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THE
MUSIC TRADE
EDWARD LYMANBILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPULANE, Managing Editor
R. W. SIMMONS, Editor Music Stctloa
raMlsfct* E w y SatanUjr at 1 HadlMB Avenue, New Ytrk
SUHCUPTION. (iacludlnf porta**), United lt»t«i and
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trlM, $4.00.
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The Editor Music Section Music Trade
Review, 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
REVIEW
More than that, the public itself is fickle. It be-
stows deep affection on one kind of songs this
season, and next it deserts the old favorite and
becomes wildly enthusiastic over some number
of entirely different nature and expression. To
blow hot and cold with the public is what the music
publishers must do. They have trained themselves
to be experts in adjusting themselves to circum-
stances, nevertheless, and some of them even have
the power of convincing the public that some pre-
viously ignored number is really the song-jewel
that is to be admired most of all.
The bids for favor are now being opened once
more. It is too early to state the awards as yet,
and the only certainty is that chance and merit will
play their customary parts this year as before.
The outlook is most propitious, however, and even
thus early it is evident that more firms than usual
have at least one song apiece that seems to have
the qualifications of a "hit." The present situa-
tion, indeed, is unique in that respect. The more
'"hits" there are, the greater will be the sales of all
music. That is one of the few known quantities
in the business.
More power, therefore, to the
song writers and their publishers.
publishers are feeding to the music dealers the
argument that whereas the former retail price was
25 cents it will now be 30 cents for "production"
numbers, and yet the increase at wholesale has been
but a cent or two cents per copy. Whether this,
too, will provide any substantial nourishment to
the dealers remains to be determined.
The situation now is one wherein some pub-
lishers sell their production music at a wholesale
price of 18 cents per copy; others at 17 cents, some
at 15 cents, and a few at V6V2 cents. As a matter
of fact, it seems to us, the need for worry does
not lie in the figure at which the music in sold at
wholesale, but in the actuality of whether there is a
demand for it at retail. The music dealers will
readily pay 18 cents for numbers which are in de-
mand among music lovers at 30 cents each. Where
the dealers will "balk" at what is offered them is
the insistent proffer of production numbers that
will not sell readily at any price. Let the dealers
accept the music of productions that are estab-
lished as musical hits, when they learn from re-
liable sources, trade or otherwise, that the plays
have achieved success. The meritorious numbers
will sell; the others will not, and this, after all,
is as it should be.
As to "The Raising of the Rates."
COMMENTS B Y - „
Finding what the public wants is a task • that
music publishers never complete. They reach part
of the solution each season, only to be confronted
with more difficult quantities and equations the
next. No rules can be applied to the process; or,
if rules there be, they are so mingled with many
exceptions that it is difficult to determine which
is which. So it is that the song purveyors of the
country have entered upon another period of un-
certainty, with all their work of the past year
counting for naught—save in the matter of pres-
tige—toward the results which they hope to reach
before next summer. The public taste is fickle.
"The raising of the rates—that is to-day the
most vital topic for the music dealers of the coun-
try," said one of the leading New York publishers
to the writer recently. His statement applied to
the so-called production music, for, unfortunately,
there is little or no chance that the prices on popu-
lar songs will ever be increased. Several firms
which make a specialty of publishing musical come-
dies have recently marked up the price of selections
therefrom to 18 cents per copy for small lots, and
15 cents for large. Probably all the music dealers
in the country have been surprised by the action,
and undoubtedly some of them have been more or
less stupefied. Whether the move shall meet with
their approbation remains to be seen. It will all
depend on whether the music can be sold at retail,
at the necessarily increased price, as readily as
before. As a supposed crumb of comfort the music
All Items of Publishing More Costly.
The music publisher quoted above is one of those
who have increased the price of production num-
bers to 18 cents per copy, lie explained this policy
as follows: "It is a matter of figures; the cost of
everything that goes into the publication of music
has increased. This is true of popular music as
well as of production numbers. The price of popu-
lar music we cannot raise above 8 cents per copy,
except in the case of some exceptional hits, which
we sell at 11% cents. Certain of the most popu-
lar songs of the day are being sold by other pub-
lishers at ISVJ, and even 18 cents per copy, whole-
sale, but these are the great exceptions. It is to
the production numbers that we must look to
meet the expense of music publishing.
If the
prices ever break on these you will see music
(Continued on page 6.)
XO THE TRADE
The Greatest Singers Sing These Songs
Sung by MR. JOHN McCORMACK
Sung by MR. JOHN McCORMACK
"WHEN SHADOWS GATHER"
"I SENT MY LOVE TWO ROSES"
By H. F. SIMSON
2 Keys
By CHARLES MARSHALL
Sung by MADAME L. NORDICA
"NOW SLEEPS THE CRIMSON PETAL"
By ROGER QUILTER
3 Keys
Sung by MR. DAN BEDDOE
"WHO IS SYLVIA?"
"IT WAS A LOVER"
By ERIC COATES
Sung by MISS GERALDINE FARRAR
"THREE FLOWER SONGS"
Sung by MR. DAVID BISPHAM
By J. C. H. BEAUMONT
"THE MAD DOG"
By LIZA LEHMANN
Sung by MR. JOHN McCORMACK
"I HEAR YOU CALLING ME"
Sung by MR. H. WITHERSPOON
By C. MARSHALL
4 Keys
By A. M. GOODHART
"AUVERGNAT"
Your attention is called to "THE BLUE BIRD WALTZ" By Norman O'Neill,
From the Fairy Play by Maurice Maeterlinck
<& C o . , 9 Bast I7tb Street 1Kew
Sole Agents for G. Ricordi & Co., Milano.
Enoch & Co., Paris.
Enoch & Sons, London.
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Elkin & Co., London and Paterson & Sons,