Good thread... and some good counter arguments...

You might not take me quite so literally, though. Home organs, as you point out, are not completely dead. But in comparison to their heyday, let's just say the hearse is drawing up to the cemetery

I don't have access to sales figures, but I think just from looking at how scarce in stores these things have become, and the rise of WS loop and arp sounds becoming the norm in pop music, that arranger sales are drooping. To a large extent, the market is driven by youth. And youth is NOT buying arrangers. They are buying MoXS's, FantomG's, M3's, etc.. All keyboards that, in most cases, are CONSIDERABLY less expensive than their arranger counterparts, to be honest, they sound on the whole a lot better, definitely more contemporary and capable of making today's music. And have capabilities in MOTL models that are rare even on TOTL arrangers.

The thing is, once the younger players stopped playing organs because they didn't keep up with the synth technology and sounds of the day, and cost a fortune compared to the synths that WERE becoming the norm, those players never went back. At least not in numbers sufficiently large enough to keep the industry healthy. All that is left of this once dominant market segment is boutique organs at boutique prices.

To be honest, I see this as the future of the arranger, in the long run. No-one, in the late sixties, early seventies would have agreed that that was going to happen, just as many here don't think the same fate could occur to the arranger. But if you take the long view, many of the same factors are in play.

Unless youth can be encouraged, by the manufacturers adding WS loop and arp capabilities and contemporary sounds (and not at a $5000 price tag! Ketron, WTF were they thinking ), to start to seriously consider the arranger as a viable instrument for making TODAY'S music on, where else can the arranger go but to the happy hunting ground of the 'home organ'?