Music Trade Review

Issue: 1915 Vol. 60 N. 12

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
him as to whether he can win the organization point in the public
mind. Will purchasers figure that factory organization is to be
specially considered in the purchase of a piano? That is the real
question.
A
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorial Stall:
B. BKITTAIR WILSON,
A. J. NICKUW,
<"AILBTON CHACE,
AUGUST J. TIVPE,
L. M. ROBINSON,
W H . B. WHITE,
GLAD HKNDUSON,
L. E. BOW U S .
BOSTON OFFICE
CHICAGO OFFICE:
fo.N H. WILSON, 114 Washington St.
£ A J- VAN HAILINMN Consumers' Building
„ , . ' . . .„-
>80 So. State Street. Telephone, Wabash 5774.
.
Telephone, Main 8950.
HENKY S. KINOWILL, Associate,
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
NEWS SERVICE IS SUPPLIED WEEKLY BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN THE LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada,
$8.50; all other countries, $5.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, 13.50 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts, a special discount is allowed. AdTcrtising pages $110.00.
REMITTANCES, In other tkan currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
P l a v p r P l a n A 5inil
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
ts i a j C l - 1 l a u v a i i u
t j O p S o f a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
TfWhnifMll n p n a r t m o n f c
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
l e i l U U L d l V C p d l I l l i e i l i a . d e a l t w i t h > w i U b e f o u n ( j i n an< , t her section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning which
will be cheerfully given upon request
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Diploma
Paris Exposition, 1000
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1901
Pan-American Exposition, 1001
Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. -Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
DiaTAJTOX TELEPHONES—XTTTICBEBS 5983—5983 MADI«OJT SQ.
Connecting- all Departments
Cable a d d r e u : "Elbifi, Wew Tork."
NEW
YORK,
MARCH
20,
1915
EDITORIAL
R
ECOGNIZING harmony as an essential factor in the produc-
tion of pianos, Albert S. Bond, president of the Packard Co.,
Fort Wayne, Ind., has readjusted the Packard business along lines
of co-operative development. In other words, as the official head
of the corporation, Mr. Bond has endeavored to bring about a new
factory condition which places the whole organization—executive,
business and creative—in the closest touch.
Regular meetings are held where matters of interest are dis-
cussed in various ways. The result of this co-operative influence
has been to create greater interest on the part of departmental work-
ers, and it is affirmed that better results are obtained in the finished
product.
The slogan of this company is: "If there is no harmony in
the factory, there will be none in the piano."
The national advertising of the Packard Co. has been carried
along these lines, and the development of this idea will be watched
with exceeding interest. The placing of the factory organization
before the piano is something novel, and when a corporation com-
mences a national campaign of advertising along lines of such ex-
ploitation, the results obtained will naturally be viewed with con-
siderable interest.
There are some who will disagree with Mr. Bond and his as-
sociates regarding the subordination of the piano to the organiza-
tion. Tt is a question whether this line of argument will convince
intending purchasers in a telling manner or not, and that, of course,
is what all retail advertising has for its ultimate accomplishment.
Will readers of magazines and periodicals be interested in the
factory organization, or will they be interested in the piano?
Of course there are people who will readily understand and
appreciate the sentiment of the Packard slogan. There are others,
however, who will be wholly indifferent and cannot be influenced
by the dominancv of the organization argument.
On the other hand, Mr. Bond affirms that the results obtained
at the present time are eminently more satisfying than during the
old regime.
Thinking men will not disagree with Mr. Bond regarding the
attitude of harmony in tjbc factory, but many will disagree with
LMOST April, and a definite plan as to the disposition of the
assets of the H. P. Nelson Co. is still far away. In the
meanwhile there is a steady crumpling of assjets and a constant
pyramiding of liabilities in the way of expenses which must steadily
decimate the resources of the corporation.
'i
No man who has familiarized himself in the slightest degree
with the assets of this corporation at the tinie when it encountered
financial difficulties can fail to wonder why disagreements, selfish-
ness, personal interests, feuds and other things have prevented the
creditors from realizing what was rightfully theirs from this estate.
There are men who argue that, rightly managed, the assets of
this company would have realized within three years sufficient to
have paid all the creditors and left an equity for H. P. Nelson.
Surely sufficient time has" elapsed to have completed some sort
of a reorganization which should have been acceptable to the cred-
itors. In the meanwhile warm weather is almost here, and summer
is coming—still nothing done in the Nelson matter.
Maybe the summer will wane and the chill winds of another
fall will warn us of the approach of another winter before the final
touches shall have been given to the Nelson rehabilitation act. The
wranglers will wrangle—until the end—and then there'll be no
core to the Nelson apple.
O
NE of the sturdiest advocates of active, earnest work in con-
nection with the development of our export trade is James
A. Farrell, president of the United States Steel Corporation. He
is doing yeoman work in various ways, and through his public in-
terviews and addresses is cultivating a viewpoint which must be
productive of desirable results.
The other day, in an article in The South American, Mr. Far-
rell held up Germany as an example to the United States of suc-
cessful building up of foreign trade. "The success of Germany,"'
he said, "is attributable to the whole-hearted support of their Gov-
ernment and to efficient co-operative organization among them-
selves. Tn our country there has been a continual friction between
the Government and corporate interests, and a regrettable lack of
co-operation between individuals and organizations. Such misdi-
rected activities have undermined the foundation of our entire busi-
ness structure and retarded the increase of our export trade.
"A general movement looking to the betterment of these con-
ditions has been recently, shaping itself, and has met with spon-
taneous enthusiasm in both political and commercial centers. The
lessons of the war have driven home the fact that an increasing
foreign trade is vital to our domestic prosperity."
W
E have always advocated the purchase of trade paper space
on the same basis as supplies or any other commodity.
That principle is growing in favor, and the papers which are not
producing the values must necessarily suffer, for more than ever
before trade advertisers are using discriminating intelligence in the
selection of their advertising mediums.
The advertising patronage of The Review, evidenced by the
weeklv showing, is steadily increasing—a condition which has
necessitated the constant enlargement of the paper so that the
weekly editions of the paper average close to seventy pages, .1
condition which is approached by no other music trade paper.
The largest and most successful trade houses in existence are
liberal patrons of The Review. They have gone into trade paper
values carefully and systematically, and it pays to follow the leaders.
C
A. WOODMAN, of the Oliver Ditson Co.. Boston, writes:
e
"The new Salesmanship Department in The Music Trade
Review to my mind i^ most emphatically a step in the right direc-
tion, and will, if taken advantage of by the salesman, foster a get-
together spirit that will be almost priceless, not only to themselves,
but to their employers, and these benefits while great, are by no
means limited; same will extend also to the purchaser. T compli-
ment you on your foresight and enterprise, and send hearty good
wishes for success."
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A READJUSTMENT OF THE MUSIC ROLL BUSINESS.
(Continued from page 3.)
copy that would attract the public in the improvements made in the music rolls—in the possibili-
ties of the player—it would be helpful in every way. It would also create a demand for the better
rolls.
It is conceded that music rolls of an inferior quality render it impossible for the player-
pianists to secure the best results from their instruments. Poor playing invariably follows a poor
music roll, and when we have good music rolls there is no reason why they should not make money
for the men who handle them.
The advertising of music rolls at reduced rates does not increase the profits of the dealer, and
about all the advertising that I have seen in the different papers throughout the land is either music
rolls offered at reduced rates or else an offer to throw in a bunch of rolls with the sale of a player-
piano.
In either case it is a cheap treatment of a product which should hold a high position with the
trade. If handled in a cheap manner it must inevitably show cheap returns.
It is impossible to build an increased demand for a product on a cut-price basis, or by an offer
to give it away with the sale of a player.
It has been my object to create a certain national sentiment on the part of piano merchants
so that they will reorganize their music roll departments and study the music situation with the
same care and thought that they should bestow on any department of their business and it will
pay them handsomely.
There is no reason why this department of the music trade should not pay ample profits, but
it will not unless the subject is treated broadly from an educational viewpoint.
Getting down to brass tacks, what are the piano merchants of the country to-day doing to pro-
mote interest in the sale of music rolls?
By giving away rolls free with the sale of a player-piano are they not lowering their business
standards all the while?
It seems incomprehensible that merchants should cheapen a department of their business which
should pay them a legitimate profit, but, perhaps, the throw-in habit is the result of a legacy which
has been handed down in the piano trade for generations.
The practice began years ago to offer something as an inducement in the sale of a piano. First
it was a stool—a necessity, of course, but why should not the people have paid for it? Then a scarf,
which also should have paid a handsome profit. And now a bunch of music rolls.
Take the stool business alone. The piano merchants through their throw-in methods have lost a
profitable business which has gravitated to the department stores. A stool company which manufac-
tures the highest grade stools and benches disposes of 90 per cent, of its entire output to department
stores, which sell these products at a handsome profit. There is business taken right out of the
music trade through the efforts of those who should have worked to retain it. Unless something
can be done to halt the cheap tendency—the throw-in plan in the music roll business—it will lose
for the piano merchants a profit which, by reason of its position, should assure commensurate re-
turns for the merchants.
The cheapening of a product by advertising it at cut prices, or giving it away, will not operate
toward building net profits for any business.
It is time to cry a halt and remodel the whole music roll plan of
reaching the public.
Every man in the piano trade is interested in seeing a readjust-
ment of the music roll situation upon a profit-paying basis. It can be
done and should be done.
Helps to Get Dealers In Touch With Prospects.
REGULAR feature of the Player Department of The Review
that has won the unqualified endorsement of a large number
A
of dealers in automatic pianos and orchestrions, is the list of new
vaudeville and motion-picture theaters published weekly and which
also forms one of the many interesting features of the Automatic
Player Section each month.
A number of dealers have taken occasion to write to this of-
fice advising us of the assistance the list has proven to them in
keeping in touch with the new theaters in their territory that might
require automatic pianos.
One dealer in the Middle West States credits the list with put-
ting him in touch with three prospects in a single month, two of
the prospects purchasing instruments from him, and although the
third bought from a competing dealer the dealer who wrote might
not have been even in a position to bid had it not been for the
information contained in this list.
Through reading of opportunities for the sale of automatic
pianos and orchestrions as the list appears dealers find many places
listed in their own special territories, whether in Maine or Cali-
fornia, Illinois or Louisiana, where automatic pianos and orches-
trions are required—information that is eminently valuable as it
is timely.

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