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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
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The Player Roll Is an Integral Part of the Music Business, and Dealers
Should Treat and Handle It as Such — Some Pointers for the Enterprising
Dealer Who Wishes to Make His Music Roll Department Pay a Profit
The music-roll branch of the player-piano
industry is in a peculiar condition. It is to
its major element what the tire is to the auto-
mobile, the record to the talking machine, the
cartridge to the rifle—an indispensable acces-
sory.
For various reasons, however, there exists con-
siderable dissatisfaction
with the present
position of the music-roll industry in respect
of its profit-making abilities. The rank and file
of retailers have no special success with music-
rolls, because they do not attempt to sell them
with any sort of system, or make them an in-
tegral element in the profit-producing sections
of the business.
Why is all this when as a matter of fact
there are ways of making the music-roll pay
handsomely, of making the music-roll produce
more sales of player-pianos and of keeping
present sales in good humor? There are ways
indeed, of making the music-roll one of the best
items in the retailer's stock.
How do You Sell?
Assuming that the purchaser of a player is
the usual citizen, knowing nothing about the
player and very vague as to his musical require-
ments, how is he handled when it comes to
buying music to go with his new instrument?
The usual plan, unfortunately, is to avoid the
subject or else leave it to the purchaser to bring
up. Some houses have a system of circulating
rolls on a rental and approval basis. But these
are gradually abandoning the method, finding
it does not pay. The greater number of houses
place the purchaser in front of a collection of
rolls, or give him a catalog and tell him to pick
out the dozen free rolls that go with the instru-
ment. If, by any chance the lunacy of giving
free rolls has been avoided, then the purchaser
must pick out rolls at random and pay for
them. In practice he usually asks that the se-
lection be left to the salesman. The latter is
often a poor selector, wherefore the purchaser
gets a dozen very badly chosen rolls of very
indifferent music.
In a month that purchaser is sick to death
of the rolls and yet—such being perversity of the
human mind—as likely as not he will never
think of coming to buy new ones. Unless he
is actually stimulated in some way, the chances
are that his roll buying will be very infrequent
and very much begrudged. For these reasons
Artattpn
Record Rolls
"Music as Actually Played"
HESE record rolls repre-
T
sent a true, scientific re-
production of piano playing
as performed by e m i n e n t
artists. Made with a respect to
the ideals of past and present
composers. Artempo rolls sell
on a merit basis only.
Your proof is in our sample
box at $2.00. Ask for it today.
BENNETT & WHITE, Inc.
67-71 Gobel St., NEWARK, N. J.
the roll department in many a music-store is a
much neglected place, while conversely the
slowness of buying reacts upon the purchaser,
who tires of his player-piano and becomes any-
thing but a good booster of player-pianos in
general to his friends.
Remedies
Now the remedies for this state of affairs
can be seen with half an eye. To apply them
may be more difficult, but to state them is com-
paratively a simple matter. They may, in fact,
be summed up in three sentences:
1. Advertise your music-rolls and let people
know you have them to sell.
2. See that owners get the right kind of rolls
at the beginning to keep them satisfied, and
enough to encourage them to form a library
for themselves thereafter.
3. Feature the quality roll.
Advertising
Sometimes, in spite of the obvious desirability
of some particular commodity, the public is so
little informed about it or has been so little
stimulated with regard to it, that without care-
ful instruction, no demand will ever grow of
itself. The music-roll is to an extent in this
situation.
Therefore, to make music-roll retailing pay,
each retailer must look first at the advertising
aspect of the matter.
The Window Display
The simplest, most striking and most effec-
tive advertising stunt for local use and appli-
cation is found in first-class window display.
In attempting to apply such an idea to the
music-roll business, we must remember that
everything must be done indirectly. You cannot
show the sound of music in a window, but you
can suggest it.
For instance, the hand-played roll attracts
attention through its personal feature. Then,
suppose, for instance, you wish to draw atten-
tion to the facts in the case of an interpretation
recorded by, say, Harold Bauer.
Procure a
picture of this artist at the piano and use it
with sign placards reading such'as:
"Harold Bauer lends you his hands"; or
"A Recital by Harold Bauer in your Home
to-night; will you have it?" or
"No More Machine Music; the Artist's own
Interpretation on your own Piano"; or some-
thing of the sort, and then another one like
this:
"A Thousand other interpretations by Bauer
and other artists, within, priced from one dol-
lar upwards," or words to that general effect.
Lastly, one should never forget two essentials
to such a display; one, a heap of the rolls on
the window-floor and the other a card reading:
"Hear for yourself inside; no obligation; we
are glad to have you compare and judge"; or
"Stop wishing you could play your player-piano
like an artist—Begin to play it well to-night."
Now, if such an idea as this, for instance, is
carried out when a certain artist is giving a re-
cital in town, it cannot fail to be effective. It
is equally good when no special recital is cm,
just as general publicity. The point is that
this is doing something to attract attention,
and simultaneously to instruct the public in a
matter of which they know little or nothing.
A hundred other ideas of the same sort will
occur to any retailer who will give the subject
five minutes thought.
Utilizing Sheet Music
Here is one other idea. Suppose a certain
piece of popular music is being featured by the
local song-shop or by your own sheet music
counter. Stock up with a lot of the rolls of
the piece and make a display of rolls and sheet
music together with maybe a talking machine
record, too. Have a sign reading like this:
"Mother, Get a Hammer, There's a Fly on
Baby's Head."
The Astounding Hit of the Minute
Everywhere.
By Milton Vienna, the rag-time King.
Can You Play it On the Ivories?
Then buy it quick at a quarter the copy.
Do You Play it On the Player?
Then slip it over your tracker-bar at a quarter
the roll.
The above may be too frivolous in its word-
ing for the dignified ones; but the import of the
idea will be seen, and that is the main point.
The Newspaper Work
It is a cardinal principle in the advertising
departments of all department stores that every
section, no matter how insignificant, shall have
its mention from time to time. The same prin-
ciple should be applied to the music-lover. The
music-roll section may be small at present, but
it ought to grow and can grow, if it be adver-
tised persistently.
No display advertisement
of a music-store should be published without
including a line or two about the rolls. But
that does not mean the stilted repetition of a
cant phrase about having rolls in stock. That
is mere indifference, and sells rolls no more
that the listing of a lot of piano names on a
dealer's letter-head sells those pianos. The
point is that in every display advertisement
where a player-piano is set forth, there should
be a line or two in a box at one corner stating
some specific fact relating to some specific
roll which is being for that week featured; or
something equally to the point.
In addition, one can from time to time have a
music-roll advertisement devoted to rolls en-
tirely; but this, say, once a month, when it is
necessary to remind the public that music-rolls
are really to be bought, not just to be thought
of. Such advertisements should be instructional
in character and devoted rather to educating
the public on roll matters of which they are
ignorant; such as the hand-played roll, the qual-
ity roll, the stupidity of buying cheap rolls, etc.
Don't Advertise Bargains
To make the music-roll the bearer of the bar-
gain burden is the worse of policies, for the
roll can least of all endure such treatment. Ad-
vertise bargains in anything else, if you must,
but leave the roll alone. For as soon as one
advertises rolls at bargain prices, the value is
gone, and it is just that much more difficult to
sell at profit-bringing prices thereafter. In
selling rolls you are not selling something of
understood and appreciated value.
You are
selling something that has been given away with
player-pianos and sold at bargain prices and
produced in worthless editions to be displayed
on the counters of ten-cent stores. Therefore
your advertising must be constructive and
adapted to show good reasons for desiring the
roll irrespective of its cost.
Specifically, newspaper advertising should be
adapted to produce two distinct effects; one
being to persuade owners of player-pianos to
form regular roll libraries, and the other to
induce frequent purchases in small quantities
rather than larger quantities less frequently.
Functions of the Roll
From the retailer's standpoint, the main func-
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