Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
EDWARD LVMAN BILL
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 o special dis-
count is allowed.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency fora:, should
to* made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Bnttred at the New York Post Office as Second- Class Mt
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 26, 1896.
TELEPHONE NUMBER 1745. — EIGHTEENTH STREET.
- T H E BUSINESS MAN'S PAPER."
THE PUBLICATION DAY OF THE
REVIEW IS CHANGED THIS WEEK
FROM SATURDAY TO THURSDAY,
OWING TO THE FACT OF CHRIST-
MAS INTERVENING.
RETROSPECTIVE.
OW that the last copper leaf has fallen
from the mossy twig and the land-
scape has taken on an ashen, chilly air, we
scent the fragrant cheer of Christmas.
The stores are thronged with shoppers,
and all about us is life and brightness.
1986 draweth near to its close, and, in a
business sense, is practically completed.
From this time on sales will be compara-
tively few, until the great "slaughter sales"
of January begin.
Men are already beginning to figure up
just what the year has meant to them in a
pecuniary sense. The commercial sky, on
the whole, has been darkened, and after
N
two or three years of unparalleled depres-
sion, we cannot expect a great change to
be wrought in a month or two, and, on the
whole, many of us will not regret that 1896
is near its end.
The year has been a notable one in the
annals of the piano trade in that there have
been more and greater failures than in any
previous year in the entire history of
American music trade affairs. Crash after
crash followed until it seemed at one time
as if hardly a firm was free from the per-
nicious and insidious rumors which floated
up and down the streets, originating no one
knows where, but scattered, and in many
instances believed. It looked as if the fu-
ture of many houses in the trade was indeed
critical. However, we have sailed through
stormy seas and at last see less tempestuous
waters ahead.
One fact must impress itself upon the
student of trade history and that is the
wonderful vitality of the piano manufactur-
ing concerns. It seems as if a name once
started and fairly launched in a business
sense in this trade never dies. Of all the
concerns that grounded on bankruptcy's
shoals this year, there is not one of any
note but that has arranged, or has matters
practically settled for the continuance of
their business. Take in dry goods, cloth-
ing, jewelry, leather trades, and the value
of a trade mark is not so great as in this
self-same music trade. It proves one thing,
that there must be a great deal of confi-
dence reposed in the men who stand at the
head of our great trade institutions.
The number of pianos manufactured dur-
ing the present year will show that there
has been a tremendous shrinkage from the
total of 1895 and former years. There has
been a large increase in the cheaper lines,
while there has existed a great stagnancy
among the producers of medium grade in-
struments. In our opinion, the total out-
put for 1896 for pianos for the United
States will not vary materially from fifty-
seven thousand. A large percentage of
these may be reckoned as classed in the
cheaper grades.
It is true it is not a flattering statement
for a trade in which there is a capital in-
vested approximating $50,000,000 to state
that we have only turned out fifty-seven
thousand instruments. Yet facts are facts,
although at times they are unpleasant to
face.
There seems to be a vitality existing in
the trade press which corresponds with that
exhibited by piano manufacturers. The
same number of papers exist which have
for a number of years past. It may be
said to their credit, that there has been a
good deal of improvement in the music
trade papers regarding their literary and
news features; more really good matter and
of a greater variety has appeared in the
music trade press during the present year
than in any preceding. And it is a relief
to turn from the large newspapers of to-day
with their sensational matter and other rot
to the columns of the ordinarily clean trade
press.
For the next thirty days business con-
cerns all over America will be scanning
over the gains and losses of the present
year and planning their campaign for 1897.
The new year seems full of promise, but
there is no telling what the jingo Congress
may do before the incoming administra-
tion assumes control of our national affairs.
Our national legislators who are drawing
snug salaries, and many of them rich per-
quisites as well, have no consideration for
the business affairs of this country. Not-
withstanding that we have gone through
three years of business depression, they
seem to think that war scares are more
needed to equalize matters, than attending
strictly to our own affairs as a nation.
The politicians can't have all the innings
in the battle of life, the business men must
surely have a turn at the bat and score a
home run occasionally, or the industrial
affairs of this country will continue to lan-
guish.
1896 has not only been remarkable for its
crashes in the industrial world, but it has
also marked the exit from life's stage of
many notable personalities in this trade.
In the West, Isaac N. Camp; in New Eng-
land, Levi K. Fuller; in New York,
William Steinway, three great figures who
have joined the great majority within a
comparatively short time. These and many
men less notable in our trade life have de-
parted.
1896 is also noted for some peculiar
changes which have been going on in the
trade, the gravitation of the trade towards
the cheap piano, and the consequent depres-
sion among the ranks of the medium grade
instruments. In the opinion of many, the
cheap piano is simply an emergency piano,
and will disappear as a prominent trade fac-
tor when good times are once more with us.
Two great names in the music trade his-
tory also have been retired from the ranks
of active workers during the present year.
We refer to the Weber Piano Co. and
Decker Bros. The reorganization of the
former, under the name of the Weber-
Wheelock Co., is an assured fact, and the
Weber name will still be before the trade.
As to the future of Decker Bros., there is
nothing new to add to that which has al-