QRS was founded in 1900 by Melville Clark (of Story & Clark piano fame) who developed the player piano as we know it today. QRS supplied music rolls to the player piano market, with production peaking in 1927, when QRS Music Company sold 10 million rolls.

The player piano”s heyday lasted from 1900 until the Great Depression in the 1930s. The poverty of the Great Depression, along with the development of affordable radios (which started becoming commonplace around 1927) effectively ended player piano production. However, the demand for rolls continued and was reinvigorated in the 1950s when people began restoring old player pianos. QRS remains the only manufacturer of piano rolls in the world today. To view a video on how QRS piano rolls are made, click here.

In 1986, QRS began focusing on new technologies, and in 1989 released its first digital retrofit player piano kit under the Pianomation™ name. Today QRS is an industry leader in introducing fun innovations in home musical entertainment. QRS Music Technologies became a public company in 1996.

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