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Player Piano Roll Production Ceases

Posted by kdawson on from the day-the-music-died dept.

boustrophedon writes "The Buffalo News reports that QRS Music Technologies halted production of player piano rolls 108 years after the company was founded in Chicago. QRS continues to make digitized and computerized player-piano technology that runs on CDs. 'We're still doing what we always did, which is to provide software for pianos that play themselves. It's just the technology that has changed. But I would be lying to say [the halting of production] doesn't sadden me,' said Bob Berkman, the company's music director. Piano rolls can last for decades, but not forever. Volunteers at the International Association of Mechanical Music Preservationists build piano-roll scanners to scan rolls optically and convert them to MIDI files. The IAMMP archive and others contain thousands of scanned rolls."

15 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Nostalgia... by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I remember my gran having a player piano. It was great fun (as a seven year old) working the peddles to play music at double-speed. It also seemed somehow magical seeing the keys "play" themselves.

  2. Oh well by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    There goes my backup strategy.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  3. Remember, remember the 5th of January (2009)...* by denzacar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...Next time someone mentions a technology that is outdated. Like say... floppies.

     
    *5th of January 2009 is today, when you read the news about the last mass produced player piano roll going out the door.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  4. Video of piano roll production at QRS Music by Andorion · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3FTaGwfXPM

    Enjoy!

  5. huh? by russ1337 · · Score: 4, Funny

    'We're still doing what we always did, which is to provide software for pianos that play themselves.

    Piano Porn?

  6. Player pianos used to be cool by gzipped_tar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Listen to Gustav Mahler playing himself. He played a part (the Death March) of his Fifth Symphony in 1905, recorded to piano rolls.

    I just hope at least some of the player pianos could be preserved in a working state, although it would be getting more and more difficult as time goes by.

    Technologies get replaced but the coolness remains.

    --
    Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
  7. Forward to 2067 by gnieboer · · Score: 5, Funny

    "...halted support for COBOL 108 years after the language was founded. We continue to provide support for Cybernetic Linux. We're still doing what we always did, which is to provide software for machines that help humans. It's just the interface that has changed. But I would be lying to say it doesn't sadden me..."

    So, any bets on whether the above statement will be a reality??

    Or the alternative version in 2109...

    "...halted support for Windows XP 108 years after the language was founded. We continue to provide support for Windows Vista. Windows Vista is a great enhancement to the user experience, and we really really really hope that people will get over it and stop asking for XP. Really, we mean it this time, NO MORE XP SUPPORT. No... Really..."

  8. QRS isn't the only place to get them! by I_Can't_Fly · · Score: 3, Informative

    List of currrent Player Piano Rolls and Equipment

    --
    Is this thing on? Check. Check.
  9. And thus... by Warhawke · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The humble beginnings of the ever-turbulent fight between music publishers and end-users comes to an end. More than simply nostalgic, the piano roll was the first cheap medium for copying music, and as such it created the massive debaucle whose legacy is still carried on today by the RIAA. Prior to the hayday of the player piano, musical entertainment for home use required live performance. Sheet music publishers had a stranglehold on the industry. Enter the player piano roll, and suddenly these new device publishers could manually record, copy, and redistribute music en masse, and they did so with great frequency, never paying the sheet music publishers a dime. Even "worse", the player piano was autonomous, and so you didn't need a musician at all to enjoy the music played. Naturally, the sheet music publishers were outraged. They considered the device to be sterile and even dangerous to the artistry of music. If no one had to play piano, then no one would, and the music would simply cease to exist. They asked Congress to ban the piano roll and require that any new recording system be voted on by the sheet music publishers. Fortunately, that didn't hold, and instead a licensing system was created where player piano roll producers paid the publishers a paltry fee per roll produced.

    That system has held in place until today, though you see technology (and history) repeat itself over and over. It's important not just from a DRM and YRO perspective, but also from a historical perspective. Beyond the moving-type press, this allowed for the greatest proliferation of music across America to be enjoyed cheaply by everyone. The roll single handedly changed the way America could experience music, and it completely defined the historical legislation and business practice of modern music. This is the passing of a titan, not just a kitchy thing that your great-grandparents might have owned.

    Of course, now that I went to the effort to write all that, I remember Cory Doctorow mentioned the same thing in an old, well-read paper of his.

  10. Production pauses by yogibaer · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you read the article carefully, it becomes clear that they will be trying to reestablish the production in a new location, but are a bit worried, that some of the ancient machinery will survive relocation. They still sell 50.000 rolls a year and have a stockpile that will last them for 1-2 years.

  11. Player Pianos are supreme tech by VividU · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I had the great fortune to apprentice with one of the last remaining player piano craftsman/restorers/repairmen in the west coast. A mad genius if there ever was one. (Hey Larry!).

    Not many jobs gave me to opportunity to make glue from fish guts, cut leather, polish wood with graphite and tinker deep in the guts of Steinway's.

    The player piano's are truly amazing technology. Ask most people how the players work and they'll draw a blank. (Hint: vacuum).

    Sit next to a properly tuned (musically & mechanically) player piano, close your eyes and listen. They can be scary good.

  12. Re:Remember, remember the 5th of January (2009)... by commodore64_love · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's funny you bring that up. Back in the 90s there was a show called Babylon 5 which I wanted to share with other Forum posters. Today it would be easy via high speed internet, but most people were still stuck at 28k, so that was not a practical solution. Instead I created five VHS tapes and distributed them to five people.

    I let them keep the tapes for a week, and then pass the tapes to the next person on my list (at their own expense). After about a year around 200 people on my forum had watched the Babylon 5 tapes. Not as efficient as modern methods, but it was effective for its time (1996), and it created a loyal group of fans.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  13. Only older than 1923... by argent · · Score: 3, Informative

    The sites listed in the article only contain music that is out of copyright, from rolls published before 1923.

  14. Re:Still can be done by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's like saying modern digital pinball machines are better than the old electro-mechanical ones. Sure, they are technologically better in nearly every way, but there's something about mechanical devices that are intrinsically more fascinating than electronic ones. (and if I have to explain why, you'll never understand. :) )

    --
    Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
  15. Re:Remember, remember the 5th of January (2009)... by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 3, Informative

    Next time someone mentions a technology that is outdated. Like say... floppies.

    Ironically (?), the predominant distribution media for digital player pianos is STILL the 3.5" floppy disk.

    What was state-of-the-art when the first Disklaviers were released in the late 1980s is now hopelessly anachronistic, but as long as first-generation hardware owners continue to be willing to pay $30 for a handful of MIDI files, concessions to them will continue to be made.