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8
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
KOTO
EDWARD LYMAN DILL.
Editor and Proprietor.
REIVi£W
pose to uphold the dignity of the music trade. Reputable merchants
in other lines have long since abandoned the throwing in of acces-
sories in order to close a sale and why should piano merchants
adhere to worn out customs, thereby lessening their prestige and
reducing their profits ? #
One thing is certain, if these far Western men do have lively
advertising tilts in the columns of the papers and bloodless
battles, they are keen business men, broadminded as well, and the
stand that they have taken to extinguish the gift enterprise shows
them to be farsighted merchants.
J. B. S P I L L A N E , M a n a g i n g E d i t o r .
EXECVTIVE AND REPORTORIAL STAFF:
GEO. B. KELLER,
W. N. TYLER,
EUILIE FRANCIS BAUKR,
WM. B. WHITE.
W. L. WILLIAMS,
A. J. NICKXIN,
GIO. W. QUBRIPEL.
BOSTON OPF1CE:
CHICAQO OFFICE:
EBNKST L. WAITT, 255 Washington St.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE:
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 80 La Salle St.
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
R. W. KAUFFUAN.
E. C. TORREY.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE:
5 T . LOUIS OFFICE :
CHAS. N. VAN BUREN.
ALFRED METZGER, 426-427 Front St.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Nadison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United State*, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per
year; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS. $2.00 per inch, tingle column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed.
Advertising Pages, $50.00; opposite
reading matter, $76.00.
REMITTANCES,
in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
THE ARTISTS'
DEPARTMENT
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains in its
"Artists' Department" all the current musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or service of the trade
section of the paper. It has a special circulation, and therefore aufr
ments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
mtrrmDV^DUMA
M*MirV*V»i-ii« • - «
MANUFACTURERS
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
found on
» n °t h er page will be of great value, as a reference for
dealer8
and
otheri
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NUMBER
1745 GRAMERCY.
NEW YORK. APRIL 22. 19O5.
W
HILE the dealers have been having a warm time in music
trade circles on the Pacific Coast, the fact should not be
overlooked that they have also taken important action upon matters
of considerable interest to the trade in all sections. They are
endeavoring to do away entirely with the gift element of the business.
It is generally admitted that the throwing in of a stool and scarf
as an inducement in piano bargains is not good business. Years
ago it might have been considered fitting, but we have out-
grown those early and somewhat crude conditions. A stool and
scarf should, of course, go with a piano, but they should be paid for
separately. To include a stool and scarf in a piano sale seems like
throwing in a pair of suspenders and a necktie to close a bargain in
the clothing business.
N
O good reason can be advanced why the piano business should
not stand with other dignified divisions of trade, and we
heartily commend the attitude of the San Francisco dealers in the
stand that they have taken to do away with the giving away of stools
and scarfs. They have agreed to eliminate that practice from their
piano sales after May ist. It is just as reasonable to ask a jeweler
to throw in a chain and charm with every watch sale as to expect a
man to throw in a stool and scarf.
The San Francisco dealers have also established a uniform rate
of cartage, and another important move which was chronicled by the
Review's San Francisco representative in an earlier issue of the
paper was that they have agreed not to advertise pianos for less than
$200, and not only have they agreed as far as the local advertising
goes, but they have gone further—they have agreed that no new
pianos shall be sold below that price in the warerooms.
A
S parties to this agreement were included practically all of the
important music trade institutions of San Francisco, and the
future effect of this new move will be watched with exceeding
interest. This agreement has been caused by the tendency to cut
and slash prices to such a degree that it has been conceded that the
legitimate trade interests have suffered largely thereby.
Certainly this position assumed by the San Francisco dealers is
deserving of the heartiest commendation for it shows that they pro-
LEADING Pacific Coast dealer while visiting these offices last
week remarked that he had been much interested in the various
editorials appearing in The Review arguing the abandonment of the
special brand pianos entirely. He remarked that he had always
preferred to exploit pianos under the manufacturer's name, and that
while he had done a vast amount of advertising he had carefully
refrained from exploiting pianos under his own name, or other spe-
cial brands that he might control.
He took occasion to say that The Review was doing splendid
work in creating an opposition to the extension of the special
brand business. Continuing he sad, "The excerpt from the adver-
tisement of Kohler & Chase, which you reproduced, shows clearly
that the most reputable dealers exploit pianos bearing their own
name as equal to the best makes."
A
T
O our minds, the only way to intelligently grapple with this
special brand problem is to carry on an argumentative cam-
paign so that manufacturers and dealers may fully realize the danger
which will result from a continuance of this particular business.
In the end it can have no other effect than to cheapen the retailing
of pianos, and to lower the level of the trade to an astonishing degree.
Even now, some of the manufacturers of the higher grades of instru-
ments complain bitterly of the noticeable lack of sales of their own
instruments by dealers who have held the agency of their pianos
for many years.
NE manufacturer stated to The Review that since we had
commenced this campaign he had taken pains to investigate
the causes of the slowing down of his sales, and in three cases he
found the lack of business which he was experiencing was due almost
wholly to the fact that the dealers were pushing pianos bearing their
own names, which they had manufactured for them, and which they
pronounced in their advertising and through the mediumship of
their salesmen to be equal in every respect to the instruments famous
in piano history. They were simply using the great names to draw
the people in, and when once inside the warerooms all of the energy
was placed on the sale of the "just as good" instrument which, of
course, meant that the old names were used as drawing cards to sell
the new, or special brand pianos.
O
F course these are purchased at low prices and are sold as a
rule at higher figures than their actual value should entitle
the dealer to receive from them. Large profits are considered an
essential to retailing, and many of the dealers are devoting their
energies to the selling of cheaper instruments at prices which in
many cases are far beyond their actual worth.
There must be a halt to this business else the trade will suffer
severely. Indifference to this traffic will not remove it, for the evil
exists, and what is worse it is growing and it is up to the manufac-
turers to adopt some strenuous rules to suppress its increase.
O
B
Y establishing prices at which their products may be sold at
retail, the manufacurers will create a clear line of demarca-
tion between the instruments bearing the manufacturers' brand and
the special brands created for the dealer.
While recently discussing this important matter, Mr. John Gog-
gan, of the great Texas house of Goggan, stated that he was in favor
of the manufacturer of a standard make insisting on a regular price
being maintained for his pianos at retail. He said that people in
other lines had adopted this plan with satisfactory results, and that
there was no reason why the piano manufacturers should not follow
the same plan with great advantage to themselves. In the opinion of
Mr. Goggan competition from department stores would be reduced
to a minimum if this practice were generally in vogue.