When I was a kid, pianos that played themselves were simultaneously the coolest and creepiest things ever. But they always tended to play golden oldies, or the occasional Christmas carol, and those get boring pretty quickly. But the future of self-playing instruments has arrived, and it’s all thanks to Twitter.

Tomorrow, at Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party, Stanley will make his debut. Stanley is a modern player piano, developed by the Digital Kitchen company, whose keys are controlled by a computer hooked up to an online music database. Pretty cool, huh? But the best part is, anyone can request a song.

How does one request a song from an inanimate object, you might ask. Simple — today and tomorrow, before the concert, people will be tweeting song requests to @StanleyPiano, like the one below. There will be a live feed online of his performance tomorrow, so tweet your pick and tune in to hear Stanley rock it out.


This won’t be the last we see of Mr. Stanley. Digital Kitchen is already anticipating more gigs for this genius piano, and I can’t blame them. A Twitter-powered magic piano — what will they think of next?

[via: mashable.com]

[Image sources: 1, 2]