Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL
Editor and Proprietor.
PUBLISHED
EVERY
SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
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ertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
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be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
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NEW YORK, JANUARY 9, 1897.
TELEPHONE MUMBER, 1745.--EIGHTEENTH STRFET.
"THE BUSINESS HAN'S PAPER." 'M l
THE TRADE OUTLOOK.
Manufacturer and merchant alike have been
engaged during the week in scanning their bal-
ance sheets and planning the campaign for the
year yet so young. " Stock taking " has been
the omnipresent cry, and wherever the jour-
neyings of The Review have been since Janu-
ary 1st, it is the oft-repeated story, " busy
stock taking, figuring up, you know." Already
a number of firms have expressed themselves
to us as being. well pleased over the results
attained in the year so recently laid to rest.
Of course business for the week has been
dull; and in what year during the first part of
January has it not been likewise? There is a
general relaxation of the reins of trade every-
where, and that means a consequent lessening
of the speed of the commercial vehicle.
We have studied the trade situation for years
and are firmly of the opinion that each year
we are gravitating more and more toward a
condition of trade affairs which concentrates
almost the entire volume of trade within a
period of two months of the spring and two of
the fall. The remainder of the year trade is
sporadic. The concentration of trade in the
few months of the year is brought about pri-
marily by the lessening and relaxation of busi-
ness energy during the remaining months.
This during earlier days was not so much in
vogue, but it has become the habit among our
wealthier residents during the past two de-
cades, or since the civil war, to devote more
time to travel—more time to vacations than
formerly. The new generation upon the stage
follows strongly the trend of affairs made by
the generation which preceded it in the de-
parture from the old settled society methods.
The question is, is this concentration of
trade during a short period of the year benefi-
cial as a whole to the manufacturer and to the
merchant? One might say that if his sales dur-
ing the year approximated the figures which
he had planned is he not as well off financially
as if the trade were scattered nearly equally
throughout the twelve months of the year?
It is, after all, results that are most eloquent
in emphasizing business success, and if a man
who has planned to sell a quarter of a million
dollars worth of goods during the year suc-
ceeds in selling three quarters of that amount
in three months of the year, and during the
other nine months remains in comparative
stagnancy, is he not as well off?
That is the question.
And we would say, perhaps the merchant is;
because during the busy months he can easily
increase his expenses and curtail them during
the months of business stagnancy.
The element most affected by these condi-
tions would be his wareroom and clerical force.
On the whole it is our opinion that a steady
trade is more beneficial than a spasmodic
trade. It gives one something positive to
count upon and forms a splendid balancing
power for the business world. It has a steady-
ing effect in the industro-commercial field,
and is in every sense a business regulator.
A steady business—a business that can be
counted upon with a fair amount of certainty,
is like a train run upon schedule time. You
know just when to catch it.
Taken as a whole, the outlook for trade in
the musico-industrial field is indeed brighter
than at the beginning of January, 1896. Then,
it will be remembered, we had a series of
crashes which had a demoralizing effect upon
the entire trade of this country, manufacturing
as well as retailing. Now the commercial at-
mosphere is fairly well cleared and there are
no signs upon the business horizon which
presage cyclonic conditions.
In our opinion business will be run on more
conservative lines than have hitherto charac-
terized the business affairs of this trade. There
is, we find, a deeply rooted belief that too long
time has been granted dealers, and that there
have been extensive credits granted which
were not warranted either by the present or
past history of the individuals or firms to whom
the credits were extended. Still there are al-
ways some who will, for the sake of extending
their business, take enormous risks—risks
which their own business judgment must
surely tell them is not the proper thing to do.
Talking with some of the largest manufact-
urers we find that they would gladly enter
into a combination to sell musical instruments
upon a uniform scale of credit, a scale which
should conform approximately to that in gen-
eral use in the dry-goods trade, a certain per-
centage off for cash, thirty and sixty days, and
the net price being given for four months.
Of course if such terms should become gen-
erally accepted in this trade it would neces-
sarily mean a tremendous curtailment in the
sale of pianos on the instalment plan; or it
would mean that trade would concentrate
more and more in the hands of the dealers
whose installment paper would be carried en-
tirely by manufacturers.
Of course all of these matters could be prop-
erly handled by an association, and they never
will become generally adopted until the local
associations now existing shall have become
nationalized.
The long period of business depression has
evidently been the means of getting quite a
number of firms into what we may call a " hard
times rut." They complain, and very justly,
about poor business, but what efforts are they
making to improve things—to get out of the
rut?
No doubt thousands of dollars have been
spent in the past in advertising; but the merest
tyro in advertising" work knows that advertis-
ing is of little value unless it is kept up con-
tinually and persistently.
The idea that business will come to him who
waits for it is not based on common-sense
grounds. It is not the plan that successful busi-
ness men will pursue during the year of 1897.
The public is notoriously iconoclastic and'
ungrateful, and unfortunately is not always
appreciative of the value of a great name or of
a fine piano, and the same may be said of many
dealers.
It is necessary to keep the record and
achievements of the house to the fore, or other
concerns with less of a name but with decided-
ly more enterprise may step to the front.
Progressive business methods were never
so absolutely essential to success as to-day.
Business will improve and pianos will be
sold. Impress that fact on your mind as forci-