Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1915 Vol. 61 N. 23

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL • Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorial Staff:
B. BKITTAIH WILSON,
A. J. NiCKLiN,
CARLKTON CHACE,
L. M. ROBINSON,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
Wii. B. WHITE,
BOSTON O F F I C E :
CHICAGO O F F I C E :
JOHN H. WILSON, 32* Washington St.
Telephony Main 6950
GLAD HKNDEISOH,
L. E. BOWEKS.
E
- *• VAN HARLINGEN
Consumers' Building,
? T20 So. State Street. Telephone, Wabash 5774.
HENRY S. KINGWILL, Associate.
LONDON, ENGLAND: l Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
NEWS SERVICE 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.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage). United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada, $3.50; all other countries, $5.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $8.60 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts, a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages $110.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
i u u l r c p a i i i i i e i i t o . J e a l t with< w i l l b e f o u n d i n ,, n o t h e r ? e c t i o n 0 t h i f
P y ? 1 w * a ' s o Publish a number of reliable technical works, information cone ining
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
PlflVPI*
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• lOJCl Pinna
1 l a u v OUU
T h i l
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Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Utploma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
1 O » O DX8TAVCS TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 5982—5983 MADISON 8Q.
Connecting* all Departments
Cable uddreas: "Elbill, New York."
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 4, 1915
EDITORIAL
The secret of modern business success is
"service." And the latter word has a broad appli-
cation to the varied departments of business, both
wholesale and retail. In the piano trade, and
more particularly in the retailing of pianos, there
is no better way of winning and holding the con-
fidence of a customer than fulfilling the promises
made.
It will not do to say that the representative of a house will call
to see if the player is satisfactory when it reaches its destination,
and then forget it, as is sometimes the case unfortunately; nor will
it do to promise a certain number of calls on the part of the tuner
and repairer and fall by the wayside.
'.
/'" .
It may be said that well regulated progressive business houses
don't fail on their service or promises, but unfortunately there are
weak links in every business chain, and there are salesmen who
make promises and don't keep them.
This is a subject that should be watched closely by the manager
of a piano business, because there is nothing that tends more to dis-
satisfaction than to drop all interest in a customer after a sale has
been made. Every satisfied customer is the means of creating a
number of new prospects.
The ancient saying that "promises, like pie crust, were made
to be broken," has been retired on an old age pension. The man
or the firm that attempts to do business with hot air doesn't get
anywhere. Unfulfilled promises are the worst kind of superheated
atmosphere. Too many are guilty at times of wanting to push
truth back into her well, and promise what they well know they
cannot quite live up to. This is a bad practice, and one in which a
good piano salesman rarely indulges.
Too great an effort cannot be made to make friends of cus-
tomers—to so please them and to manifest an interest in the prod-
ucts which they purchase, that they will not only return to the
warerooms for future purchases, but speak so approvingly of the
house with which they have done business that others will be im-
pressed, and new business thus created.
HE business outlook in the music trade field is constantly im-
proving, and it now appears that there will be a dearth of
manufactured pianos after the holidays, judging from the demands
which are now reaching manufacturers. Few factories accumu-
lated much stock during the summer months largely because deal-
ers hesitated to place orders due to the uncertainty which prevailed
in the early spring and summer regarding the general business
situation.
While manufacturers have the satisfaction of well laden
order books they are obliged to suffer the inconvenience and
annoyance which result from their inability to make shipments
as promptly as demanded by their representatives, whose clamor
for goods is now constant and insistent.
In many instances the complaints on the parts of dealers are
unreasonable because no efforts were made to carry an average
amount of stock, or to give manufacturers an idea of their re-
quirements within a reasonable time; in other words, dealers seem
to expect manufacturers to take all the risk, and to keep on manu-
facturing stock in anticipation of busy times while the dealers
hold off orders.
It is true that conditions have been unusual during the past
twelve months and that the plans of manufacturers and dealers were
greatly disturbed through the indecision as to the future. Pessi-
mism reigned so supreme for a tiim* that it undermined confidence
in the future of the country, forgetting that we are a nation of a
hundred million people and that our demands and needs would
have to be looked after despite the great conflict going on between
the nations of Europe.
Meanwhile piano factories throughout the country are busy,
many of them working nights and with many the shipments made
for the month of November broke records as to size. And a most
gratifying phase of the situation is that manufacturers of distinctly
high grade pianos are having a tremendous demand for their prod-
ucts—a most significant development showing which way the trade
wind is blowing.
That this improved condition of busin.'ss will continue during
December is evident from the orders now on hand. Tn fact, one
concern has refused to take more orders, the products of the factory
for the next three months being sold out, and has notified its repre-
sentatives that further shipments cannot be made until after a cer-
tain period.
One of the difficulties encountered by piano and player manu-
facturers to-day is th? shortage in certain lines of supply material >.
The makers and handlers of supplies, however, are making every
effort to help piano manufacturers,"and this has resulted in an un-
usual condition of activity throughout the supply trade.
T
RATHER significant f ature of the figures bearing upon the
imports and exports of musical instruments ju t issued by
the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor
at Washington, and which appeared in full in last week's Review,
is the fact that the exports of musical instruments for September
of this year amounted in value to $327,779, as compared with $159,-
774 for the same month in 1914.
This undoubtedly shows the turn of the tide, for during the
past ten months there has been a marked falling off month aft' r
month in the exports of musical instruments, as compared with last
A
vear.
Piano manufacturers started making shipments to Europe,
South America and Australia a couple of month; ago, and the first
sign of a change for the better is observable in the figures for
September just referred to. The export trade in musical instru-
ments should now show a substantial increase month by month—a
condition that will be welcomed as indicating tint our manufac-
turers are getting a share of the foreign trade which is reaching so
many other lines of industry.
HE death recently in Europe of Theodor Leschetitzky has
brought innumerable comments as to his methods and his
pupils, many of whom are famous. Most of this comment was
evoked by the incontestable fact that Mr. Paderewski had been his
pupil. But years ago Leschetitzky said that the Polish pianist was
not a preacher of his gospel, and Mr. Paderewski has repeatedly
confessed that this was true. It was unnecessary for either of
T
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE SPIRIT OF CO-OPERATION SPREADING.
(Continued from page 3.)
It gets back to a co-operative plan, and because the whole world is moving on that basis to-day is
one of the reasons upon which I founded my belief that co-operative advertising in the piano trade
would sooner or later become effective.
I have received hundreds of communications from manufacturers and dealers who have approved
this suggestion and it has been particularly interesting to note the intense enthusiasm displayed by some
in this very plan. Certainly we should avoid industrial ruts and ossification in order that we may
maintain business on a flexible basis, in order to meet conditions effectively as they arise from time to
time. And it would seem as if a national co-operative plan of advertising, supported both by manufac-
turers and dealers would become a living force in the music trade within the near future.
It may be that next year when the music trade clans gather in New York for the discussion of
important matters that this one plan of co-operative advertising will be the rallying point for the music
trade hosts from every part of the Union. It would not be surprising that if out of this meeting should
come a definite agreement by which the music trade men of America
would support a co-operative advertising plan on a strictly impersonal
basis, which would mean the rejuvenation of the piano business, and
giving it the added impetus which it should receive in the economic de-
velopment of America.
them to speak thus of this matter. He who had ears could hear.
Without entering into technicalities let us summarize by say-
ing that the true Leschetitzky touch is hard, that it produces a
glassy, brittle tone from the piano. Mr. Paderewski's technic was
always characterized by a touch of precisely the opposite character,
a touch which carried the singing tone into the most difficult and
rapid passages. In these same places the young pianist fresh from
the Leschetitzky studio always made one think of the tinkling of
ice in a goblet of water.
In spite of all this Leschetitzky was a great teacher, for he
equipped his pupils with facile mechanics and a keen appreciation
of the value of rhythm. The students who were only pianists and
not potential tone poets became accomplished manipulators of the
keyboard. Those who \ve~e musical became genuine virtuosi.
Those who were tone poets—well, one of them became Paderewski,
but he had his own spirit to thank for it.
Meanwhile Paderewski, always gracious and appreciative, has
gone on record in the form of a very beautiful tribute to the late
The odor Leschetitzky in which he pays tribute to his marvelous abil-
ity and recognizes him as his teacher—to a large extent at least.
N
O part of the country suffered more seriously from the dis-
turbance to business caused by the European war than the
Southern States. The shutting off of the great cotton markets
abroad brought about a stagnation of business which was not only
felt by the retail piano trade, but in every line of business.
This condition, while temporarily embarrassing, had one good
end—it forced the agriculturists of the South to diversify their
crops and to develop their resources in other ways, with the result
that during the past three or four months a tremendous change
for the better has materialized.
The demand for pianos and musical instruments generally has
resumed in a manner to indicate that confidence has returned in a
large degree and that the outlook is pretty reassuring.
On his return recently from a trip through the Southern
States, Ernest Urchs, wholesale manager for Steinway & Sons,
was most enthusiastic regarding the wonderful betterment in busi-
ness which has developed in the South within a recent period. He
said to The Review: "If one did not have a memory it would be
hard to believe that the present industrial activity of the South
was only a matter of a few months standing. There is a feeling
of optimism and confidence in Southern trade centers which is
well substantiated by the prosperity which may be found in all lines
of mercantile life, including the piano trade. I do not mean to
imply that the South may be placed in the same category as the
Middle West and Northwest at the present time, but it has re-
covered wonderfully from the period of depression which visited
it last year. At the present time cotton growers are holding their
cotton for 15 cents a pound, but as soon as this cotton moves more
money will be in circulation and with consequent benefit.to all lines
of trade."
'
.
.
.
T
HE Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commis-
sion are endeavoring to find some way in which export com-
binations can be formed without conflicting with the Sherman
Anti-Trust Law.
The purpose is to permit the origin of such combinations to
promote the sale of American-made goods in foreign countries in
order to take advantage of opportunities presented by interference
with the trade of European countries by the war. Because of their
proximity to the United States the Republics of Central and South
America are receiving first consideration in this connection.
While officials of the Department of Commerce and the Trade
Commission have no knowledge of any effort to organize a great
corporation to take up trade with Latin-American countries after
the war, the expectation is that any combinations which may be
formed will not be dissolved with the close of the war, but will
continue to foster American exports not only to Central and South
America, but to other countries.
It is interesting to note that Great Britain has informally asked
the United States if it would unofficially approve the American
Over-Seas Trust and the State Department has replied that under
no circumstances could any sanction be given to an organization
which would receive preferential treatment over other American
shippers. Sweden also has made a similar inquiry and has been
advised that the plan had not been indorsed.
WRIGHT METAL PLAYER ACTION
ADDRESS
ALL
CORRESPONDENCE
TO
George H. Beverly
Sole
Distributor
Easily 100% in advance of any action ever offered. Simple—Responsive—Durable
—Beautiful. Contains the Wright "Ideal" bellows.
Being made of metal (the logical material for player actions) it cannot be affected
by dampness or any climatic conditions. Its exclusive features save many dollars
in repair work and make many sales in competition.
KNABE BUILDING
437 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
w

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