Last weekend was International Repair Day, an annual celebration for everyone who makes repair happen in their communities around the world.
Every October we celebrate the power of repair to bring our communities together, reduce our impact on the planet, learn new skills and so much more.
In this interview with Millers Music Managing Director, Simon Pollard, we learn more about Millers Music approach to instrument repairs and their attitude towards sustainability.
Can you elaborate on the specific initiatives Millers Music has developed to enhance sustainability within the music industry?
At Millers Music we have developed a number of initiatives that aim to address sustainability, as we believe that the music industry is incredibly well-positioned to lead the charge in this area crucial to all our futures. Most instruments have historically been made in a way that is inherently sustainable.
However, over the past few years, some areas of musical instrument production have become less sustainable with lack of spare parts or repairers. Many instruments are imported from halfway around the world so there is a significant environmental cost to factor into any instrument purchase – longevity and reasonable repairability must be a requirement for all instruments.
We have placed our sustainability initiatives at the heart of our business because we believe that is one of the biggest opportunities for the industry. This month we launch our flagship sustainability programme, Piano Equals. While pianos are often expensive, difficult to move and require specialist knowledge to repair, they have the potential to last for a long time. So, we have developed a programme which leverages our expertise to assess the potential of older instruments. The programme simultaneously tackles unequal access to music education and sustainability in the music industry by reusing and refurbishing the thousands of older, quality pianos that sit idle in homes across the UK before matching them with a local school or community organisation that can truly benefit from them.
What has prompted you and Millers Music to take a more proactive approach towards environmental sustainability and community impact?
Like many organisations, we had lots of time to reflect on the state of the music industry during COVID-19. Following the pandemic, we decided to set our business on a different path. Environmental sustainability is not just an issue for Millers or the music industry – it’s an issue that affects all of us. We have been looking at how we can build our business to be a force for good. I believe that positive sustainability is intricately tied to business value, particularly in the music industry, where instrument production has been sustainable for so long and is therefore baked into consumer expectations – there’s often consternation we deal with when they find an instrument can’t be repaired.
On a local level, Cambridge is one of the most unequal cities in the UK where social inequality and environmental sustainability are the biggest challenges facing the community. We work with local organisation, Cambridge 2030, which aims to tackle inequality in the city; this is a partnership that has enabled us to engage with local schools and other organisations to benefit from our Piano Equals programme.
Can you share some examples of how Millers Music is promoting the re-use and recycling of instruments?
Our string recycling scheme is one that incentivises customers with discounts if they return their old strings. It is a small but very simple way that we can encourage reuse whilst recycling precious materials. Our main initiative is Piano Equals, which we chose specifically because piano reuse and recycling is uniquely challenging but it is also a huge opportunity to genuinely change lives.
It is through this combination of small and large-scale initiatives that we are promoting the re-use and recycling of quality musical instruments that people already have at home, and showing them how their actions can have a positive environmental and social impact.
What kind of feedback have you received from the community and the recipients of your donated instruments?
The feedback has been overwhelming. Music education, in many areas, is in crisis and a number of local secondary schools which either lacked the budget to buy a new instrument or had older, unusable instruments have commented that the donations they have received through Piano Equals have transformed the quality of music teaching almost immediately. The pianos, which have become the main teaching piano for music lessons or have been placed in rehearsal rooms, have brought about more opportunities to practise, while offering students a music education of a higher quality.
Do you ever face any challenges in encouraging customers to opt for re-used or recycled instruments instead of new ones?
There has long been a very active market for secondhand instruments in the music industry. For sectors such as Guitar, a whole economy has been built around trading instruments and equipment both from dealers but also peer-to-peer. However, for piano owners there is a tendency to hang on to instruments, as they are often considered treasured possessions with high sentimental value.
In terms of Piano Equals, helping the public to understand both the challenges and opportunities can be difficult. There are huge barriers to moving, repairing and reusing pianos, which is one of the reasons we chose to tackle this area specifically. The biggest problem we face is that we cannot bring the instrument into a showroom – we have to assess it from afar. At Millers Music we are educating the public on the importance of piano donations and their role in facilitating more contributions. Moving the instrument is a challenge that comes with a considerable cost: by asking donors to contribute a small amount towards the removal and repair of the instrument, they too are able to save themselves the cost of the professional removal and disassembly of an older piano. Piano Equals isn’t just about giving something away for free – individuals also have the option to support us in our goal to give the gift of music and have a positive impact on others.
What are your thoughts on the current state of repairability in the music industry? Are there any trends or innovations that give you hope?
In recent years we’ve seen the closure of many local music shops with more sure to follow. This is a concerning trend as e-commerce cannot ever offer the service and expertise of local shops or technicians. However, I am hopeful for the state of repairability in the music industry and more generally. Many instruments, such as cellos, flutes, pianos and guitars to name a few, are all inherently repairable if built to a high standard. Nurturing a culture of greater repairability within the industry also has the potential to create more jobs, local economic output and skills in the UK.
There are some incredible community and sustainability initiatives in our sector that are already underway at both a national and international level led by organisations such as Bechstein, Yamaha, Kawai and Casio, from Casio’s Light Up My Life campaign to string recycling schemes in the US led by D’Addario, and companies such as Focusrite who are implementing incredible initiatives in electronics sustainability. However, in our experience, these initiatives don’t always filter down into retail where a lot of the customer touchpoints exist.
What we should be concerned about is the increasing number of instruments, particularly electrical items, that are being produced to a price and quality which makes them effectively irreparable, and to the extent that they almost become throwaway items. No spare parts, no schematics, and repair costs often above the cost of the instrument. Accessibility is important and so we advocate making instruments more affordable but we must also consider the cost – there are alternatives that can make instruments affordable such as rental. I firmly believe we should be doing more to reuse the thousands of existing instruments up and down the country by repairing, renting, selling, or donating them.
On a legislative level, there are a number of Net Zero and EU initiatives that address sustainability and Eco-design, organisations such as Right to Repair are campaigning for more sustainable products. EU legislation is already in place to tackle repairability of products such as tablets, washing machines, and it is only a matter of time before musical instruments are brought into scope. The direction of travel is not going to change nor are the timescales: the question we must ask ourselves is the type of industry and products that we want to build for our future and then how we develop the services to meet those needs.
How do you see the role of music retailers evolving in the context of environmental and social responsibility?
Over the last few years the role of retail has changed. Besides instrument distribution, music retailers can offer additional services that can add value to consumers with regards to promoting environmental and social responsibility. Educating the public on the ways that they can behave and the positive sustainable choices that they can make will help us to achieve the Net Zero goals that have been set across all industries.
Music retailers are also well placed to support the second-hand market by providing the complementary services that the general public need, such as repair workshops, in order to make the music industry and economy more circular. Sadly, there are fewer music technicians than ever before, with more due to retire in the coming years, and so we may face a challenging skills shortage soon if we don’t take action now. Nevertheless, this poses an exciting opportunity for music retailers to re-introduce these services as their role evolves to meet the demands of an increasingly sustainably aware public.
