Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
THE PLAYER MANUFACTURER AND THE PUBLIC.
A General Discussion of the Attitude of the Manufacturer and Why the Trade Has Not De-
veloped as Rapidly as It Might Have Done—The Important Position Held by the Dealer—
Closer Direct Association with the Public One of the Secrets—Upon the Opinion and Satis-
faction of the Ultimate Purchaser Much of the Future Success Depends.
The player trade has become a very large sort
of thing in the last few years. Certain concerns,
both in East and in West, have made an almost
incredible business success of manufacturing and
marketing player actions. The industry appears
to be but in its infancy. Yet there is a side to it
which is not altogether reassuring. Or perhaps
one should say that certain aspects of the player'
trade are not precisely so encouraging as they
might be.
Let" us look into the question a little further.
Although great business success has come to sev-
eral concerns which make a specialty of manufac-
turing player mechanisms, this is not to say that the
player trade, considered in its relation to the whole
piano business, has been what it should be. When
one considers how many piano manufacturers there
are, and how many pianos are turned out every
year, one must conclude that by no. means as
many player-pianos are made and sold as one may
properly consider to be right. There is a good rea-
son, so it seems to us, for this state of affairs; a
reason which we believe has not, ere this, received
anything like adequate attention.
The reason to which we refer is that the player
manufacturer has been altogether too much content
merely, to make and sell his product, without due
consideration as to its fats when it leaves his
hands. That is the matter, as we conceive it, in
a nutshell.
Must Take Direct Interest.
The secret of player success in the immediate
future will not be found, we think, in any formula
whatever until player manufacturers take a more
direct interest in the handling of their product
by the piano manufacturer and the dealer. It is
no answer to say that the business of the player
manufacturer, whether he be a piano manufacturer
also or not, is to make goods, and that it is the
business of the dealer and of no one else to sell
that product to the public. Such an answer is in
the highest degree childish and absurd.
For the fact is that the prosperity of the player
business depends a great deal less upon the manu-
facturer than upon the dealer. The latter is the
immediate means of communication between the
maker and the consumer. It is up to him to be the
medium through which the public becomes ac-
quainted with the manufacturer's goods. But it
is altogether too much to ask that the dealer should
both create and satisfy the demand for players. In
effect, the dealer is making rather a poor showing
in his attempt to do both these things. And theFe
are no special indications that he is likely to do
much better in the future.
The dealer is not the man to whom the trade
ought to trust to create a natural, healthy demand
for the player-piano. He may doubtless be all right
in carrying out publicity plans laid down for him
by experts. But he is not the man, in most cases,
to elaborate those plans for himself. Every travel-
ing man who sells player-pianos knows well that
one of the principal troubles experienced by the
dealer is in his presentation of his proposition to
the public. The player-piano is a highly specialized
product. Its appeal is subtle and must be care-
fully presented. It suffers from the prejudice and
hostility of a large and influential body of persons
who believe that their own interests are threatened
by its success. It presupposes for its successful use
at least some smattering of a kind of knowledge
very little possessed by the mass-of those who are
likely to be attracted. It is as expensive as the
more moderate-priced automobile, without one-half
of that machine's power of immediate appeal to the
unthinking, the careless and the extravagant.
Problems to Be Solved.
Thus the player-piano proposition is seen to con-
fine within its terms many complex and difficult
matters. It is not too much to say that the prob-
lems it presents have not been solved by the mass
of dealers.
The time is come, in short, when the player
manufacturer should step in.
But this does not mean either the elimination
or even the obscuration of the dealer. In no con-
ceivable circumstances can the sale of pianos and
player-pianos be undertaken directly by manufac-
turers. One or more large corporation may do
this, and have from time to time done it. But the
greater number of player manufacturers do not
make pianos and therefore are out of immediate
commercial relation with the public. But it is here
being urged that this lack of commercial relation,
while in one sense inevitable, in another sense is
nothing of the sort. The contention is that it is
the business of the player manufacturer whether
he be interested in the making of pianos or not, to
enter into such relations with the dealer and with
the public as will enable him to give to the one
direct assistance in selling and to the other equally
direct assistance in the handling of the instrument
after it is bought.
For, in fact, the present demand for player-
pianos is a great deal smaller than it naturally
should be. It is not yet a natural, healthy demand,
but is rather to be considered largely as faddish
and spasmodic. This condition of affairs can be
remedied by the player manufacturer himself better
than by anyone else.
thereby the player trade may gain some useful
pointers. Nobody will imagine—least of all the
writer—that the advice here so freely given is likely
to be accepted with any particular enthusiasm.
The fact is that people as a general thing do not
like to take anybody's advice. But advice must
be given sometimes, and this is one of the times.
So we leave what has been written, in the hope
that some good may come of it; if not now, then
perhaps in the dim and distant future.
A YOUNG PLAYER_ENTHUSIAST.
Miss Marion Elizabeth Howe, Who Has Yet
to See Her Fourth Birthday, Shows Signs of
Taking Strongly After Her Father, Charles
E. Howe, Demonstrator of the Kingsbury
Inner-Player—Plays in Concert in South.
(Special to The Review.)
Chicago, 111., June 21, 1912.
The accompanying photo is of Miss Marion
Elizabeth Howe, age three years and eleven
months, the daughter of Charles E. Howe, demon-
strator for the Cable Company's Kingsbury Inner-
How the Player Manufacturer Can Help.
Now, in what way exactly can all this be done?
First of all, so it would seem to us, the player
manufacturer should undertake of himself to sup-
ply the dealer, the dealer's salesman, the tuner and
the repairman with literature bearing upon all that
is connected with the regulation, repair and preser-
vation of the player mechanism. To the salesman
also should be supplied information of simple and
accurate nature regarding the manipulation of the
instrument from the musical point of view. All
matter of this sort should be written simply and
accurately. It should not concern itself with the
reiteration of shallow arguments about methods of
construction. It should not repeat the sort of talk
which is used so often to attract the attention of
the purchaser. But it should state the technical
facts in simple language, explain carefully the
method of operation, state why the construction
is as it is. And so on.
In addition to this the player manufacturer would
find it highly profitable to employ one or more men
of expert knowledge and good address, men who
understand the product, who can explain it, play
it, repair it and regulate it, and send these nun to
dealers who handle his player mechanisms. These
men should offer their services to the deakrs free
and should do what they can to help them in solv-
ing their player problems.
Looking After the Retail Customer.
Lastly, the player manufacturer should not forget
the retail purchaser. The ultimate consumer needs
much attention. He must be shown how to use
and how to take care of his player piano, what to
do with it when he has it, and so on. This can
best be done through the medium of properly pre-
pared literature. And here let a word be said as
to this literature. It is nonsense to employ profes-
sional musicians to prepare copy regarding the
musical use of the player-piano. In the first place
such persons always write as if they were teach-
ing a class. In the second place, they never can
remember that the average person has np knowl-
edge whatever of the grammar of music, and be-
sides has not the slightest intention of ever ac-
quiring that knowledge. The people who alone
can write literature of a sort applicable to the prob-
lem of the player-piano purchaser are those who
know music from the player-piano standpoint, not
those who think in terms of keyboard and finger
technic. This is a point which has received far too
little attention.
What has been said here has amounted to per-
haps little more than fugitive suggestion. Yet the
object of this article will have been secured if
Miss Marion Elizabeth Howe.
Player. Like her father, little Miss Howe is a
staunch champion of the Kingsbury Inner-Player
and has the distinction of having appeared in
public recitals on the Kingsbury in a number of
Southern cities and of making a decided "hit."
Miss Howe's debut as a public demonsrator was
more or less of an accident, but she showed her-
self entirely equal to the occasion. Usually Mr.
Howe goes alone on his demonstrating tours, but
recently he took his little daughter with him on
a Southern trip as a treat to her. Having been
under her father's instructions for some time she
became quite an adept at the player, and it oc-
curred to Mr. Howe on the trip to New Orleans
and Knoxville to let the little miss appear on the
program. At New Orleans, in the first Baptist
Church, her number, "Cupid and Butterfly,"
d'Albert, was featured on the program, and proved
to be one of the most popular numbers. The ex-
cellent and pleasing performance of the little girl
at this and on other occasions seems to be proof
final of the Cable Company's claims that "A child
can operate the Kingsbury Inner-Player piano."
A neat little folder containing the New Orleans
program, with the picture here shown of Miss
Howe printed upon it, also another of the little
girl at the piano, has been issued by the Cable
Company, and the whole forms a very attractive
piece of advertising.
GERMAN PIANIST TO MAKE TOUR.
After many unsuccessful attempts, and the fail-
ure of many arguments, Max Pauer, the famous
German pianist, and head of the p : ano depart-
ment of the Stuttgart Conservatory of Music, has
finally agreed to make a tour of the United States
next season, during which he will use the Stein-
way piano exclusively.
The piano stock of A. A. Tusting, Asbury Park,
N. ]., was entirely destroyed by fire recently.