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PLAYER SECTION
NEW YORK, JULY 29, 1916
The Talking Machine Is Not a Menace to the Future Prosperity of the
Player-Piano, But When Rightly Handled Will Prove a Valuable Adjunct
For Increasing Player Sales — Good Salesmanship Is All That Is Necessary.
Retail merchandisers are not proverbially
men of the most analytical minds and they fre-
quently have occasion to reflect that if their
foresight had been equal to their hindsight,
they would be much better off. The men who
accomplish important things are, of course, al-
ways the men who, rising from the dull level
of the unimaginative crowd, dare to think and
to do for themselves. The mass of men no
doubt will always remain befiind in the ruck of
t i e procession, sneering at those who press for-
ward and betimes wondering why good fortune
does not come their way. Tn the piano trade
just such a state of mind is the curse of a large
number of retail dealers; and it is against a
particular present manifestation of that collec-
tive mind that this article is written to pro-
test.
Just now, to shorten the story, many piano
dealers are putting themselves through a course
of mental perturbation over the present and fu-
ture of the player-piano in comparison and
contrast with the talking machine. In more
than one quarter one hears much superficial
comment on the virtues of the one and the
vices of the other. One is told that the talk-
ing machine is easier tn sell, that the public de-
mand is for the talking machine and that now
is the time to push the talker and reap an ex-
ceedingly great reward.
Now, we need not remark to the readers of
The Music Trade Review that this newspaper
has no slightest reason for enmity to the talking
machine. The late proprietor of this paper was
the first to enter the field of talking machine
journalism and The Talking Machine World
remains to-day the one important journalistic
representative of this great industry. We have,
in short, every reason for being extremely
friendly to the talking machine, and indeed, we
are just as friendly as we ought to be. Our
quarrel is not with the talking machine at all.
Per contra, we protest only against a lot of ab-
surdities in which some piano dealers are now
indulging, and which, if persisted in, will end by
destroying the influence of those dealers in
both the piano trade itself and in the newer
trade of the talking machine.
A Mistaken Opinion
We refer, of course, to the sort of panic in
miniature which is at present manifesting itself
with some of the less thoughtful piano dealers.
The advent of numerous new talking machines,
not more, however, than the extraordinary pros-
perity of the great established talking machine
industries, has created the notion that all the
money in the future is to be made by selling
these and none by continuing to sell player •him or her see it and buy it. The talking ma-
pianos. Indeed, it has been seriously urged chine has its own field, one which the player
that the day of the player-piano is passed for- cannot invade. It is supreme in this field and
ever, and that naught remains but to inter the there is no sense in decrying it here. But if a
corpse as decently and hurriedly as possible. prospect expresses doubt as i)etween the two,
Plainly, a little reason brought to bear on a when that prospect is legitimately a player pros-
hodge-podge like this should serve to clarify pect, then the salesman for the player is a very
poor salesman if he gives up the game right
the situation without much difficulty.
there. For just as that point is his opportun-
In No Sense Competitors
First of all, be it understood immediately and ity to show that player and talker quite nat-
plainly that the player-piano and the talking urally go together, and that just as the talking
machine are in no sense rightfully competitors. machine is unrivalled for entertainment and for
If piano dealers will cease to regard them as giving the opportunity of hearing vocal and in-
competitors and thus cease to make difficulties strumental music, so also the player is a good
for themselves, most of their mental struggles entertainer, while it is quite unrivalled for de-
veloping a genuine love for music. True, a
will thereupon cease. The best testimony in
purely automatic player might be a poor rival
favor of this argument is afforded by the fact,
for the finest type of talking machine; but that
to which all experience bears witness, that sep-
is another story and does not concern us here.
arate establishments are required for the suc-
What does concern us is that the salesman who
cessful sale of the two articles, even if both es-
cannot show that the fields of the talking ma-
tablishments are under the same roof. In short, chine and the player lie parallel and not one on
whenever an attempt has been made to train a top of the other, is a poor salesman.
force of piano salesmen, whether wholesale or
An Adjunct to Player Sales
retail, to handle talking machines as well as
One
more
point. The talking machine should
pianos and players, both lines have suffered and
lead many a player sale to the house where it
neither has succeeded.
Rut we are told that the public is demanding goes. When the entertainment and the wide
talking machines! When one ventures to in- repertory features of the talker have done their
quire how the assertor knows the truth of his part and have stirred up some real love for pro-
assertion, one is told that the proof lies in the ducing music, then the player-piano naturally
greater ease of selling a talking machine. "It enters. Thereafter the two may remain com-
is easier to sell a $200 talker than a player-piano fortably side by side in the same house, each
any day, and the purchaser is good for many complementing the other.
The talking machine is no menace to the
records as well. Then the time is not so lengthy
player, rather the contrary. When we cease
and the payments better kept up."
Well, suppose this is all true! What really treating the two as mutually exclusive, as nat-
does it prove? Merely that it takes salesman- ural enemies and competitors, we shall see that
ship to sell a player-piano. But this is some- they together are the best and strongest sup-
thing we have always known. Of course, if the ports of a modern music business.
job is left to the purchaser, the latter's mind
IMPROVED EXHAUST APPLIANCE
will run along lines of least resistance. Natural-
WASHINGTON, D. C , July 24.—Patent No.
ly, on the surface, it looks better to buy a ma-
chine that requires no intelligence to operate. 1,190,379 for a motor and exhaust appliance for
And it might as well be said right here and now piano players was last week granted to Melville
that just so long as the talking machine is treat- Clark, of Chicago, 111., which he has assigned to
ed as the competitor and natural enemy of the the Melville Clark Piano Co., same place.
The purpose of this invention is to provide
player-piano, on the theory that the one ex-
cludes necessarily the other, there will be an- an improved exhaust appliance for operating
tagonism which will lead to greater difficulty the pneumatic action of a player-piano particu-
in selling the more expensive and the more larly adapted for service in connection with a
complex one of the two, which is, of course, the grand piano having automatic player mechan-
ism within its case, in view of the deficiency of
player.
inclosed space in the usual construction of
Where Salesmanship Comes In
But they are not competitors, naturally and grand pianos adequate to accommodate the nec-
rightly. If they are anything at all, they are essary exhaust devices and pumping devices
natural allies. If a man or woman comes into without resulting in the disfigurement of the
a store and asks to see a talking machine, let piano as a whole.