Stroll Down Piano Lane, But Watch For Bumps

Piano Lane

The web gave rise to an entire era of fake-book musicians, folks who would noodle around with a song given the lyrics and a chord progression. The most famous of web sites was an outgrowth of Usenet groups about guitar tablature called the On-Line Guitar Archive (OLGA). Music industry attorneys vilified OLGA long before the Fannings conceived of Napster, but a variety of compromises and tricks on both sides allowed OLGA and her sisters to remain open, albeit with much of their content stripped.

OLGA and her sisters are still around as anyone can find by using a search engine. Unfortunately the two decade rise of MIDI along with a generation of fake-book musicians has caused a generation of musicians who do not read music to thrive. There were always and always will be people who can play by ear. Back in music school, where I spent my first two undergraduate years, we hated them. But they hated us back because while they aced ear training courses, we blew them away in Music Theory I and Music Theory II. Those who stuck with the program and learned to read music caught up to us by Theory III.

But reading music is not exactly necessary for brilliance. Producer George Martin earned his Fifth Beatle designation by actually scoring the Fab Four’s work so that session players and others could record the music.

But there is a dearth of good sheet music available for retail sale. Sure, there are still over eight hundred publishers of music, but as in any industry, several huge companies run the show. Musicians know the names and others could care less. But few, if any, of those companies want to sell directly to consumers. Doing so requires a lot of overhead and those expenses can be shunted to retail distributors to keep margins high.

Piano Lane is one such distributor, but is affiliated with one of the major publishers and therein lies their recipe for success.

And The Children Shall Buy There

As with any media on the web (think Amazon), the economies of scale can be staggering if enough volume is generated. Alfred Publishing, a privately held music education publisher is affiliated with Piano Lane. (Note: I don’t know the exact nature of the relationship save that Alfred is the website’s administrative contact). The web site is actively engaged in grass roots promotions as well as seeking out music educators to join their affinity program.

That makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Working musicians are not the largest consumers of printed music. Teachers are. By reaching out to the educators, Piano Lane looks to instill brand loyalty in a cluttered environment. Scoff all you want, but it worked like a charm for American Airlines when Bob Crandall first rolled out frequent flier miles.

Under Piano Lane’s basic affinity program, open to anyone, all purchases accrue Piano Lane Dollars. The current rate is five percent. Sounds good, eh, but remember that you’re only talking about a 5% sale and the merchant gets the benefit of low redemption. After all, most folks won’t be tempted to redeem until they have at least five or ten dollars in their account. That is a lot of spending, a lot of float for the folks at Piano Lane to work with and a low overall redemption rate. Best of all, the program encourages repeat purchases. There is nothing wrong with frequent buyer programs, but you should always make sure that you do not change your purchasing habits simply because you belong to one.

Unless you are a piano teacher, that is. Piano Lane not only allows teachers to gain credit for their purchases, but encourages students to sign up under their teacher’s referral code to gain credit. Teachers can select specific music for students rather than selling it from their homes or sending the parents to the mall. Teachers and students double-dip, each getting credit for the purchase. Brilliant marketing.

So, How’s The Service?

Piano Lane bills the site as having "the largest selection and inventory of solo and multi-hand piano music compared with any online or brick-and-mortar store in the world". I found at least one other store making a similar claim, and I am not about to count titles, so suffice it to say that there is a large selection here.

My own experience, however, was that an item that was backordered was acknowledged and then never sent. I wrote twice, on August 27 and August 29. The August 27 email wasn’t acknowledged, but lo and behold, my order was shipped then. My August 29 email was answered with an apology for "technical problems in the warehouse". The email went on to say that the product had been delivered to my home that afternoon. The cynical part of me has to wonder if my correspondence two days earlier revealed the "technical problems".

Armed with the UPS tracking number, I found that my order was shipped five hours after I emailed my complaint to the company. Perhaps that’s a coincidence, but it does seem odd to have no acknowledgement of an order and then ship hours after a complaint letter is received. I could actually live with that if a second email hadn’t been necessary to get the information, which included the triumphant line, "Your order was delivered to your home address this afternoon." What a pity it was not delivered a month of afternoons ago.

The product, which was published a decade ago, did arrive in great shape. I ordered a thick songbook which was protected on either side by cardboard and placed in a thick cardboard envelope. A small Post-It note with a pick and pack number was left on the front of the book, but that easily comes off without damaging the book.

Call it a push. The flat shipping rate of $4.95 is attractive since UPS Ground Service is used and the packaging is well done, but I would have preferred better communication about the status of my order. A CD warehouse recently put me through the same gyrations after I ordered, but I was more upset when items they accepted orders for were not only backordered, but out of print. That’s just sloppy database work.

The Bottom Line, Clicks And All

I am willing to give Piano Lane the benefit of the doubt. I will order again at some future time and update this review based on that experience. Meanwhile, if you are looking for a good selection of sheet music, this is a good place to check pricing. And if you regularly order for yourself or others, the frequent buyer program may generate enough money for you to get the occasional freebie. Either beats using a fakebook downloaded from the web.

–G. Bounacos