History of Player Piano

     A player piano (also known as a Pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern implementations using MIDI. The player piano mechanically plays music recorded by means of perforations on a paper roll. In its original form as the Pianola, patented in late 19th, it was a cabinet called a “piano player” that was stationed in front of an ordinary piano. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home. It was invented in the late 1800s and became very popular in the early 1900s as a popular form of entertainment in homes, bars, and restaurants.

      The player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home, in the late 19th and early 20th century. Sales peaked in 1924, and then declined, as the improvement in phonograph recordings due to electrical recording methods developed in the mid-1920s .in the late 19th and early 20th century. Sales peaked in 1924, then declined, as the improvement in phonograph recordings due to electrical recording methods developed in the mid-1920s. The advent of electrical amplification in home music reproduction via radio in the same period helped cause their eventual decline in popularity, and the stock market crash of 1929 virtually wiped out production.