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THE
MU3IC
TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
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Music P u b l i s h e r s '
An Interesting feature of this publication is a special depart-
Department V> V ment devoted exclusively to the world of music publishing.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal. ...St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. .. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
REVIEW
the workmen of this country would resent such action, yet it had to
be tested, and it was with the results known to all of us.
T
HE tendency of every business man was to go a trifle slow. In
fact, we had been taught that conservatism is a good policy
to adopt, and men moved cautiously. They only bought for present
requirements. They did not anticipate the future to any large ex-
tent, and as a result of a curtailment of buying, there was a slowing
up of the factory wheels. The purchasing power of the people was
reduced, and, of course, every business dealing in luxuries, neces-
sarily suffered. There could be no way out of it, and the music
trade, in common with affiliated industries, has suffered. Of course,
there are some concerns which have been fortunate enough to hold
well up to the business record of past years. There are exceptions
to any general rule, but 1908, as compared with 1906 or 1907, will
be rated about a 60 per cent. year.
There is, however, a brighter side to the business picture.
Stocks in all lines have been exhausted. Factories are starting up,
and we are gradually swinging back to normal conditions. We
have been through the fire, and we have been tested, and there is a
greater confidence existing to-day in American business and
financial institutions than ever before.
The music trade is to be congratulated on the strength which
it has demonstrated under the most trying conditions, and it is in
better shape financially to-day than ever before. Collections have
been looked after more closely. Greater care is being displayed in
the granting of credits, and the retail piano merchants are using a
quality test in their sales, where formerly the strongest kind of
emphasis was placed upon quantity sales, and quality was almost
forgotten.
I
N making piano sales, the liability of the purchaser is investi-
gated, and the belief exists everywhere that a piano sold to a
person not in position to meet the payments is poorly sold, and it
is a mighty sight better to have that instrument on the floor.
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 26, 1908
All of these matters to-day are considered and weighed more
carefully than ever before, and it is because rigid tests are being
applied that the music trade industry is now in better shape than
ever before.
EDITORIAL
Repossessions, which, for the first half of the year, reduced the
sales of new pianos enormously, have now become normal, and deal-
ALE 1908, for the curtain will have fallen upon the old year
ers are compelled to look to the factories for their supplies, rather
before The Review ag-ain makes its regular appearance.
than to their own warerooms for piano stock, which has been taken
And what of 1908?
back from customers who were unable to meet their obligations.
Not altogether pleasing in a business sense truly. In fact, it
There has been a house cleaning, and as a result, the basic
has been a year of disappointments.
foundations of business to-day are firmer than ever before, so that
The first part of the year hope was buoyed up by the belief
in bidding farewell to 1908, we can figure that while it has not
that each week would see bettered business conditions. But the been profitable in a business sense, it has been a year in which we
looked for betterment was side-tracked somewhere, for it was long
have learned many a lesson, which may be profitable in conducting
delayed.
future business. It has been a year of hard struggles, but it has
developed business bone and sinew, so that there is added strength
The American people are by nature optimistic, and they re-
to be shown in the development of trade enterprises at the dawn
fused to believe that we were so ill financially that we would require
of the New Year.
a long convalescing period. They did not wish to believe that, and
there was no such sentence in their business vocabulary. They
Let us keep the lessons of the past well grounded in our minds,
rather held to the belief that business depression would be short-
with the fixed resolve to move ahead, adopting wise conservatism in
lived, and that conditions would improve not steadily, but rapidly.
our plans. Not too much conservatism, however, because there is
just as much danger in that course as there is in over-plunging.
That was false reasoning, and thousands who hugged to their
hearts such delusive thoughts were simply deceiving themselves, for Reasonable, rational conservatism. In other words, good business
judgment. Then the New Year will show results of the right kind.
business did not improve. On the contrary, during the first half
of the year, it languished, and in the great manufacturing centers, it
was in a state of paralysis. In agricultural districts, it was much
HE piano player has been a greater selling force in the indus-
better, and therein lies the benefit of having a country where there
try during the year now closing than ever before, and we esti-
is every variety of climate, of products, of manufactures.
mate that about twelve per cent, of all the pianos put forth during
1908 have contained some kind of player mechanism.
There were some sections of America where the people did not
This may seem a small percentage to some, but when we com-
know that a panic existed. They were doing business, making col-
pare this record with that of former years, we will sec that the player
lections and purchasing along normal lines.
has jumped to a very prominent position within a very brief period
Then, it is useless to deny the fact that a year in which we
of time, and it is advancing rapidly as a factor in the music trade
elect a President has a depressing effect upon business. There is
always a doubt in the minds of thousands of people until up to the industry.
Nearly all of the early opposition to the player has been over-
time when the votes are counted, as to the success of certain policies.
come, and piano manufacturers do not hesitate to concede a great
There was doubt this year, because there were hundreds of thou-
selling strength to the player. If we may judge from the plans
sands of men out of employment, and it was a question which way
which are now under way, it is safe to say that during 1909 the per-
those hundreds of thousands of men would vote.
Also, for the first time in organization history, the head of the centage will reach the point that one piano in every four which
is produced will contain player mechanism.
American Federation of Labor tried to vote that organization of
The field is constantly broadening, and as a result of the con-
labor as a unit, and while the. majority of Americans believed, that
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