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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, f 2JOO per year ; all other countries,
$3.00.
ADVERTISEnENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the New • York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 19, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EIGHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary
and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
trade paper.
BY WAYS AND HEDGES.
T H E R E are acres and acres of the most
valuable advertising space in the
world lying in the hearts of our cities going
to business waste. We refer particularly to
the. use of show windows, or rather their
disuse, for it is a fact that the show win-
dows' of music stores as a whole, are not
utilized to the best possible advantage.
High rents are paid for splendid locations,
and the advertising which might accrue
to the dealer by having attractive show
windows is not as great as it should be.
Every year we cover America pretty
thoroughly, visiting hundreds of stores,
and it occurs to us that the music dealers
of this country could materially improve
trade conditions if they would devote some
time and thought to the arrangement of
attractive show windows.
It is true that some have appreciated
the benefits which arrive from exhibiting
tasteful windows to the passing public, but
the ordinary way is to wheel a piano in the
window and there leave it stay, using no
special effort to make the environment at-
tractive or pleasing, and oftentimes the
windows themselves are so covered with
dust that it is difficult to obtain even a fair
view of the instrument through the glass.
circulation.
They evidently figure to
create a demand for their instruments by
making them well known to the retail pur-
chaser. The practice of advertising for
the consumer is daily gaining ground and
is well warranted by its results, biit it is,
in most piano cases at least, only addition-
al and supplementary to advertising to the
trade. Advertising to the consumer and
to the trade are the upper and nether mill
stones of the advertising mill. Properly
co-ordinated they do grind exceedingly
small, and the grist is the good money of
the consumer coming through the mer-
chant, who has been made an intelligent
co-operator with the manufacturer by
means of skillful and persistent trade ad-
vertising. There is no question but that
Think this window matter over and see the better goods are known, the easier it is
if you do not agree with The Review in to sell them, and in this day, as far as ad-
the statement that there is much valuable vertising goes, it pays to keep everlasting-
advertising space wasted—space which ly at it.
could be used to produce beneficial results.
This idea that people are not attracted CVIDENTLY the recent editorials ap-
pearing in The Review anent sugges-
to a store by a window is not true. The
window scheme is capable of much elabo- tions for possible trade betterment have
ration. There can be introduced many had their effect. A number of dealers have
features which will add to its attractive- written us stating that they have already
ness and to the fame and wealth of the profited by the suggestions made in the
man who conducts the business enterprise articles.
of which the window forms an important
To us that is most gratifying, and as we
part.
have stated, the music dealer, if he is to
succeed must adopt some way to offset the
of the largest advertisers in this encroachment of the great department
country recently said: "Our goods stores—that he must place more energy up-
have long ago proved their merit, but they on the cash sales, and have his work a little
must be kept continually advertised to let less pronounced in the installment depart-
ment. It is the nimble sixpence, as exem-
the public know of it."
There are a few men in this trade who plified in the cash sales, that makes a busi-
believe differently. They say that their ness prosperous. Even if the profit is
instruments are so well known that it small, it is better to get in the cash and
is hardly necessary for them to devote keep it moving than to have one's capital,
and profits as well, lied up for a period of
large sums to advertising.
The belief that a position won by staunch years in the slow installment sales.
fighting can be held without aggressive-
There are, as all will admit, some mat-
ness, is delusive. There is no industrial ters which are not as they should be in tin's
institution to-day so firmly entrenched trade. They can be remedied largely by
behind the battlements of fame but that it the dissemination of a broader view of the
can be routed by the active onslaught of principles of merchandizing and a more
aggressive competition. The idea that the general recognition of the fact that it pajs
goal has been reached and that there is to do business in the music trade on
nothing more to do is fallacious. It is a the same lines that pay in other trades.
mighty sight easier to go down hill than We have specially emphasized the fact
to make the ascent; thus it frequently that unless the dealers adopt some way of
happens that in many cases the discovery offsetting the encroachments of the great
that the business is sliding downward is department stores then their business will
not made until it is too late. Advertising suffer materially. We have been watching
is the hibricator of trade, and if the wheels this matter carefully and there are depart-
are to move without creaking, there must ment stores in New York offering new
be plenty of advertising oil applied.
pianos for $125 cash. That they are get-
ness or in others. But still, a central pic-
ture could be formed by dustless windows,
lights deftly arranged, shades properly
blended, and an arrangement of instru-
ments which would form a musical shrine,
to speak.
We are only suggesting this matter in a
purely commercial way. The dealer wants
trade, he wants dollars, and this commer-
cial picture business will help attract those
dollars. An attractive window is like a
beautiful picture. There is at once trans-
mitted by a system of mental photography
a lasting impression upon the memory of
the beholder. Then too, a bright, clean
window is always indicative of immaculate,
cleanly business methods. The window is
a reflex, so to speak, of the forces within.
Now, that sort of thing does not attract.
There can be made picturesque groupings,
— contrasts not too violent—that will at-
tract the attention of the people and im-
press upon their memories the fact that
such a window was most attractive and it
was so-and-so's piano store.
A glance through the magazines for the
It is true that the opportunity for the month discloses the fact that a number of
display of musical instruments is not as piano manufacturers are spending consid-
great as is afforded in the dry goods busi- erable money in the magazines of home
ting some trade is evident from the fact
that they continue to sell pianos and that
more of them add that branch to their
ness every year.