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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Two Prominent Manufacturers Discuss the Part Which the Player-Piano
Should Play in the Campaign Being Formulated by the National Bureau for
the Advancement of Music—Tells How the Player Should Be Advertised
It will generally be agreed that the National Bureau for the Advancement of Music, new as the idea of it is, has already created
a considerable amount of comment. Usually, when new ideas are launched, the comment of the mass of those affected, or to be
affected, by them, is hopelessly stupid and dull, being often no more than the mechanical repetition of stale phrases about patent
methods, new-fangled ideas and so on. In the present case, however, it is pleasant to be able to record that the interest aroused
throughout the trade has been fairly large in quantity, and quite a little large in quality. The trade, in fact, knows well to-day that
the old happy-go-lucky days are over and that success depends upon more than pretences, prices and piffle. Intelligence must
rule the trade in the future, if there is to be any future trade to be ruled.
Nevertheless it is well to be discriminating in these matters. The position of the player-piano in the new scheme of music ad-
vancement has not as yet apparently been stated with any definiteness. Yet obviously the trade must be immensely interested in this,
and obviously it is of vital importance. Do the interests of the player-piano antagonize those of the straight instrument in rela-
tion to any educational publicity? Can we advertise one to the people without depreciating the other? What attitude should we
take towards player-pianos in working to promote music-desire among the people? Are we to speak of the player-piano as an auto-
matic instrument, or are we to try to educate the people to better discrimination? These are but a few of the questions which can
rightly be asked, and which the Bureau must in course of time undertake to consider and, if possible, settle.
Realizing this. The Review has obtained two opinions from prominent manufacturers in answer to the following question :
In any sort of campaign conducted for the purpose of encouraging the public desire for music and musical instruments, how
should the player-piano be treated—as an educator, as an automatic entertainer, as a personal-control music producer, or how?
ADVERTISE AUTOMATIC FEATURE
By a Manufacturer
I am interested in the ideas which Mr. Tre-
maine has been setting forth on behalf of the
National Bureau for the Advancement of
Music, but I have been surprised to observe that
the slogan, "A Piano in Every Home" does
not say anything about the player-piano. Yet
surely the player-piano is important, and since
the later inventions have removed it from the
mechanical class, its merits should be widely
preached.
I am well aware that the bureau does not
contemplate any advertising'campaign of direct
appeal, for that would cost too much. It does,
however, propose, so I understand from what
information has been given out, to assist news-
papers to see the desirability of publishing
musical pages, to assist dealers to reform and
improve their publicity and sales methods and
generally to stir up, by various methods direct
and indirect, enough enthusiasm among the pub-
licity mediums and dealers themselves, to bring
about a general awakening of public interest.
It is quite sure that if the bureau succeeds in
doing anything like this, it will have won its
point, and will deserve well of us all.
Rut the player business at the present mo-
ment is in a peculiar condition. The cry is
all for the power-pumped player, with some
sort of automatic expression, and the people
seem to be giving up gradually the idea of
pumping music by their own physical efforts.
Even if that seems an exaggerated statement, it'
is certainly not an exaggeration to say that
the dealers are apparently devoting most of
their energies to this type of player, and that
the future appears to be with it.
I have always felt that the American people
are too careless and too pleasure-loving to want
to take any trouble with their amusements.
Look at the talking machine! What is it that
gives that machine its popularity? Of course,
there is the fact that any kind of music, vocal
or instrumental, can be had with it, not to
mention speech into the bargain; but the big
feature is the absence of any effort.
This is
the press-a-button age, and nobody wants to
take any trouble over anything. The whole
trend of player construction is towards elim-
inating the personal factor.
Therefore, if the Bureau for Music Advance-
ment proposes to feature the player-piano, as
of course it will, let it feature the new, rot the
old, ideas. I may be wrong, but business is
business, and it is our affair to supply pub-
lic demand, not to lead it. I do not think that
you can drive the people, but you can cer-
tainly sometimes lead them; in the direction
they want to take. The proper thing to do is
to follow public inclinations, and it looks to
me as, if the future of the player-piano were to
be in the automatic direction.
For this reason I think that the movement
for awakening public interest in music should
not neglect the modern player-piano, but should
endeavor to promote the idea that for enter-
tainment, for education, for promoting a love
for music and for general efficiency, the modern
power-driven player-piano is the one best bet.
This must be done without antagonizing other
interests, of course, and I understand how hard
that is; but on the one hand the movement
cannot leave the. player-piano out, and on the
other hand it should foster modern, not obso-
lete, ideas.
PUSH THE PERSONALITY IDEA
By Another Manufacturer
We have had much experience in our house in
catering to the wants of our dealers for player-
pianos. In the nearly ten years during which we
have been putting a player-piano on the market, I
have watched very carefully the trend of what
you might call the "fashion" in these matters;
and I have come to certain conclusions which
form the basis of our manufacturing policy. To
put the matter in the fewest possible words, I
would say that our experience has taught us
that the staple player-piano is the foot-pumped
instrument of greatest possible simplicity, light-
est- possible pumping, fewest levers and fewest
technical talking points. Make such a player-
piano with some sort of tracking device to
avoid roll trouble, and you have an article that
will sell better, year in and year out, than any
sort of patent marvelous plays-it-all-for-you
contraption that has ever been put out.
Now, of course, you understand that the kind
of player I mean, like the kind of player we
ourselves put out, is the kind of player that has
to be played by the human operator. And
that means that the operator must either be
content to pump it mechanically or else must
learn that it can be played better. In the
first case we need not bother any further, for
the kind of people that buy players with the
idea of merely pumping is a kind that doesn't
count. Our experience, however, is that the
majority of people want a moderate priced in-
strument that they can pump, and also play en-
joyably, and we find that most of the disappoint-
ment of which dealers so often speak is due to
the customer's never learning the trick of play-
ing the player enjoyably. The trick is simple,
and a good salesman can teach it in thirty min-
utes; but it is not taught, it is not advertised,
and it is entirely ignored by retailers in gen-
eral.
Yet all our experience shows that the only
kind of player-piano which will sell as a staple
article is the simple foot-pumper.
Moreover,
we find by actual trial that there is nothing in
the idea of a wide popular sale for the repro-
ducing automatic expression player. That is
something for those who have plenty of money
and for none else.
That being the case, it seems to me plainly
proved that the player-piano, which we know
to be accountable for 50 per cent, of our busi-
ness to-day, ought not to be neglected in any
publicity campaign for the education of the peo-
ple.
Not only so, but it ought to be put to
the people as an instrument, first of all, for
the personal production of music.
The re-
producing type of player can come afterwards;
but the player of the staple type is and al-
ways will be an instrument for personal opera-
tion; and in that case it is plain that the only
sane way to promote it is to tell the public what
it really it.
1 have nothing against the electric-driven
player, nothing against the hand-played auto-
matic-expression player where you turn a
switch, and it runs itself; but our experience
has shown us that the big production and the
big sales must always be, for years to come, in
the staple foot-pumped player. That type of
player should be advertised nationally, or if it
cannot be actually advertised that way, then
the publicity campaign of the National Bureau
for the Advancement of Music ought to realize
that this type of player is one of the most
potent weapons for the advancement of public
interest in music, and that there is a great and
important work in letting the public know its
real beauties, its real powers and the real pleas-
ure that can be got out of it by any intelli-
gent person.
HAMMETT CO^PENS STORE
The Hammett Co. has opened a piano store
at Sulphur Springs, Tex. A full line of pianos
and player-pianos will be handled.