Schlager Styles Names: Why so many Schlagers?!

[mamero]

Can someone explain why it seems every other style name in the Genos 2 is called a variation of "Schlager"? Is your style name not Schlager? That's going to cause a little confusion. Mind if we call it Schlager?

[KurtAgain]

The answer is simple:

The German-speaking region seems to be Yamaha's most important area for selling top-of-the-line arrangers.

And in the German-speaking region, Schlager is a big thing.
(To give you an impression: https://youtu.be/a3EgWAriu28)

Therefore:
If you can't play enough Schlager as a professional solo entertainer in Germany, your first gig would often be your last.

So you better call it Schlager. 

Kurt

[bpsafran]

The Genos2 style names have words added that
indicate their nature such as  Waltz..., Ballad..., Rock...,
Movie..., Schlager..., 6-8....  This is useful since you can
find related styles using the style seach function.
When you do this, you also may want to further
know if the style found by the search is a RockWaltz,
MovieWaltz or SchlagerWaltz.  Some of the Schlager
Ballads,  6-8 styles are quite generally useful
and we should not discriminate Schlager just based
on the non English part of the name.

[andyg]

It would be interesting to know the figures of sales between the UK and the German-speaking regions. I was once told by an insider that the UK was the largest market outside of Japan/Asia, but that was some years ago!

[KurtAgain]

Hi Andy,

I was referring to a post from Marc: https://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/topic,68723.msg518134.html#msg518134

And of course I also expressed myself in a pointed way.

In fact, I don't know whether the UK is perhaps the more important market for Yamaha. This would be supported by the fact that Yamaha has its development center for arrangers in UK, as far as I know.

Kurt

[DrakeM]

Yamaha sells more keyboards in Germany because they cater to them in their style department. Stands to reason why this is happening.

Nobody even has a Genos in a Music store around here in the midwest. Plus they only demo their machines on the west coast here in the states.
340,000,000 people and you can't move your produce here, the problem is your sales team. 

[ChrisH]

I would have thought that the bulk of the market would have been the E series keyboard ...lots of people wanting to learn/play or families wanting kids to learn to play. They have a low base price even the fancy 400 series (around the $500 price here) compared to the Genos 2 which is nearly $8000 !!!  Sure it's an awesome keyboard but for that price it has to be a niche market and if that's in Germany then the sales team will cater to them with tons of Schlager styles!  The average car us people drive is certainly not top of the range so I would figure high range and high priced keyboards would be a limited item!  If I look at used ads where we are I would say 99% of used keyboards are E Series for a few hundred dollars! (they probably have Schlager styles too)  I waited quite a few years before I found my Tyros (again a niche market and very few owners want to part with them)  I guess one could quite easily rename their Schlager files to a more "generic name.but I don't see the point)

Chris

[pjd]

Mine is an outsider's view, having sat, drank and hung-out in many a biergarten/bierhalle.

If you're a German musician, you'd better know how to entertain! It's an indigenous style/interpretation. This style would not translate to an American bar.

Yamaha know who buys the most mid- to high-end arrangers by region/country. Entry-level arrangers are a different, broader market. NAMM collects sales statistics for the USA (and other reporting markets). Arrangers are classified as "portable keyboards". Portable keyboards under $199 out-sell portable keyboards above $199 by two to one. Yeah, that $199 is a crazy category threshold and some of those instruments above $199 are still entry-level, like the PSR-E473.

Just a few thoughts -- pj

[Denn]

I use the schlager styles a lot because playing "western" type music is liking having dinner without salt. 
Denn.

[Amwilburn]

It would be interesting to know the figures of sales between the UK and the German-speaking regions. I was once told by an insider that the UK was the largest market outside of Japan/Asia, but that was some years ago!

Well I was told by Yamaha (right around when the T5 was being retired, so some 8 years ago now) that Germany is their largest, and has been for at least a couple of decades. btw, Korg's biggest market *was* the Middle East, but that was going back some 20 years, I haven't really heard any updates since.

Is North America important? Yup. The rest of Europe too. UK is definitely important. Oddly, regional differences mean that Japan themselves haven't even had a Genos (1, nevermind 2). In most of Asia, the StageA reigns supreme.

Hi Andy,

I was referring to a post from Marc: https://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/topic,68723.msg518134.html#msg518134

And of course I also expressed myself in a pointed way.

In fact, I don't know whether the UK is perhaps the more important market for Yamaha. This would be supported by the fact that Yamaha has its development center for arrangers in UK, as far as I know.

Kurt

I've met the head of Yamaha global arranger content (a few times), Martin Harris, and yes, he's from the UK. It was fascinating when he took us behind the scenes at some of the audio styles; they not only travel the globe to sample instruments, but a lot of it they film as well; so we got to watch video of the German group Trommelfeuer (Drumfire... I think that was their group name anyway; it's been a decade since the s950 product rollout) recording the Percussive trance audio style for s950/970/975, or them actually using Abby Road studios when recording the 60s Supergroup audio style. So the UK is definitely important! He also recorded the Ambient Pop kit at Peter Gabriel's studio near Bath.


Trommelfeuer was particularly funny to watch when recording Ending II: they shout "Yamaha! Yamaha!" at the end of the recording session (which is in the audio style, yup)

Also they went to a church in Ohio to record the huge organ; but I found that to be an odd choice; there's a pipe organ at the Temple Church in London (right there!) with huge 32 foot stops, which Hans Zimmer recorded Interstellar on; or the First Congregational Church in LA (2nd largest organ in the world) with over 18k pipes! Or the largest in the world in Philadelphia, with almost 29k pipes! Oh, I just realized, maybe because Ohio has the 11 world class organs...
https://www.ideastream.org/2024-01-24/ohio-has-eleven-historic-world-class-organs-tonights-a-chance-to-hear-one

Mark


By the way, what's normal to *us* regionally is very different around the world; Taxis in Vancouver are *all* Toyotas (mostly Priuses) but each time we're in Portugal, I get a chuckle out of *all* the taxis are German cars (all Mercedes; I'd have to dig out photos of the last trip to see if there were any exceptions; I don't recall any)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxis_by_country

People coming in and plonking down $5k to $10k is an extremely rare occurrence for acoustic guitars at the branch I work at (but common for Electric guitars) whereas the reverse is true in one of our more rural branches. Only an hour drive away, but a very different customer base!

[pjd]

[Wish we could see the breakdown for DMI...]

Yamaha quarterly performance summary: FY2024.3

Revenue increased year-on-year due to strong B2B sales of audio equipment and the impact of foreign exchange rates, despite a decline in revenue from musical instruments due to slow recovery in the digital piano (DP) market and protracted downturn in the Chinese market.

ore operating profit decreased due to factors including lower sales of musical instruments, production adjustments to reduce inventories, and one-time expenses.

Net profit decreased due the 4.3 billion yen expenses related to structural reforms such as the impairment loss on piano manufacturing processes, and other factors, in addition to the low core operating profit.

FY2024.3 Revenue decreased due to lower sales of pianos and digital pianos. Sales of pianos decreased due to downturn in the Chinese market. Sales of digital musical instruments decreased due to slow recovery of sales of DP products. Sales of wind, strings and percussion instruments increased due to robust demand. Sales of guitars increased due to strong sales of electric guitars and the addition of Cordoba Music Group.

Performance by business segment (Three months, Billions of Yen)

                         Revenue   Profit
    Musical Instruments    77.1B    4.0B
    Audio Equipment        34.9B    2.3B
    IMC business/other      9.1B   -0.4B

Revenue by major product category (Full year, Billions of Yen)

    Pianos                         55.9B
    Digital Musical Instruments    97.3B
    Winds, Strings, Percussion     68.8B
    Guitars                        43.0B

Revenue by region (Full year, Billions of Yen)

    Japan             59.6B
    North America     84.0B
    Europe            62.2B
    China             42.8B
    Other regions     56.5B


[Two big factors were 1. impact of exchange rates and 2. ocean freight charges.]