Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
N
O man knows the future, but all signs point to a general,
though quite gradual, improvement in business. The period
of house cleaning in the piano business has by no means yet passed
away, but the"hysteria of nine months ago has been succeeded by a
dogged determination to see the thing through. As a result we find
that sales of piano and players are surprisingly good, considering
the general conditions of affairs throughout the world. We have
had a setback, and by this time we don't mind admitting it, but at
the same time we have learned that our business is firmly estab-
lished, that the player is a staple product and that the musical
desires of tbe public persist in the facj of almost incredibly bad
material conditions. All of this is so much the better for us. No
man perhaps knows the future, but there is less and less occasion
for fear, more and more for quiet confidence. Now is the time
to press forward, working harder than ever and doing one's best.
T
HE problems that press around us in the general work of
pushing forward the legitimate interests of the player busi-
ness begin to become quite plainly defined. In short, we have by
this time acquired the right to say precisely the nature of the
definition. We may say, in fact, that all the problems of the player
trade are problems of ignorance, which can therefore be perfectly
and rightly dispelled only by the application of exact knowledge.
The longer one stays in the player business, the more it becomes
apparent that the thing itself is years ahead of the present capaci-
ties of the retailer to understand it, of the tuner to repair it and
keep it in order, and of the public to appreciate it. Imperfect as
the player remains to-day, its very imperfections are due mainly
to the impossibility of obtaining intelligent sales methods from the
salesmen and dealers in the retail field. If the retail field were
ready for improvements, improvements would come. Many and
many a good thing has been worked out in the experimental room
of a player factory, which the manufacturer simply dares not
attempt to set forth to his retail trade. He dares not, in fact, face
the certainty of losing a lot of money in trying to make unintelli-
gent people intelligent and unmusical people musical. The longer
one thinks about it the more the conviction seems to grow that
education is the biggest need in the player business to-day. This
assertion is respectfully recommended to the manufacturers who
15
tell us that they are not in business to educate people. The answer
is plain: You are in business to make money—putting it on the
lowest plane. How can you make money when nine people out
of ten have no appreciation of your goods?
S
PEAKING of education, manufacturers and dealers alike are
saying once more that the problem of educating the country
tuner presses ever more heavily. Moreover, it is a problem that
has scarcely received more than a statement as yet, for certainly
no attempt has been made even to study it anything like systemat-
ically. The Kohler industries recognized the seriousness of the
problem when they organized the Danquard School in New York
and began to offer free tuition to any and all who would come.
It is a great work and one for which we have the utmost admira-
tion, but the mere physical vastness of the task operates forever
as a bar to any real covering of the ground in this way. The
simple fact that men who live 1,500 miles away must spend some-
thing like $250 or thereabout to go to New York and live there
some weeks means that the Danquard School must either have a
Western branch or confine its blessings mainly to Eastern men.
Chicago piano and player manufacturers warmly supported the
Player School held last Winter at one of the high schools of that
city under the auspices of the Board of Education ; but even this
is concededly but a temporary palliation. The problem must be
studied, worked out, and somehow solved.
T
HOSE who attended the annual conventions of the Xational
Piano Manufacturers' Association and of the National Piano
Travelers' Association, could not fail to observe how, in spite of
all the year's rebuffs, the general tenor of the trade remains most
cheerful and confident. All the difficulties in the world, it might
have seemed, cannot daunt the spirits of our business men. And
for this we must be profoundly thankful. There was more than
just this, however. There was much real desire to talk over and
get information about real problems. Especially we heard much
serious and intelligent discussion of player problems. And there
was a surprising number of new and interesting player inventions
and improvements shown informally at the various hotels. Some
of these were most significant, especially tlie all-metal actions.
TO FORM PERMANENT ASSOCIATION.
BEGINNING JUNE 1st
ALL
xxrtln $c
(Special to The Review.)
CHICAGO, 111., May 24.—Following the organiza-
PLAYER
PIANOS
WILL BE EQUIPPED WITH THE WONDERFUL
NEW 1916 MODEL GULBRANSEN ACTION.
In our opinion it is the most responsive, the tightest
and the best all-round Action procurable today and that
is why we take so much pleasure in announcing its incor-
poration in our product.
A post card request brings full information on all
our instruments.
"~
" •* ' ;•
Mueller & Haines
1216 W. Monroe Street
Letters Sent Out to Music Roll Manufacturers
Regarding New Organization
Formed in
Chicago Last Week, Seeking Information.
o Company
CHICAGO
tion by the music roll manufacturers in this city
last week of a tentative association to be known as
the National Perforated Music Roll Manufacturers'
Association, work was started immediately by the
temporary officers to make the new organization a
permanent factor in the trade. In this connection
a circular letter has been sent out to the music roll
manufacturers throughout the country which con
tains the following questions :
1. Do you favor the formation of an association
of legitimate music roll manufacturers?
2. Would you attend a meeting at some central
location (probably Buffalo, N. Y.), for the purpose
of electing officers and perfecting the organization?
3. Do you desire any further information? If
so, on what point?
From the interest shown in the movement by
some of the larger concerns represented at the
meeting last week, the success of the new associa-
tion appears to be assured.
Arthur J. Quigley has secured an interest in the
piano and music business of Herman C, Gor-
don, of Salem, Mass., and the firm will move to
larger quarters and enlarge the business in that
city.