And new players are being made. Q.R.S. recently has developed an electronic player piano. Wurlitzer Co., of DeKalb, Ill., is setting up production lines to begin producing player pianos in April.

Home entertainment system The classic player piano, or pianola, was first developed at the end of the 19th century. It was a piano, usually an upright, that could be played normally.

“The player piano is basically one of the earliest home computers,” said Randy Hammond, a Brooklyn Center man who has hired Otto to repair some of the four player pianos he owns.

Better quality player pianos, such as this 1913 model owned by Carmen Farmer of Picayune, Miss., are now considered collectibles.

Stanford’s Player Piano Project was bolstered by the recent acquisitions of three private collections of player pianos, piano-playing machines and music rolls.

The player piano was essentially an early computer operating on a binary system. Westworld’s credits show the spool punched with holes that these pianos read, each of which indicated a note and ...

You could also buy performances that had been recorded on piano rolls by the great players of the day, many of whom provided glowing testimonials to the companies marketing player pianos.

It’s no secret that most pianos are legit works of artistic craftsmanship — larger acoustic versions are called “grand” for more than one reason. This digital piano is available through the MoMA ...

Unlike violinists or trumpeters, piano players rarely get to perform on their own instruments and must be adaptable.