Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
EDWARD L\MAN
Editor and Proprietor.
PUBLISHED
EVERY
SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (Including postage) United States and
Canada, $3.00 per year; Foreign Countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
Insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts. special dis-
count w allowed.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
fhtteredat the New York Post Office as Second-Class Matter.
'•THE BUSINESS MAN'S PAPER."
RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE.
EFORE another publication day of
B
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, the
cur-
tain will have fallen, and 1895 will have
passed into history.
For the next two weeks at least, the bus-
iness concerns will be carefully examining
their accounts for 1895, and planning for
the New Year's business.
With some firms the examination of their
books for 1895 will be a pleasurable occupa-
tion—fraught with much joy and pleasing
reminiscences.
For some the pages will not contain pleas-
ing disclosures.
For there are those who have been deeply
disappointed in their business expectations,
and the result—the year now closing has
been for them an unsatisfactory one.
We cannot all gather a golden harvest.
Perpetual sunshine is a thing unknown,
and after encountering considerable cloudy
weather and occasional storms we can better
appreciate the rays of the sun as they glint
through the clouds of business depression.
According to the views of some of our
most eminent financiers, the country is
Others are just as strong in their state-
slowly but surely lifting itself from the mire ment that the cheap piano is in its decad-
of depression into which it has been ence, having fulfilled a certain mission—
plunged.
make-shift, as it were—is a thing of the
The return to business activity is neces- past.
' ' * '.
sarily slow.
We have always believed that the very
The arteries of trade were well shrunken, cheap piano simply was used as an emer-
and a long time will have elapsed before gency.
they are properly extended and performing
But it cannot be overlooked while dis-
their regular functions.
cussing this matter, that there have been
great surprises in the matter of just what a
'
0 0 0
man could do in piano manufacturing for a
Just the exact amount of progress made
small amount of money.
in the music trade industries during the
Will the development of American
past twelve months is indeed difficult to
energy, as applied to mechanics, or any-
determine with a fair degree of accuracy.
thing, for that matter, continue to develop
Some men give an evasive answer, some
along the line of cheap piano construction?
no answer at all; and in fact, very few men
Just what can be produced for a modicum
will state accurately just what their output
of money in the piano field, is still conjec-
has been for a given period.
tural. Many consider that the very cheap
No doubt in this they are perfectly cor-
piano is a fixture—that it has come to stay.
rect.
•
For ourselves, we have always believed
It is well for business men to retain among
that a dealer should attach his faith
themselves and their own inner counsels
to a medium piano, steering clear of the
secrets of this sort, but still, the retention
very cheap instruments, that in this his
of these secrets cannot keep people from
course lay toward prosperity.
guessing and from estimating as to just
0 0 0
what this country has done in the line of
musical industries during the past twelve
It seems to us more and more a fact as
months.
we cast a retrospective glance over the con-
A trade paper, therefore, has to fall back tinual changes which this trade has been
on its own special field of information, undergoing, that it is going to be more and
with large deductions and additions here more of a vital struggle for existence be-
and there.
tween the small manufacturer and the
We would say this, that from all inform- larger one.
ation at hand gained through various
The man who has a tremendous output,
sources, we are led to believe that the out- controls a vast machinery for its disposi-
put of pianos for 1895 will approximate tion, a huge Capital and a trained corps of
ninety-three thousand.
experts in his business, is occupying a po-
To some this statement may seem a sur- sition of advantage over his competitor
prisingly large- one, but in support of our who has to work with smaller capital, a
position in the matter of the above estimate, less number of attache's, and consequently
we wish to say that there has been a large a less output of pianos, is working under
increase in the number of cheap instru- conditions more unfavorable than his more
ments.
fortunate competitor.
It is from the factories which have been
0 0 0
producing the cheap pianos that the large
Again to us it is apparent that the manner
increase has come over the previous year—
in fact, the era of cheapness is still with us. of conducting the piano business is con-
Factories which have maintained a satis- stantly undergoing radical changes.
Unquestionably, every year there will
factory amount of activity throughout the
entire year, are factories which have been enter into the conduct of the piano business
producing the cheapest grade of instru- more and more of that element of commer-
ciality which permeates every other trade.
ments.
There will be less of the old time conser-
There has been, it is true, a demand for
the medium, better and high grade pianos, vatism, and a more and more direct applica-
but that demand has been reduced materi- tion of the new and modern lines of energy
ally by the preponderance of the cheaper as applied to commercial enterprises.
We have in mind an innovation made by
pianos.
It is a question, however, if the cheap a notable house, which will without doubt
piano will figure as largely in the next year be followed in the near future by other
firms who have been conducting their busi-
as it has during the present year.
ness
on exclusive lines.
There are those who claim for it a decided
We refer to the recent announcement of
increase.