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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A Glance Over the Year Now Closing -Retailing of Player-Pianos Not as
Greatly Affected as Other Lines—Better Class of Trade in Evidence—What
Will the Coming Year Mean for the Player Manufacturer and Dealer ?
The year 1914 is drawing to a close. To many
minds, the last day of it will be its best. For it
is not to be doubted that such a period of disci-
pline, in fact, of mental and financial boiling down,
has not, within the memory of living men, been ex-
perienced by the people of this land. The coming
of the great European war, like a bolt from the
blue, upon a world already much depressed in vari-
ous directions, and hopefully looking toward a
good winter of trade, swept every man from his
feet; and although we have now gradually begun
to recover our equilibrium, we have by no means
entirely recovered our equanimity.
To-day Lhe world-situation drags on in a continu-
al orgy of battle, murder and destruction. We in
the United States, happy at being free from war's
immediate consequences, nevertheless feel the in-
direct results quite keenly. What have we to ex-
pect, then, from the immediate future?
The Effect on Our Business.
Curiously enough, the depression in general busi-
ness has not greatly affected the general retailing
of player-pianos. Why this should be so is at first
sight a mystery, because one would naturally sup-
pose that in times of general depression the sale
of luxuries like the player-piano would be much
curtailed. But it is well said that the luxury of
to-day is the necessity of to-morrow, and when this
-evolution is the legitimate result of growing desire
for esthetic education, one need not complain. In
the present case, this is certainty, to some extent,
true, and we can only be glad of it.
Now the fact is that the player-piano has been
advertised during the past few years to a point
where its possibilities are being dimly sensed by
a considerable proportion of the total of intelligent
population. Little by little the real capacities of
this instrument are becoming known; and as this
process continues, it is evident that a natural and
healthy demand for the player-piano will be cre-
ated, which will acquire a momentum of its own
sufficient to carry it through bad times. To a
large extent this condition has already come into
being, and thus we find the player business in a
reasonably prosperous state even to-day.
A Better Class of Trade.
Not only is it the opinion of the most experienced
retail salesman that the volume of player business
is very fair and that no obstacle exists for those
who pursue business intelligently, but it is also
very generally being said that the class of sales
now being made is vastly superior to that which
has occupied the attention of dealers during the
past three years. To-day the man who works for
day wages no longer is tempted to purchase on
time payments a player-piano. A couple of years
ago or less, the whole grown-up family of such a
man was working, most likely, and the aggregate
family income looked quite large. So the news-
papers were scanned for bargains and a purchase
made on terms that meant from three to five years
of paying. To-day such people are lucky if they
can keep up their payments. Their sort are not
rushing to buy the cheap stuff on the dollar down
and fifty cents a week plan, for in all probability
only father is working, and he only on part time.
Such people are glad to get enough to buy food
and pay rent.
But there are the other people ; the people who
frugally have saved up a few dollars and have
held on to their savings like grim death to a dead
nigger. These people's money never gets out in
flush times, because money is easy and to the sav-
ing mind, the easier money is to get the easier it is
to save. So savings bank accounts increase, but
player-piano sales do not increase in like propor-
tion ; with such a class of people, that is. But
hard times, and depressed times, are the very times
when the savings bank account man and woman
think that perhaps bargains can be had by looking
around. These people have cash. They buy close-
ly, but they have money and can pay for what
they get. To sell to them is to sell right. And
those people, while they are not rushing to buy, can
Composition Spool Ends
A great step forward in the manufacture of per-
forated music was the adoption of our spool ends by
the leading manufacturers in the
United States and Canada. We
have an especially equipped De-
partment for the manufacture of
this article, enabling us to make
interesting prices.
Our samples and quotations
will convince you.
The Siemon Hard Rubber Corp.
BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
be had by going after them. The experience of
those who are systematically going after such peo-
ple is that the search pays.
What Then of the Future?
Now it is fairly obvious, from all that has been
said above, that the player business has suffered,
if at all, more from reliance upon the theory of
least resistance than from any other cause. Busi-
ness is perhaps in hiding; it has not by any means
died. Business has been revealed to those who
have diligently searched after it. It has only hid-
den itself from those who have waited at the en-
trance to its hole for it to come out of its own
accord. In fact, the experience of those who are
making a success of the winter's retailing is that
it is not at all difficult to sell players if one studies
the situation and goes after business intelligently.
The future, however, is perhaps less certain.
Much hinges upon the duration of the present war.
As to that, predictions vary almost as much as
it is possible for them to vary. Nobody expects
the war to come to its end very quickly; nor con-
trariwise, need we expect it to last for another
thirty years. It might drag on for ever so long;
but the probability is that public opinion in Europe
will eventually rise against it. Already there are
signs. The very fact that the Socialist Vorwaerts
has been permitted to resume publication and is
printing invitations from the Scandinavian Social-
ists for the meeting of an international Socialist
conference on ways and means for bringing about
peace is itself highly significant; while the childish
bragging of high officials and the wild absurdities
of certain sections of the less responsible press all
tend to deepen the conviction that the end is not
perhaps as far off as some have believed. Thus,
while we may not anticipate with any certainty,
we may hold it probable that the world war has
now passed over its first phase and that the end
may be brought about more quickly than we have
supposed.
And What About Us?
Meanwhile, what about us? If the war comes
to an end next year, how will our business be
affected? And if it drags along for another year
and still longer, what then? We may answer these
questions broadly and with some approach to in-
telligent conception.
In the first place, if the war ends quickly we
shall see the nations of Europe approaching us
for material wherewith to replenish their depleted
stores. There will be for a time a great boom.
Later there may be another time of depression,
simply because when the nations have thoroughly
bankrupted themselves and thoroughly depleted
their money reserves they will have to settle down
to a long term of housecleaning, of getting back
to life. Then our own prosperity will be tested.
If the war lasts much longer than the coming
year, we may safely let it run out in a gradual
exhaustion, taking care only to keep out of it.
The result of a long drawn out war will be our
own financial independence and our final domina-
tion in matters commercial.
What Should Our Conduct Be?
Plainly, we in the musical instrument business
and specially we player men need, above all, to con-
serve our resources, work wisely and yet hope-
fully, strive to put our business on the firmest
possible foundation, even if we have to contract,
and, above all, resolve never again to be misled
by the phantom of over-expansion, whether we be
wholesalers or retailers. The easiest thing in the
world is to sell goods; the hardest is to finance a
business, And yet that financing is hard only be-
(Continucd on page 6.)