Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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. $2.00 per year; all other countries,
$300.
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 JSTew York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
NEW YORK, JUNE 24, 1899.
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.
ADVANCING PRICES.
T H E question of prices is going- to be
more important than ever in this
industry, for never before has the metal
product of this country been controlled
from the mines to the finished product by
trusts in the manner in which it is to-day.
There has been, in order to meet the
enormous expenses incurred by the forma-
tion of these giant trust combinations, a
material advance in staples all along the
lines. Some iron work has advanced eighty
per cent, while there is not a single item
in the entire metal industry that we can
mention but that has advanced from ten
per cent, upwards.
We may mention that substantial ele-
vation has occurred in the lumber trade,
fine woods and veneers have gone up, and
are destined to advance to still higher
figures.
Then there is another, and perhaps the
most important item of the whole which
manufacturers will have to consider in the
near future, and that is the labor ad-
vance.
Some manufacturers of cheaper instru-
ments to-day have advanced the price of
their pianos a few dollars. This, however,
is not enough to cover the raise already
in materials. Add to this the promotion in
labor, which within a few months must be
inevitable, and in our opinion no piano can
be duplicated except at an advance of, ap-
proximately, ten dollars per instrument
over the prices of the early spring. Thus
far a majority of the manufacturers have
been loath to advance their prices. In
fact there seems to be a marked inclination
to hold back in this matter, waiting for the
other men to make the initial move, natu-
rally induced through fear of the dealer to
receive the advance in no complacent mood.
The dealers of this country may as well
prepare to receive notification all along the
line of the raise in pianos. There can
be no other way out of it, at least for
the present, because there will be no
reduction of prices; on the contrary we
may figure on an advance in everything,
and we are willing to stake our reputation
as specialists that after September dealers
cannot purchase the ordinary grades of
pianos at the same price which they are
listed at this time of writing.
Our advice to retailers, if they wish to
secure the finished product at the present
prices, is to place their orders now for
future delivery.
Everyone who has given the labor ques-
tion serious thought knows that there are
deep murmurs of discontent audible all
over America. The workmen know full
well of the advance made in material and
have figured that they should come in for
raise of wages in proportion.
It is alleged that some of the trusts have
granted an advance, and those best posted
on the labor question of America to-day
make no concealment of their belief that
the prices of labor will have advanced
materially during the next few months.
Now how is a piano manufacturer, if he
raises the wages of his employees, pays
more for every part of the material, and
gives shorter hours to his workmen, going
to come out at the large end of the horn
unless he in turn exacts an increase from
the dealer ?
He must; any other way will be illogical.
Take the plain statement of the iron
workers to-day, and the skilled piano plate
makers will tell you that on the present
market prices for iron they are losing
money at the old rate for plates. They
have been enabled to hold the prices down
because they purchased raw material in
quantities sufficient to last them a few
months, but when that is gone they can-
not duplicate it at the old price. It means
higher prices for everything, and as a
manufacturer remarked to The Review
this week while discussing the matter, ' 'we
propose to accept the situation as it is."
There is no use of evading it, and the
matter will be equalized, only by advance
made all along the line. The average
workmen of to-day will be better satisfied
to receive $2.00 per day, even if the pur-
chasing power of the $2.00 is no greater
than that of $1.00.
Under the new conditions the $75.00
creation yclept piano will shortly have
become a memory. Everything is advanc-
ing, and pianos surely cannot remain aloof
from joining in the ballooning trip. They
must soar upward as well.
HOME OPPORTUNITY.
F S it not strange when we consider that in
this second metropolis of the world*
there is not one great comprehensive retail
musical establishment? We mean by that
an establishment carrying everything in
the musical line from pipe organs down to
the smaller musical instrument accessories.
Such an establishment, for instance, as
Lyon & Healy maintain in Chicago, and
the John Church Co. in Cincinnati.
Of course if we take exclusive piano
houses, there isn't a city on earth which
has the variety, the tastefully decorated
and well filled warerooms that New York
can offer to her visitors and patrons, but
beyond that we have to pause and look
around for a complete musical emporium
where every branch of the industry is
represented in a comprehensive establish-
ment. We have only two houses who make
much of a specialty of band instruments,
but when we run the entire gamut of the
music district of New York, we find that
we are sadly lacking in a complete musical
establishment. And can any reader in any
part of the country name a more advanta-
geous field for the opening of a great es-
tablishment than here in New York, where
aside from our nearly four million of people
we have a floating population of 600,000
people daily?
Talking about advantageous points to
open business establishments, is there any-
thing on this terrestrial sphere to compare
with our own Gotham for a concern pos-
sessing liberal ideas upon advertising and
adopting a progressive policy in all things?
What reasonable excuse can there be
offered why such an establishment as we
have mentioned should not succeed in the
largest way from its very inception? Sure-
ly there is trade to be gained, and a vast
amount of it right here at our own doors.
We have in mind a man who has only
had his banners planted in New York for a
brief period, but from his recent removal
and enlargement of his business we are led
to believe that he realizes the wonderful
and almost phenomenal advantages of a
musical emporium in the heart of this im-
perial city. That man is Chas. G. Conn,
who will have in his new establishment
everything in music.
There are wonderful opportunities which
are open for the right man to build up a
tremendous enterprise in this. city.