[2] Among the artists associated with the Golden Age of the Piano are Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Wanda Landowska, Myra Hess, Arthur Rubinstein, Alexander Brailowsky, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Josef Hofmann, Percy Grainger, Alfred Cortot, and Van Cliburn.
"In an age before radio and television, and in a time when only the wealthy could afford a record player, the piano was a sign that a family had achieved middle-class respectability.
In 1892, for example, the country's total estimated production was 100,000 pianos, most made by manufacturers in and around New York City and Boston.
[4] The arrival of the phonograph in the early 1900s and commercial radio in the 1920s exerted steadily growing pressure on piano makers.
Total U.S. sales for the industry peaked around 300,000 in 1924, representing roughly $100 million in revenue ($1,780,000,000 today[5])[6] and decreased steadily thereafter.