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What would you expect from Steinway? We shouldn't be surprised.

James’ video is misleading: he states that Spirio is not transferable to a new owner but that was never determined through this thread: we were waiting to hear of the criteria and process for transfer. He concluded there is no Steinway support yet we don’t know what resolution and support Steinway did provide as a conclusion. James draws unsubstantiated conclusions: ‘the owner of the piano must have been unhappy with the Spirio or the B’ to sell the piano so quickly. Really? He has no basis for this statement and we can all think of multiple reasons for selling a new piano

Not cool. He needs to quit making assumptions if he wants to post reviews. He may be young, but he is old enough not to be doing this

+1

Yes. Very true. But PW threads and pages frequently come up under Google and Bing searches. I would think an ugly rumor like Spirio functionality locked to first buyer only would be stopped in its tracks by now? I’m not gonna pass judgment until I know, which makes next to no difference because I will in all likelihood never spend that much on a piano in the first place much less the additional cost for the Spirio system. Is it weird that I’m rooting for an American piano company to succeed? I’m rooting for Steinway, Mason & Hamlin and Charles Walter.

J & J
I hope the OP will reappear to provide an update on whether the transfer issue was resolved. But even as this thread was written and progressed, James made unwarranted assumptions about not only this problem but also stating the original owner must not have liked the piano to sell so soon. I hope he doesn’t incur the wrath of Steinway.

dogperson- I’m rooting for Steinway on this one. I’m hoping that there’s some terrible misunderstanding that’s taken place.

I am, as well. We don’t know the ending to the story——/ but there are probably other unknown details.
If the OP won’t post again, I wish Steinway would

Anyone who absolutely must know the end of this story could also phone the OP, "Ronen," at Park Avenue Steinway. If someone decides to do that, they can update the rest of us on this thread!

I know it is almost inconceivable that this could occur, but I can see where the fine folks at Steinway may have simply not foreseen that someone would ever in a million years actually want to sell a Steinway Spirio to another person. After all, at times they do demonstrate an overly high opinion of themselves and their products . If this is the case, they might not have accounted for that in the legal terms governing the use of the software.

I am a software developer. It is also quite possible that they didn't not include this scenario in the security and authentication protocols in the software. I know that might seem like a simple thing on the surface, but depending on how the software is engineered and designed, it might be tricky to work around that. There's authentication between the iPad and the instrument itself, and then authentication back to the Steinway servers for access to material.

If either of these scenarios is the case, it may take Steinway a while to work out the issues from a technical perspective and get the software changed and the documents and contracts in place.

I think it was stated earlier in the thread that the original contract of sale provided for transfers of ownership and the fact that a paid license would need to be acquired by subsequent owners? So at least on the legal end, that situation was covered.

I just emailed the local Steinway dealer. He said, if the Steinway ipad and Spirio ID were included in the sale, then the new owner would have access to the Steinway Spirio library, just like the old owner, no additional cost. However, if the ipad and Spirio ID were not included, then a new ipad, ID and licensing would require a new fee. Makes sense to me.

Thank you so much. That makes sense and seems very fair.

I'm probably one of the few people to actually have sold (retail) a used Steinway Spirio. I had the original iPad, user id, and password, and the transaction went seamlessly. I made CERTAIN that I had these things BEFORE I bought it from my original client. (I was actually warned about this issue by a good friend who is also a Steinway dealer) I'm disappointed in Steinway by their lack of response to this issue. It flies directly in the face of their claims that their instrument appreciates over time. At some point, someone needs to take them to task in the courts on these bogus claims. This really isn't a gray issue.... it's common sense. Especially if you're charging $25-50K extra for a player system. Just my thoughts.....

+1

If Steinway notified the original owner of the requirements for Spiro transfer, I don’t understand how Steinway did not fulfill their legal requirements.

We just don’t have enough information: did the original owner know? Did the original dealer notify the first buyer before the sale? Why couldn’t the iPad and passcode be transferred? Once it was not transferred, did Steinway notify the new owner of the required fees? Seems like the missing disclosure may not have been Steinway corporate’s failure.
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The OP has not responded to this thread since 6/30/2019. Surely something has transpired! I wish individuals would close the loop on threads like this instead of leaving everyone hanging, especially when they are piano industry professionals, as the OP obviously is. There might be a lot of needless speculation going on here, when the issue has been reasonably resolved between the parties and Steinway. Does anyone know "steinwayman18" from Park Avenue Pianos personally?

One could just call them and ask for Ronen.

My apologies for the late response. I just haven’t logged in for a while.

The update is that both of the steinway spirio Buyers have resolved the issue directly with steinway.

Steinway maintains some sort of position (which is still unclear to me) that the licensing does not carry over (contrary to what was said above from a poster who reached out to a steinway dealer).

However they seem to have resolved the issue with these two buyers.

We currently have a 2017 spirio M for sale and will be sure to let any buyer know that they are responsible for working out the licensing with Steinway directly. Hopefully steinway will do the right thing. The 2017 spirio seller maintained that steinway never told her the library wasn’t transferable.

James actually corrected himself in a seperate video. He does try to get his facts straight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_8ekR1I0tY