltd.）
Sherry Miyasaka
Tamami Tanaka

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