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REVIEW
THE
[lUJICT^ADE
V O L . L X . N o . 16 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, April 17,1915
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Music Roll Specialization Demanded.
ONSIDERABLE has been said in these columns of late concerning the present unsystematic
and unscientific handling of the music roll business, and I may add that considerable more
might be said upon this same subject without it becoming exhausted or lacking in interest
for piano merchants. It is a live-wire topic.
No matter which way we may argue upon this subject, the one point which possesses the most
subtle charm for piano merchants is that of the profit-earning powers of the music roll department
of the business. And there is no good reason—at least none that I have ever been able to discover—
why the piano man should play the role of philanthropist to the extent of passing over the profits of
his music roll department to his customers. And yet some of them conduct this branch of their en-
terprise in such a way that the profits count for but very little.
The fact that the player-piano cannot exist without the music roll makes its position one of neces-
sity. Therefore the peculiar relations which it bears to the player product are such that it at once has
profit-earning powers which should not be overlooked in the slightest particular—that is, if the coin
granary is to be filled. But, like all other enterprises, if sound judgment is not applied to its conduct,
losses are bound to ensue.
In the first place, I believe that the music roll department should be treated with the dignity
which the product itself demands. It should not b > placed in some dark corner of the store and pre-
sided over by incompetent and ignorant forces. That is not the way to develop the business.
A number of methods have been adopted which have had the tendency to cheapen the whole mu-
sic roll situation rather than to buttress it round ab:>ut with real strength. And right here I may say
that it seems to me that there is an unmistakable tendency toward cheapness which, to my mind,
must ultimately affect the business in a most serious manner, unless the brakes are put on in some
particular.
What boots it if a company succeeds in disposing of, either by giving away, throwing in or sell-
ing at prices which enable the dealer to trade one dollar for another, a large stock of music rolls?
What is the object of this? Giving up time, space and thought, and in the end find that the work
does not return the profits which it should.
The other day a young lady proudly informed me that she had sold, personally, two thousand
music rolls at ten cents per roll. She said that the firm must have cleared at least two cents on each
roll. But did it? Surely forty dollars gross profit for disposing of two thousand rolls is not suffi-
cient to make a piano merchant's pockets bulge w ith profits at the end of the season. Then, again,
take the amount of overhead expenses directly chirgeable to the music roll department. The forty
good American dollars would simmer down to a very thin margin which would be hardly discover-
able. In other words, the tide is pretty well out, and it will be a long time before we can take it at
its flood which will lead on to a music roll fortune.
All things in the world have three forms. These are gaseous, liquid and solid, and it seems to
me that the profits in the music roll business as it is at present conducted are exceedingly of the gas-
eous type.
** M
The supply of music rolls must be always gauged somewhat by the number of player-pianos
which are daily in use, and even men who are disposed to be liberal in their estimate would not say
that there were 300,000 player-pianos in use in this country to-day. Make liberal deductions from
C
{Continued, on Pag? 5.)