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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL-
Editor and Proprietor
"
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, Saao per year ; all other countries,
$300.
ADVERTISErtENTS, $2.00 per Inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
cpunt is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read'
ing mutter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the Ktu> York Post Office as Second Clast Matter.
NEW YORK, APRIL 29, 1899.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 17-45-EiaHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review wil)
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.
ADVANCING PRICES.
'"THE rising tide of prices continues, and
there is no mistaking that all will be
compelled to pay more for every part of
musical instruments than they are paying
to-day. The manufacturer may as well
conclude that he will have to pay more for
all of the supply parts which enter into the
composition of his product, and he in turn
will be forced to charge the dealer more
for the finished article.
There is an unwillingness on the part of
manufacturers to advance prices. They
are, as a rule, waiting for the other man,
but the break will have to be made and
that very soon, too, for with the price of
labor and of materials advancing there is
no other sequel possible. The price of
copper has advanced over fifty per cent.;
iron, twenty-five; steel, five; which means
that on brass hinges, etc., there is an av-
erage advance of forty per cent. ; on pedal
feet, twenty, and so in the matter of action
brackets, pressure bars, muffler rails, etc.
The. same condition prevails in the de-
partment of plate casting. Such concerns
as the Davenport & Treacy Co., Wickham,
Chapman & Co., and others, cannot dupli-
cate the raw material which they have on
hand to-day except at materially advanced
prices, therefore at the same rates that
some are making to-day they cannot, as
soon as their present stock shall have be-
come exhausted, duplicate orders without
losing money at present prices.
There are reasons for the advance along
the line of metal supplies. In the first
place the great steel and metal trust con-
trols the market, and members of that
trust state frankly that the expenses in con-
nection with( the formation of the trust
have been enormous. Promoters commis-
sions and lawyers fees have reached
paralysing figures, and to meet all these,
now that they have the market compara-
tively cornered, they must advance prices,
and in'the end it is the customer who pays.
Thus we see the effect of one trust im-
mediately upon the music trade.
In lumber, too, there is a steady advance
owing to the scarcity of certain woods.
Again, there is another factor which is
considerable, and that is the labor item.
Labor has, in many instances, been ad-
vanced ten per cent.
Now, with all of these elements to con-
sider, it means that piano manufacturers
must advance their prices to the dealer,
or many of them will lose money on the
present limited margin of profit. In a
case which is so imperative it is hardly
wise to wait for one man to break; some
must do it, and if a dealer leaves a manu-
facturer who has advanced his prices, he
will find, as sure as fate, the man to whom
he goes, will, in turn, be forced to advance
as well.
We may as well view the situation in a
practical, common-sense light.
It does not pay to sell regular lines of
manufactured goods at less than it will
cost to duplicate them. The quicker we
adjust ourselves to the present conditions,
the better off we will be in a financial way.
There is every probability that prices for
raw material, and manufactured products
as well, will steadily advance. We have
not reached the high-water mark.
PIANOS FOR EXPORT.
T H E R E is now an evident desire on the
part of some piano manufacturers to
build pianos especially for export trade.
As has been frequently stated in The Re-
view, that is the only way in which our
manufacturers may hope to capture a goodly
portion of foreign trade. Instead of build-
ing pianos as we like them here for a
foreign trade, the wants of purchasers abroad
should first be ascertained, and then build
instruments accordingly.
We stated this years ago when The Re-
view representative was in Europe and in
the Spanish-American countries. In Latin-
America, German and English manufac-
turers, through their consular service obtain
correct views as to what those particular
countries desire, and instead of manufac-
turing such wares and other adjuncts of
life as used by Europeans they manufac-
tured after samples sent them by their
consuls. In this way they appeal directly
to the people of those countries, and they
have built up an enormous trade.
By not paying attention to these neces-
sary provisions is one of the chief reasons
why America has not gained a stronger
foothold in the countries which lie south of
us. We are gaining, however, and it will
only be a few years before American piano
manufacturers will pay more attention to
the especial needs of residents of other
countries. We have had the best of all
markets at our own door and have not paid
that care and attention to the outside trade
which the situation demands.
NO POSITION IMPREGNABLE.
T H E manufacturer who believes that he
has won an unassailable position in
that he has so thoroughly acquainted the
trade and the public with the name and
quality of his wares, so that they will con-
tinue to buy whether he advertises or not,
is approaching on dangerous ground.
Regular, persistent and consistent adver-
tising will raise a particular brand of goods
to an elevated position in the public mind,
but to fail to continue to use the columns
of the industrial and daily papers is to con-
tribute towards business desuetude. This
is a busy age, and no firm to-day, no mat-
ter what vantage ground they now occupy,
can afford to disregard the advantages of
publicity to be gained and held through
regular and legitimate channels.
It only requires the absence of an an-
nouncement of a certain brand of merchan-
dise from public mediums a short time be-
fore there is a marked depreciation in the
demand for those wares. A well-earned
reputation of an article may soon be for-
gotten. A case in point:
The conductors of one of the great soap
firms in America which has spent vast
sums in advertising their product thought
that if they dropped out of the public me-
diums a year that their sales would go on
multiplying.
Such was not the case. On the con-
trary, it seemed as if the business under-
pinning had dropped out from the sales
department, and the year following the
lapse of their advertising contracts they
were compelled to double their appropria-
tions in order to build their business up to
the point that it occupied when they de-
cided to discontinue advertising.
We may say that these same rules apply
to the artistic plane which many of our
leading firms are anxious to maintain in
pianodom. Take those institutions which
are particularly desirous of having their
names linked with all that is best in musi-
cal art. If they drop out of the musical
life of America a season by not having
their piano in evidence at important musi-
cal events, they soon feel the effect of this
in the sales department of the business.