Player Piano

A player piano is a self-playing piano with a pneumatic or electromechanical mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated paper or metallic rolls. Modern versions use MIDI. The player piano gained popularity as mass-produced home pianos increased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sales peaked in 1924 and subsequently declined with improvements in electrical phonograph recordings in the mid-1920s. The advent of electrical amplification in home music reproduction, brought by radios, contributed to a decline in popularity, and the stock market crash of 1929 virtually wiped out production.

Similar Artists

George Botsford

Waring's Pennsylvanians

Charlie Barnet

River Raisin Ragtime Revue

Roy Harvey

Phil Legg

Blind Willie McTell

Frank Stokes

Pee Wee Hunt

Benjamin Loeb