Music Trade Review

Issue: 1915 Vol. 60 N. 10

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
REVIEW
THE
ffUSIC TIRADE
V O L . L X . N o . 1 0 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, March 6, 1915
S1NG
$ 2 E OOPI I R!'E 1 A£ E N T S
Falling Asleep At the Switch.
SHORT time ago a leading official of the Piano Manufacturers' National Association remarked
in my presence that he would favor combined action to the effect that piano manufacturers
should exclude their advertising from such music trade papers which carried the announce-
ments of talking machine manufacturers. In that coercive way he thought the encroach-
ment of the talking machine upon the player could be checked.
I replied by saying that The Music Trade Review was the first music trade publication to treat the
talking machine intelligently in its columns, and to suggest it as a business creating adjunct to the
piano merchant's stock.
I said further that a combination such as he proposed would not have the slightest effect upon my
actions—that the Partingtonian wielding of the broom of prejudice could not for one moment sweep
back the onward rush of the tide of human progress—that a superficial and coercive move calculated
to keep talking machine advertising out of music trade papers would have about as much effect in
holding back talking machine developments as a pop-gun would have against a forty-five centimetre
cannon.
The trouble with this gentleman and others is due to the fact that they have taken a superficial
view of the talking machine. Their business has slumped and they blame the talking machine. Many
of them have not as yet realized that it is a musical instrument possessing vast entertaining features.
The manufacturers of talking machines have exhibited intelligence and broad business moves in
the conduct of their enterprises. In the first place they have enforced wise rules in governing the
sales of their products. They have associated the greatest artists with their work. They have spent
millions of dollars annually in advertising the entertaining powers of the talking machine, and be-
cause thousands of dealers over the country have realized that the talking machine possesses won-
derful business building powers and have availed themselves of that opportunity, it does not mean
that the dealers have been sending money to the talking machine manufacturers which should have
gone to the piano manufacturers.
Not so.
The talking machine has been a creator of business, and manufacturers and dealers understand
full well that the sale of a machine is simply the opening of a continuous, profitable business deal.
The profits in record sales mount steadily up, and purchasers are attracted each month to ware-
rooms for new records largely through the result of advertising which is put forth announcing spe-
cial feature hits.
Now, what are the piano men doing to offset this? Nothing, save in a few sporadic cases.
Advertising player-pianos at cut prices in big type does not mean accentuated interest in the in-
strument itself. The educational features, save in isolated cases, are lacking. What is the trade as
a whole doing toward emphasizing the entertain 1 ng powers of the player?
A mere howl against the talking machine accomplishes nothing.
The talking machine is a tremendous force—greater because it is backed by men who have a broad
and comprehensive view of the situation. They are associating great artists constantly with their
products. They are introducing new features—new attractions all the while.
Now, what are the music roll men doing to boost their own business?
Take the papers of the country, from Coast to Coast, and I believe it will be difficult to locate
A
(Continued on page 5.)
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
B. BiiTTAiN WILSON,
A. J. NicKLiN,
'"ARLETON CKACE,
AUGUST J. TIMPB,
L. M. ROBINSON,
W H , B. WHITE,
GLAD H I N D H S O N ,
L. E. B O W I U .
BOSTON
OFFICE St.
OFFICE: Buildjn*
JOMW H. WILSOH,
114 Washington
,£ A £ Y*M I * CHICAGO
" " " 0 1 * , Consumers'
_ , . ' , .
„„, "
880 So. State Street. Telephone, Wabash 5774,
Telephone, Mam 8960.
HKNEY S. KINGWILL, Associate,
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall S t , E. C.
N E W S SERVICE I S S U P P L I E D WEEKLY B Y OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN THE LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourtb Avenue, New York
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States and Mexico, $8.00 per year; Canada,
$8.60; all other countries, $5.00.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S , $8.60 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts, a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages $110.00.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
anil
aiiu
t i o n s o f a t e c h n ^ i n a ture relating to the tuning, regu-
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
dealt « w i t k
w fo b e
B
foun £ ia
an o the ?
section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning which
will be cheerfully give* upon request.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Diploma
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 190S
Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal..Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1906
»Q.
!LOVO DISTAJTCZ TZ&HFKOBTBV—JfiTMBEBB 6982—8983
Connecting 1 all Department!
Cable address: "Elblfi. Wew Tork."
NEW
YORK,
MARCH
6, 1915
EDITORIAL
T
HOSE who have had the privilege of visiting the Panama-
Pacific Exposition in San Francisco are most enthusiastic
about the wonderful exhibit made by the United States Steel Cor-
poration in the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy. Nothing so stu-
pendous or so educational has ever before been conceived as a means
of illustrating the important part wire plays in the music trade in-
dustry.
As described in detail in last week's Review, the use of wire
products in the manufacture of musical instruments is illustrated
by this company in a most practical and illuminative-wav. Xo ex-
pense has been spared to make the musical section of the exhibit
most comprehensive, and in this connection the use of wire in grand,
upright piano and player, pipe organ, the harp and accessories, is
demonstrated by actual sections of various instruments thus con-
veying to those interested a new idea of the importance of wire
products in musical instrument manufacture.
The visitor to the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy has the
privilege of seeing some of the processes employed in the con-
structive development of the various musical instruments up to the
completed product in the Demonstration Hall wherein a pipe organ
—with its five hundred miles of wire used to distribute electrical
impulses at the will of the player, from the keys to the intricate
arrangements of pipes and attachment—is heard in recitals given
four times daily by Henry Spiller, the noted organist of the Garden
City Cathedral. In connection therewith the Steinway grand, the
Welte Mignon and other instruments are also featured by artists
of recognized ability.
As explained by those in charge of the exhibit, these recitals
are not to be considered purely as musical functions, but rather as
demonstrations of the completed product in the manufacture of
which wire so largely enters. For the exposition visitor sees the
wire in the coil, its development into various forms, its utilization
in the manufactured product, and, finally, in the completed results
as illustrated in the various musical instruments heard in the dem-
onstration hall.
The United States Steel Corporation is entitled to the hearty-
thanks of the members of the music trade industrv for the most
i
comprehensive and complete exhibit ever made through the aid of
the accomplished members of its staff, whereby the most complex
and least understandable features of musical instrument construc-
tion is presented to the public in a manner so interesting and edu-
cational as to be impressive.
People are prone to view the completed piano, organ, or other
musical instrument, without considering the great problems of
sound production, and the other subtle factors that enter into their
construction. Through this exhibit the general public, and, indeed,
many members of the trade as well, will come away from the
Panama-Pacific Exposition with a new knowledge of the multi-
tudinous details that enter into the manufacture of even the mate-
rials used in the making of musical instruments. Such an achieve-
ment is most educational and stimulative. It helps and dignifies
the industrv.
T
HE storv is told of an Eastern department store in which the
books showed large profits. A new manager came in, and
after a time, having his doubts, began to investigate. He soon ran
against the rather unpleasant fact that there were being earned no
such profits as the books showed.
Overvaluation in old stock was one of the sources of trouble.
For instance, $2,000 was set down as the value of one lot of old
goods that did not bring one-half that sum when pushed for sale.
Things long ago unmarketable at anything like the figure put upon
them in inventory, were being carried at their original value. In a
short time the book value of the stock was reduced by $100,000
less than it had been carried at.
Investigations of the affairs of numerous concerns in the piano
trade have shown that, through overvaluation of certain classes
of stock, the supposed profits were mostly, if not entirely, on paper.
It would be interesting to know how many piano stores or depart-
ments are fooling their owners in a similar manner.
T
HE Federal Reserve Bank during the past week commenced
the purchase of acceptances as the result of the promulgation
of regulations on the subject by the Federal Reserve Board, and the
fixing of the rate at 2 to 4 per cent. The amount of bills
•bought during the week were comparatively small, but it is ex-
pected that now the bank has entered the market its investments in
this form of application soon will increase to a large amount pro-
vided the market affords suitable acceptances to a sufficient amount.
Fleretofore the supply of such paper has been much below the de-
mand on the part of banks and others without the Federal Reserve
Bank in the field. One result of its entry is expected to be an
increased supply of acceptances, for the regulations issued by the
board tend to standardize them and give them more currency, as
contrasted with other forms of commercial paper.
T DEAS are as essential to progress as a hub to a wheel, for they
J_ form the center around which all things revolve. Ideas begin
great enterprises, and the workers of all lands do their bidding.
Ideas govern the governors, rule the rulers, and manage the man-
agers of all nations and industries. Ideas are the motive power
which turn the tireless wheels of toil. Ideas raise the plow-boy to
president, and constitute the primal element of the success of men
and nations. Ideas form the fire that lights the torch of progress,
leading on the centuries. Ideas are the keys which open the store-
houses of possibility. Ideas are the passports to the realms of great
achievement. Ideas are the touch-buttons which connect the cur-
rents of energy with the wheels of history. Ideas determine the
bounds, break the limits, move on the goal, and awaken latent
capacity to successive sunrise of better days.
I
NTELLIGENT advertising is a proposition that enables a man
to become rich with the help of the multiplication table. The
manufacturer or business man can establish universal demand for
his product with the aid of advertising, and sales can be multiplied
in direct proportion to his advertising.'"
A few years ago, when modern advertising scarcely existed, a
merchant's success depended on mouth to mouth praise, or on the
number of people that passed his door, or on the number of men
that he could hire to go out and talk about him.
If a man sent out circulars with a one-cent stamp to 2,000,000

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