USA TODAY International Edition
Steinway’s grand high-tech leap
How a $133,000 self-playing piano engineered a symphonic turnaround
Steinway is striking a chord with a new segment of buyers. And some don’t even know how to play the piano. ❚ The key to its newfound success? A technologically sophisticated, self-playing grand piano that retains the 165-year-old brand’s rich musicality.
Made in concert with piano engineer Wayne Stahnke, the Spirio uses a mobile app and an iPad included with the purchase to activate the performances of masterful artists such as David Benoit and Bill Charlap.
It costs $99,300 for the 5-foot-7-inch-long, 560-pound Model M Spirio and $133,800 for the 6-foot-101⁄2-inch, 760-pound Model B Spirio.
The piano is a far cry from the days when Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky tickled the ivories. But it’s putting Steinway on the map for buyers who never thought they could enjoy a world-class, high-resolution piano performance in their homes.
“It’s a player piano, but we call it a re-performance piano,” CEO Ron Losby said in an interview. “It is a seamless melding of 21st-century technology and Old World craftsmanship.”
The path to a self-playing piano came about after hedge fund manager John Paulson’s Paulson & Co. acquired Steinway in 2013. Paulson was riding high at the time after famously reaping billions from his bet against the housing market.
Yet just a few years ago, the piano maker’s sales weren’t so melodic as young Americans turned
away from music for other pursuits. Also crippling: The Great Recession ushered in tighter spending among concert halls and other institutional buyers. From 2007 to 2012, Steinway sales had slumped 13%.
Paulson’s personal love of the piano traces back to his formative years as a kid, when his piano-playing sisters begged his father for a Steinway. His family couldn’t afford it at the time, but Paulson’s father scraped together enough money to instead purchase a baby grand piano.
“But it wasn’t a Steinway, and I remember my sister crying at that time — and I realized how powerful the draw was for musicians to play on Steinway,” Paulson, who could not be reached for comment for this story, said in a video interview posted by the company. “My viewpoint is you can’t have too many Steinways.”
Steinway began spending heavily to develop the Spirio self-playing piano, which made its debut in 2016, and expand sales in foreign markets.
Steinway has hundreds of hours of performances available on the Spirio, which uses a complex system of optical sensors and proprietary software to translate hammer velocity and ensure proper pedaling. Owners get free access to the growing catalog.
“We’re able to actually re-create the keystroke — the hammer hitting the string — in the exact way that it did when the artist played it,” Losby said. “It makes it much more musically enjoyable.”
After a gradual rollout in 2016 and 2017, the instrument already has become about 30% of Steinway’s grand piano sales, said Ben Steiner, the company’s chief financial officer.
Losby has bigger plans for the Spirio, which he called a “platform” that could be used to translate live concerts into home performances and could even be used to teach people how to play.
“If you’re at home one night and in your local concert hall you’ve got Billy Joel playing a concert, it is very possible today that if you have a Spirio in your house, you can enjoy that concert in real time on your piano — not over a speaker system, but actually he’s activating your particular piano in your living room while you’re in the comfort of your home,” Losby said.
The company is betting big on China for growth. China has an estimated 30 million piano students, and about 80% of the world’s pianos are sold there, Steinway says.
The company recently opened its third flagship global showroom in Beijing and has formed relationships with Chinese piano teachers.
One key risk for Steinway is the possibility of another economic downturn. But Losby believes the Spirio could broaden the company’s base of buyers, which ultimately would help insulate the company from further setbacks.
“There really is a lot of opportunity that the Spirio platform can provide,” he said. “I hope what it does is it actually enlarges the group of individuals that really appreciate fine music, which will again make our industry start to grow.”
“We’re able to actually re-create the keystroke — the hammer hitting the string — in the exact way that it did when the artist played it.”
Ron Losby Steinway CEO