DANA MESSINA, of Steinway Musical Instruments Inc, is not playing the piano. Instead, he's fiddling with an iPad - showing off the company's Steinway Etude app to his staff at Steinway's Palais Renaissance store.

It's a scene that shows how a company so steeped in tradition can also move with the times, an ability that Mr Messina says has helped the business survive more than 150 years.

"Steinway is a company based on innovation," he explains. "If you look at the shape of pianos today, this was the shape that Steinway invented back in the 1860s prior to which pianos were square, so even as early as back then, we knew that our survival would rely on being innovative."

This innovation applies to both manufacturing and marketing, he adds.

"On the manufacturing side, we still work by hand, but while we used to cut with a saw, we now use a laser so the cutting is more precise," he says.

"And on the marketing side, we have iPhone and iPad apps such as the Steinway Etude that allows you to download sheet music and the Steinway digital metronome so you don't have to keep winding a mechanical one."

Going digital, he reveals, has been key to Steinway's relevance today.

"You may wonder why we allow people to download sheet music for free but they provide us with very valuable information," he smiles.

"If a person downloads a pop song from Elton John, they are probably just casual piano players. But if someone downloads a piece like Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue which is about 17 minutes long and very difficult to play, this is a person that Steinway wants to know. These apps let us get closer to the potential customers which we would find more difficult to identify otherwise."

Plus, the Asian market is just ripe for the picking, he believes. "It's growing at about 35 per cent a year but it's still very small," he says, revealing that a sale of three or four pianos a month in Singapore is considered ideal.

"For every 10 Steinway grand pianos that we sell in America, we sell only one in Asia. And yet, there are more people in Asia who play the piano so there's a lot of room for us to grow. We are investing money and manpower in this region to make sure that happens."

This includes the 16,000 sq feet Steinway Gallery which showcases pianos priced from $16000 for entry level instruments to the $40,000 Essex range, and $150000 upwards for the high-end ones.

"The Boston and Essex ranges allow us to bring people into the Steinway family at more affordable prices," he says. "If you buy an Essex but later want to buy a Steinway, we buy it back from you at the price that you bought it. Our pianos appreciate in price, so what we pay to buy it back from you in, say, five to 10 years, would still be less than the value of the piano then."

But the real reason why people want a Steinway is simply because "it's beautiful", says Mr Messina.

It takes more than a year to make one, but the craftsmanship and quality are well worth the wait, especially since one's appreciation of it is almost everlasting.

This article was first published in The Business Times.