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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
We Mean it Pays to Appeal to the Intelligence of the Buying Public in
Presenting the Claims of the Player-Piano, Which Can Stand on Its
Own Merits and Should Be Placed Before the Public in a Proper Manner.
Wars and wartime conditions have an awkward
habit of revealing the true values of things.
One of the things that is even now revealed in its
true light is the general method of player selling.
We mean by this that in the general overturn of
methods, of ways and of conduct that has come
to almost every inhabitant of the civilized globe,
much that is shoddy must inevitably go to the dust
heap. In a day when people are, as never before,
scrutinizing their expenditures and considering
where they may economize, it is necessary that
those who h;
assured of two things: that their proposition is
legitimate and (which is quite another thing) that
it is being presented in a legitimate manner.
Now nobody will question that the player is a
legitimate proposition. People may not absolutely
need music, but they are a great deal better off
physically as well as orally when they have it.
And when a nation is a nation of music-lovers,
it is a happy nation. Moreover, we all know that
the effect of music upon the individual mind is
in the highest degree elevating. There is no doubt
about these statements. We all know that they
are true. So it follows that any kind of means
for providing music for the masses—for democ-
ratizing music, as it were—is to be regarded as not
only legitimate but highly desirable. When we
come to consider the second question, however,
we must see that a thing may be desirable but
still be sold very foolishly and very undesirably.
It may be possible to spoil a good thing by pre-
senting it in a bad way. And it will scarcely be
denied that the fault of any slackness in the
player business may he attributed as much to its
method of presentation as to any other cause.
Conditions Must Be Faced.
The conditions growing out of the present
world conflict are conditions which cannot be
laughed away. They must be faced. The mer-
chandising of goods during the next year will
he successfully accomplished by those who use the
best considered methods, and by none other. That
is to say, when people are not in the mood for
indiscriminate buying, when a general depression
seems to be upon the commercial world. It is
time to consider not whether we can make our
goods cheaper but whether we can discover better
methods of presenting their virtues to a discrimi-
nating world.
To anyone who has watched the player busi-
ness for the fifteen years that have elapsed since
its beginning, the most striking fact that pre-
sents itself is seen in the difference between the
way in which it was first presented to the public
ami in its present position. When the first players
were put on the market their inventors and back-
ers had-confidence in their artistic mission and
from the first began to preach them on a high
level of appeal. But it soon came to be seen
that the easier way was to cater to the whims of
the non-musical, and gradually there set in the era
of blatant assertion and inaccurate statement of
fact. Now again we find ourselves faced by the
necessity for turning round and trying on a new
method once more. The cheap talk is no longer
drawing as it used to. What next is there-to do?
The Answer Is Plain.
The answer seems to us clear. It seems to us
that the solution is found in an appeal to the in-
telligence of the buying public, rather than to their
ignorance. It seems to us that the player is quite
legitimate enough to stand on its own merits, to
sell for what it really is. Tn short, we propose that
the player be presented to the public on the theory
that the public is intelligent.
Perhaps the best way in which we can under-
stand just what this means is to consider the man-
ner in which the player is usually sold, even to-
day. The general tone of player advertising as we
see it in the newspapers appears to be based on
the nQtion that people are anxious only to get
something for nothing. To tell people that they
can play- music well without having musical talent
or even a decided love for music, is absurd; yet
this has been the song sung by the advertisers for
It is with sincere pleasure that I am able to present the
PLAYER PIANOS
FOR USE IN ALL DEPARTMENTS
of THE CONSERVATORY OF CHICAGO
as, after a thorough investigation, I have found it to be one of the
very best pianos which has come to my notice.
The Conservatory of Chicago.
President
years. To suppose that people are interested in a
player because it is an elaborate and intricate piece
of machinery, to be bought on the comparative
merits of this or lhat complex device or attach-
ment, is equally absurd; yet many salesmen insist
on selling players on the issue of their mechanical
construction. To gloss over the player's limitations
and to regard the sale of a player as a case of
"putting something over" on the purchaser is not
only absurd, but even reprehensible; yet many
salesmen do sell on this basis. We all know that
these things are so. And surely we all know that
nowhere in all this farrago can we discover the
inkling of an attempt to appeal to the intelligence
of the public instead of to prey on the public's ig-
norance.
Try the Daring Experiment.
Now suppose we were to try the unusual and
daring experiment of appealing directly to the in-
telligence of the prospective buyer. Suppose that
we told him or her quite frankly that while the
player-piano will give you the technical means it
will not give you the immediate apprehension of
the beauties of musical art. Suppose we explained
that a machine can work for you but that you
must think for it. Suppose we went on the theory
that a prospect would like to hear the truth. Sup-
pose that when we had told the prospect this much
we pointed out that the enjoyment of music, which
furnishes the underlying reason for buying a
player-piano, is to be bad only when intelligence is
brought to bear on the problem of listening, and
that $he best way to cultivate the musical appre-
hensjon which one must have ff one is going to en-
joy music is to have an active part in the making
of it. Suppose we went still further and showed
how this trying to manage the expression devices
of a player-piano is the opening up of a gate lead-
ing into an entirely new realm of enjoyment and
entertainment.
Theory vs. Fact.
Does someone say that it is too theoretical, all
this? We repeat that any one who will read once
more that very remarkable article by Frederick
Luhnow which appeared in the special number of
The Review for December 12, 1914, will see that
one of the most successful player salesmen in the
West uses the appeal to intelligence constantly. In
fact, he never uses any other appeal. He never
fakes, never talks tubing or motors, never bluffs.
He appeals to the good sense of the prospect, dem-
onstrates and tells the truth. And he wins out.
The argument is true for every sort of wrong
method, whether in advertising or in selling talk.
Tt applies equally with regard to any sort of me-
chanical argument. When a salesman talks about
one kind of tubing and knocks all other kinds, he
is assuming to give a decisive opinion on a matter
of practice on which the greatest minds in the
manufacturing end of the trade are divided. And
we all know that there are many salesmen who
have given very little really earnest attention
to the player.
Tt will not do any more. The time has passed
already for that sort of thing. Those who want
to sell successfully during the coming year must
get hold of better arguments than the threadbare
talks formulated in the past by minds too lazy to
think and too cynical to tell the facts. A man who
is dishonest himself always thinks all others are
so too. So he comes to persuade himself that he
cannot sell unless he sells on talking-points; that
is to say, unless he tells what is not true. Suppose
we all take a long hrenth and begin anew by mak-
ing the daring experiment of appealing to the
public's intelligence and telling the truth!