NAMM 2024 in Review

This was the first year since covid that the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show was back to its regular January date and, in fact the first show where it felt back to normal. How was it? To answer that, I’m going quickly review the piano market over the last few years. Piano… Read More

Pearl River New Factory Grand Opening

Pearl River Piano Group has grown to be the largest piano manufacturer in the world, producing more than 400 pianos per day with an annual production of 140,000 pianos. “Where do all of these pianos go?”, one might ask. Pearl River Piano dominates the Chinese piano market with an estimated 40% of the local market… Read More

Visiting Pearl River Factory

On this latest trip to China, I managed to catch a glimpse into the transformation of Pearl River Piano. Already the largest piano company in the world manufacturing more than 130,000 pianos annually, Pearl River Piano has its sights set on even greater advancement.

One hundred thirty thousand pianos annually equates into about 400 pianos being manufactured per day. Imagine though what it must be like to produce 400 pianos daily. With roughly 225 tuning pins…… Read More

Pearl River and Schimmel Alliance

Recently I sat down with June Wang from Pearl River Piano Group and corresponded with Rob Slayman from Schimmel Piano to discuss their strategic alliance as I was curious how it had affected both companies. It was announced at NAMM 2016 that Pearl River had purchased a controlling interest in the Schimmel company.

Why do piano companies purchase other piano companies? We hear of company mergers in the news all the time. What is the impetus – the driving force for one piano company to acquire another piano company? If we paint with large brush strokes, on one side there is massive demand to be fulfilled in China. Nearly 80% of the world’s piano purchases happen in China.… Read More