Music Trade Review

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THE: MUSIC TRADE
The system adopted by Henry Vreeland, president of the
Metropolitan Traction Co., of this city, is so simple and so thor-
otrgh, and. Mr. Vreeland keeps in such close touch with every de-
partment of his business that it is said he can board any car, day
or night, and call the conductor and motorman by name, provided
they have been on his pay-roll for over three months. Of course
it takes a good memory in connection with system to enable a man
who employs an army to call each one composing that army by
name, but the systematic man cultivates memory.
REVIEW
9
in trade. It is to attract buyers to the window and to suggest to
the passer-by either something extraordinarily good and attractive,
or something unusually cheap. Show window space should be im-
proved to its utmost; it should be expressive as well as attractive.
HILE we do not hear very much nowadays about pianos
with the dull finish, for general information it may be said
that the firms who were successful in producing a good finish have
found their trade steadily growing for the dull finished instruments.
Dealers, too, particularly in the South where the cli-
matic extremes
H T H E man who lacks in system cannot tell the exact cost of
are very trying, have found that the instruments
throu h the seasons without
^
checking and preserve, after months
*
pianos to manufacture, and changed conditions have brought &°
of e x t r e m e
temperature, an evenly finished exterior.
about radical advances in every department.
Take in lumber alone, advances have varied from twenty to
fifty per cent. In labor, hardware, and all materials which enter
into the construction of a piano there has been a material advance,
In some cases enormous, but in all certain.
A manufacturer who has not already inaugurated a system
which tells him the exact cost to manufacture in the year 1903
should lose no time in so doing. The cost of pianos has steadily
advanced within the past two years, and a number of our man-
ufacturers have never sacrificed quality in spite of the greatly
increased cost to manufacture. They are still purchasing the high-
est grade of materials, and a few of them have asked of their rep-
resentatives the advance in wholesale cost to which, by all laws
regulating trade and commerce, they are justly entitled.
\\T
W e ma
y t h a t o u r attention has been called to some of the
d u l 1 finished
instruments which have been in use for months under
extraordinary changes of temperature and which did not bear, the
slightest effect of wear.
^
sa
W h i l e the duU
finish
i n a Iar
S e w a y h a s n o t b e c o m e popular,
the sitUati n in that
°
P a r t i c u l a r department may be summed up by
statin
S t h a t t h e manufacturers who have evolved a successful finish
a n d h a v e a d h e r e d t o its
manufacture have been rewarded in their
steadil
y augmenting trade in this particular line,
R 1
ECENT developments have focused trade interest on that
magnificent structure known as "Aeolian Hall," on Fifth
avenue, and while there is nothing special to announce regarding
later developments, it is very certain that the Aeolian and Weber
budget of news will be perused with exceeding zest.
C V E R Y man increases the circulating medium when he draws
w i t h t h e v a r i e d interests which are now under one control, the
^
a check, for about nine-tenths of the business of the country t e n m i l U o n d o U a r c o r p o r a t i o n m a k e s i t s b o w t o t h e b u s i n e s s w o r l d >
is done by checks and other instruments of credit aside from money. c o n t r o l l i n g m o r e a n d v a r i e d i n t e r e s t s t h a n a n y o t h e r m u s i c t r a d e
and while the growth of business calls for some addition to the stock c o r p o r a t i o n > T h e i n t e r e s t s w h i c h it d i r e c t s c o n t r o l s a l a r g e v o I u m e
of money, the actual use of coin and notes is so economized by the o f b u s i n e s S f n o t o n l y i n A m e r i c a a n d E u r o p e ) b u t i n Australia as
use of checks, drafts and the clearing house system, that the increase well> f o r t h e A e o U a n c o n c e r n h a s b e e n c a r e f u l I y s y s t e m a tizing its
in the currency need not be anything like the ratio in the increase
of business. Since the revival of business activity the increase in
the volume of money has been very small in comparison with the
volume of increase measured by bank clearings. It only shows after
all how great confidence we have in each other, when we consider
that all of this increase of business has been done practically upon
character. Character is after all the strongest kind of a business
asset and not easily destroyed.
operations in that far away country, as well as in the local-
n e a r e r home
business
j tieg
^ N E of the funniest things connected with the Aeolian-Weber
( J d e a J {s t h g d e s i r e o f a d i s c r e d i t e d t r a d e publication to cun-
ningly incorporate the idea in a dozen o r twenty articles that i t s
editQr w a s t h e p H m e m o y e r in t h e m a t t e r
actions
of ^
A s a m a t t e r o f fact t h e
e d i t o r in thJs cage alone d e m o n s t r a t e h o w r e m o t e h e
is from an inner association with piano men. A man who is con-
T pays to keep show windows scrupulously clean. A piano mer- fidently informed as to inside deals does not boast of this in his
chant may have ever so elegant a display, but if the glass is
even slightly dirty or streaked, a large percentage of the effect is
immediately lost. Besides, a dirty window often carries an im-
pression of an unclean store interior, while a bright., attractive show
window reflects a clean business life within. It is actually restful
to look at a clean window, and the mere glisten of the glass is at-
tractive and adds as much to what the window contains as a dirty
window detracts from the same. Make your show window a fair
reflection of the business within.
•
And while on the subject of window space, let us emphasize
the fact that that space is the most valuable in the store. From a
real estate point of view it is the frontage, and should pay interest
according to its value. It can only be made to pay when it brings
publication. By so doing he shows how utterly unworthy he is to
be the
custodian of trade secrets,
V) ROBABLY there is no industry which is more prolific in
rumors than is this good old trade of ours. The rumor fac-
tory is at all times busy, but The Review never records a rumor, nor
prints matters which relate to the purely personal side of the indi-
viduals connected with the industry.
i T is said that the Piano Manufacturers' National Association will
1 be materially strengthened by the addition of a number of new
names which will be announced within the near future. The or-
ganization is in healthy condition and has thrived under abuse.