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8
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J.
B. S P I L L A N E
MANAGING EDITOR.
EXECUTIVE STAFF :
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
OEO. TV KELLER
W. MURDOCH LIND
A. EDMUND HANSON.
EMILIE FRANCES BAUER
GEO. W. QUER1PEL
A. J. NICKL1N
Published Every Saturday at I Madison Avenue, New Y o r k . *
SUBSCRIPTION (Including postage), United States, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per
year; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per Insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount Is allowed. Advertising Pages $5u.00 ; opposite
reading 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, SEPT, 12, 1903.
TELEPHONE NU/IBER, 1743-EIOMTEENTH STREET.
TH E
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains In its
ARTISTS'
"Artists' Department" all the current musical news. This is
' ^
effected without in any way trespassing on the size or service
DEPARTMENT of the trade section of the paper, i t has a special circulation, and
therefore augments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
DIRECTORY
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corpora-
Qp PIANO
tlons found on page 31 will be of great value as a reference for
MANUFACTURERS deftle ™ a n d o t h e ™
EDITORIAL
A MAGAZINE publisher announces that he will accept adver-
*• *• tising of only a clean nature. He avers that the pages of
leading periodicals are too often disgraced by disreputable adver-
tisements, and by impure and indecent illustrations. As the result
of this announcement and through other causes he has largely in-
creased the circulation of his magazine, which goes to prove that
the people appreciate cleanliness in any form.
Geo. P. Bent, who never hesitates to express his condemnation
of wrong, does not believe in supporting unclean mediums any
more than he believes in bowing to the dictation of any labor leader.
\ K R. BENT will not support a discredited publication because
*•*-*• he believes that its very existence is a reflection upon the
clean methods of the industry in which he is an honored member.
A man should no more support indecency, blackmailing and kindred
diseases than he should encourage vice in any other form.
Clean papers are usually respected by clean people, and what
they contain has greater influence to build the reputation of the
advertiser than any work which he may do in exploiting his product
in a publication which is a stench in the nostrils of decency.
XTOW the fall season is fairly on, it is the fitting time to exploit
*• ^ the products of all kinds. The Review began the fall cam-
paign with an issue of fifty-six pages, and from orders now on
hand, we will be compelled to maintain a steady increase in the num-
ber of pages each week.
Members of the trade are beginning to understand that a little
spurt now and then is not newspaper enterprise, and that a paper
can have no standing with its constituency unless it is kept up to a
standard degree of excellence in season and out. An attenuated
REIVIEIW
sheet, newsless and characterless, save when there is some special
trade event occurring, is of no consequence to the industry, and the
appearances now indicate that the weaker papers must give evidence
of greater value to the advertiser else they will drop further behind
in the race.
The advertiser to-day not only demands a good paper, possess-
ing influence and standing, but he has a right to insist that the paper
shall be well circulated, and perhaps in this one particular The Re-
view has made greater progress within the past three years than
any other publication in its line.
I ETTERS come in frequently from subscribers in different parts
*—' of the country asking criticisms upon their form of advertis-
ing and suggestions as to what methods it is best to employ in gain-
ing publicity for themselves and the products which they represent.
We should say that there is in many advertisements an obvious
attempt to assassinate the English language through a desire to
exhibit a bit of cheap smartness in the form of advertising.
This class of advertisers who indulge in this form do not seem
to realize that to evidence a decent respect for correct English in
their work is to enhance its value. If one urged upon them as an
advertising ideal that their announcements should carry the effect
of a salesman's chat with his regular customer they would undoubt-
edly accept it, but then they sit down and prepare their copy for the
next day with the same old hard worked and lurid adjectives.
XT OW no firm can afford to lose its dignity—the word is much
•*•
abused, but it has important advertising significance. A
certain dignity well established is an asset which no business house
can afford to jeopardize, yet hundreds of concerns are uncon-
sciously allowing their advertising men to hamper with their dig-
nity by filling costly advertising space day after day with a sense-
less jumble of adjectives which is lost upon the readers.
To win permanently, advertising must convey an impression
of sincerity and honesty of purpose. The trade of people who ap-
preciate these virtues is worth more than any other trade, because
honest people outnumber dishonest people, and, furthermore, the
cumulative benefit of advertising, usually its most important result,
can be reaped only by fair dealing.
EADERS will not be impressed with the sincerity of a firm
which fills its advertising space with a gush of insincerity.
A subscriber of The Review in Minneapolis has criticised our
position, stating that a "breezy style appealed better to a certain
class of their customers" than any other.
Now "breezy" is all right, if even it amounts to a gale, but
there is no reason why slip-shod English should be used.
R
F a piano merchant or manufacturer has built a reputation for
cheapness it will cling to him, and it is a difficult task in this
industry to remove the reputation of cheapness from an instrument
when once it has been placed in a certain position by trade opinion.
Betterments which amount to a positive revolution may be made
in the instruments. Wisdom may be exhibited in their exploitation,
they may be allied with the names of great artists, and still the
ancient odor lingers and the receipts are not satisfactory to the
men who are studying direct results only.
I
HERE are two kinds of results, direct and cumulative, and
the latter is somewhat difficult to estimate in the piano trade.
One thing, however, it is difficult to remove from the minds of men
T