Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1915 Vol. 61 N. 15

Page 4 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
"It is all very well to talk about great piano values, but do the
dealers themselves realize that when they are buying pianos from a
concern that does not meet its obligations, they are piling up future
trouble for themselves? Has not this fact been demonstrated in
several crashes during the past two or three years? A number of
dealers were forced into bankruptcy for the reason that they had
trade affiliations with the kind of houses that were not paying their
obligations. As you have written, dealers should not be tempted
by over-alluring baits offered, and they should see first of all to the
responsibility of the men back of the proposition.
"I believe that this trade should take definite, concerted action
regarding credits, and the time to do it is now."
We have had practically the same suggestions made from a
number of men who evidently believe that the industry should be
protected against the onslaughts of those who fatten on its weak-
nesses.
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reporterial Staff:
B. BJHTTAIH WILSON,
A. J. NiCKLiN,
CARLKTON CHACK,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
BOSTON OFFICES
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Telephone, Main 6850
L. M. ROBINSON,
W M . B. WHITE,
GLAD HENDERSOH,
L. E. BOWEKS.
CHICAGO OFFICES
£• ?• V * N H _ A R" N GEN Consumers' Building,
22
So
State Street
° -
- Telephone, Wabash 5774.
HENRY S. KINGWILL, Associate.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
N E W S S E R V I C E IS SUPPLIED W E E K L Y BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN T H E LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA. ,
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York > '
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
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Canada, $3.50; all other countries, $5.00.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S , $3.50 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts, a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages $110.00.
HUMl'lTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
dealt with, will be found in another section P thU
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information cone rning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1000 Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Uxpioma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
X.OVQ DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NT/MBEBS 5982—5983 MADISON SQ.
Connecting 1 all D e p a r t m e n t s
Cable luldreiB: "Elbifl, New York."
NEW Y O R K ,
OCTOBER 9, 1915
EDITORIAL
OW that business is looking up in all lines, it is well to remove
from the piano industry certain policies which have ham-
pered it in its past development.
There are many things which might be brought up in the way
of discussion, but one which will at all times be of vital interest is
the matter of credits.
Piano permanency interests every man in this trade, whether
in the manufacturing or retail field, and it can be established and
maintained only through a close scanning of credits, and by build-
ing up that class of men who respect their financial obligations.
The man who pays his bills cannot successfully meet in com-
petition the one who does not, and here lies a subject which should
require careful attention from those whose interests are interwoven
with the piano trade.
The man who is struggling hard to pay his bills finds his diffi-
culties materially increased when he meets in competition the man
who does not, and the man who believes in meeting his obligations
should be encouraged and fostered in every possible manner.
Men who have not the material resources, but who have a
fundamental honesty oftentimes turn out to be the best kind of
representatives. Without that primal honesty all else is vain, and
the man who seeks to obtain credit to build up an enterprise, and
withdraws from it certain resources which he may secrete for his
own use, can hardly be termed honest even in these days of financial
elasticity.
Piano permanency can be established only through the main-
tenance of sound business principles, and the fly-by-nighters in
every department of trade should be avoided.
In a Review editorial last week there appeared an article which
has brought forth a number of communications of a commendatory
nature.
One gentleman in the trade writes: "I was particularly in-
terested in your editorial: "Competing Against the Men Who Do
Not Meet Their Obligations." In this you have sounded an alarm
which should be heeded by every business man in this trade. De-
cidedly the man who meets his obligations cannQt pompete in4efi'
nitely with the man who does not,
N
I
T is always difficult to launch any innovation, particularly when
it requires a considerable amount of money to accomplish the
ends desired.
The advocacy in these columns of a plan whereby piano manu-
facturers are urged to form a co-operative advertising organization
for general publicity is receiving consideration, and we are con-
stantly receiving communications endorsing the contentions of The
Review.
John G. Corley, president of the Corley Co., Richmond, Va.,
and the newly-elected president of the National Association of
Piano Merchants, is an enthusiastic believer in this move.
President Corley endorsed the plan in the strongest possible
terms in a recent address before the Ohio Piano Merchants' Asso-
ciation, and in a communication addressed to the editor of The
Review, under date of September 2T, he writes:
"Dear Mr. Bill:—Like other dealers, we are interested in the
welfare of the piano business, and the welfare of the piano trade,
and I can fully appreciate the splendid work your paper is doing
in order to create interest sufficient among the manufacturers and
dealers to work out a comprehensive plan for a national advertising
campaign for the player-piano.
"Looking at the matter in the most optimistic way we must
admit the lack of interest on the part of the consumer for the piano.
Lots of money has been spent by the manufacturers and dealers
over the country in advertising both the piano and the player, but
in many instances these advertisements have failed to impress
favorably the public and the purchaser of pianos. The splendid
feature of the player-piano affords a wide opportunity to the scien-
tific advertiser for exploitation, and I am convinced if the dealers
and manufacturers will contribute to a fund sufficiently large to
exploit the merits of the player-piano for one year this work will
be found so profitable and successful to the entire trade that it will
be continued. There are a number of manufacturers and dealers
who attribute the falling off of sales in pianos to the general de-
pressed condition of the country, but when we consider the in-
creased sales of automobiles and talking machines, such statements
lose their force, which must bring the thinking men in the trade to
a realization that a better and more comprehensive scheme of
advertising should be done to create a desire on the part of the
consumer for a player-piano in their home.
"Congratulating your paper on the good work accomplished in
bringing this matter to the attention of the manufacturer and dealer,
and sincerely hoping some day to see the accomplishment of it, I
am, yours very truly (Signed) J. G. Corley."
General business is steadily growing better, and there is no
more opportune time to put this plan into active operation, and it is
to be hoped that within the near future a committee appointed by
the president of the National Association of Piano Manufacturers
will take up this matter for serious consideration.
A NOTHER demonstration of the big way in which the Victor
I \ Talking Machine Co. does things is illustrated in its an-
nouncement of a voluntary changing of the standard working hours
of its 7,500 employes to an eight-hour basis without anv reduction
in wages. This was done with full confidence in the belief that the
new schedule will result in the production of goods of a higher
grade through the shortening of the hours, thus reducing the

Page 5 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
ARGUMENTS FOR A "PIANO WEEK."
(Continued from page 3.)
In other words, to feature the pleasure and advantage of being dressed up, and the psychological
effect of a good personal appearance both upon the health and success of the individual and of the
community.
They suggested that all clothing advertising should be in harmony for a dress-up movement.
Now, unquestionably there is a good deal to this. If you give men a vital reason for dressing
up, and teach them through advertising that fine clothes create within the wearer a mental state
conducive to success, it naturally would bear fruit.
Suppose piano men commence a national campaign of emphasizing the charms of the piano
and player-piano in the home; what pleasure it would give within the home circle; how it would
bring sunshine into lives that are more or less shadowed; how the charms of music can be enjoyed
by everyone!
Surely if clothing men can begin a campaign whereby they are trying to work out a plan of
interesting the public, beyond price, but simply on the fact of being well
dressed, piano men ought to be able to co-operate on a plan of the
American people being well pianoed.
Why not have a rousing piano week?
What say you, piano merchants?
Is the suggestion worth while?
Developing American Music Trade Abroad.
F
.
OR some time past this trade newspaper institution has been
carefully investigating- the possibility of extending the sale
of American musical instruments in a large way in various foreign
countries. Our plans were somewhat interrupted by the war, but
we believe there are certain markets of the world which it will pay
American manufacturers to develop at the present time.
The subject of foreign trade is an interesting one and requires
a comprehensive study of the foreign markets and of the different
interests connected therewith in order to fully appreciate them. We
have published an export paper and our past experience in another
line will aid us materially in assisting American piano manufac-
turers to build up an export trade.
Every thinking man realizes that conditions are continually
changing in the industrial world, and that while the United States
to-day constitutes the best market for American instruments, yet
it behooves every manufacturer to investigate foreign fields. This
investigation may mean a logical expansion of business, and it is
certain that if the rest of the world were as well covered as this
country by piano merchants and salesmen the demand for pianos
abroad would increase a hundred-fold.
Export trade possibilities for American manufacturers, and
this, of course, includes the music trade industry, were never as
great as to-day. The inability of a number of European countries
to make shipments, owing to the war, has opened up markets,
which, if properly cultivated, and the needs of the buyer satisfied,
should result in a tremendous expansion of American industry.
Apart from the Government, which is offering considerable
assistance in the way of information and suggestions to exporters,
there are a number of other institutions, notably the National City
Rank of New York and other large enterprises which have collated
data of exceeding interest which they will supply to those contem-
plating opening up an export trade with South American or Eu-
ropean countries. In this movement The Review is co-operating
and will gladly aid exporters by furnishing them with such informa-
tion as they may desire.
The excellent work being done by the Government and other
agencies is of little avail, however, if the manufacturers themselves
are indifferent to the extraordinary opportunities which confront
them for getting a foothold in the world's markets.
There have been a number of inquiries from South America,
Australia, and even from Great Britain, for various lines of musical
instruments and supplies, made in this country, and some important
connections have been opened up, but in the main the music trade
industry has done and is doing nothing as an industry, or through
its association, to develop export business. Only a few of our
piano manufacturers have export departments, and those who have
none seem indifferent to developing foreign trade, largely because
they are unacquainted with the modus operandi. They dislike the
labor attendant upon developing such business, and unless the order
comes through a broker they are somewhat indifferent to following
up inquiries or "prospects."
It seems to us' that the appointment of an export trade manager
for the music trade industry, whose functions would be constructive
—not unlike the work done by the freight traffic manager now
employed by the association—would be an excellent idea, that is,
if the American manufacturers of pianos, players and supplies are
inclined to go after business seriously.
Sporadic efforts to follow up export trade amount to little, for
there is no department of a business that requires a wider knowl-
edge or a closer attention to the many details essential to success.
Where a manufacturer can't maintain an export department of
his own, and send out his own traveling men to develop trade in
foreign countries, co-operation with a first-class, progressive export
commission house should bring about satisfactory results. These
concerns have a chain of connections in foreign countries, and.
moreover, send out traveling men who are in close touch with
affairs abroad, and, moreover, are responsible financially for pur-
chases, all of which should make an appeal to the smaller manu-
facturer who has no organization for the development of export
trade.
nervous strain, so increasingly evident in modern industrial organi-
zations. It will also undoubtedly tend to inculcate a spirit of co-
operation which must work for the best ends of all concerned.
The significance of this move may be estimated from the fact
that this change in the hours of labor will reduce the Victor Co.'s
profits on its present volume of business about one million dollars
for the first year. This the company expect will be overcome by
superior workmanship, larger production, and other adjustments
and improvements, all of which will tend to the perfection of its
manufacturing organization.
It is needless to say that this important move would have been
impossible were it not for the fixed price policy long adopted by
the Victor Co. in the sale of its products. This policy works not
only for the interest of the general retail trade, but for the benefit
of the factory workers, thus demonstrating its economic soundness,
Standard prices for goods always mean satisfactory wages,

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