Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
RMFW
fflJJIC TIRADE
VOL LXIV. No. 20 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
May 19, 1917
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*& $2.00 °°$
Per
Year
Minimum Prices in Piano Advertising
F
OR months past the ever live topic in the piano trade has been the constantly increasing" manufacturing
costs, the jumps in prices of materials and items of overhead that are part of the piano making" business.
There has been discussion after discussion of ways and means for either absorbing part of this increased
expense or passing it along, sometimes with definite results and sometimes without. The wholesale prices
of pianos have been increased, a little at a time by some piano manufacturers, and in substantial jumps by others.
It had to be done.
Up to date, however, the bulk of this discussion has been from the standpoint of the manufacturer. It is
he who has been worried over increased costs, and ways and means for meeting the situation. The retail
piano merchant has not thus far figured as he should in the handling of the problem.
It is not meant by this that the retailer hasn't received consideration, for he has from the manufacturer's
viewpoint. What has been lacking, however, has been an open, frank, and above board consideration of the
retailer's problem, from the angle of the man who must go out and get the increased piano prices from the
ultimate consumer.
Perhaps the fact that the piano manufacturers increased their prices according to their individual views
rather than collectively, and that the merchant was forced to pay more for only.one make of piano at a time,
served to lull him into a sense of false security.
Now, however, there is in prospect an increased financial burden on the manufacturer that must be passed
on in a lump sum to the retailer and in turn to his customers, and this will develop a situation that has already
served to wake the merchant up to his responsibilities.
This added financial burden will come through the passage of the War Revenue Hill now before Congress.
There will be taxes of various sorts placed on many of the materials that go into piano making, and, most
important of all, a tax of 5 per cent, on pianos at their source, that is, at the factory. As the bill now stands,
too, the piano merchant must take an inventory of his stock and pay taxes on all pianos in stock on the basis
of 5 per cent, of their wholesale value, when he receives the proper notification.
Piano men, particularly the manufacturers, are naturally fighting the bill and trying to persuade the
legislators that music, whether produced by pianos or other instruments, is a necessity and not a luxury, and
that there should therefore be no tax put on it under such circumstances. *
These conditions exist or may shortly come about. They must be faced even by the most optimistic
members of the trade, and the house of the retailer must be put in order so that he may not only survive but
keep things going at a normal speed in the months and years that are to come.
The Piano Merchants' Association of New York has already sensed the necessity for educating the public
to expect to pay more for both pianos and player-pianos, and this youngest of trade associations has already
taken steps to that end as recorded in the news section of The Review this week.
The recognition by mutual agreement of a minimum price at which a piano or player-piano may be
advertised, and the elimination of terms from advertising, are the two first steps necessary to put the piano
buying public in a frame of mind where it will expect to pay a fair price for instruments. Such an agreement
regarding advertising is not in any sense an attempt to fix minimum prices. The retailer can advertise a piano
at the minimum price suggested ($225), and once the customer is in the store sell him a piano at any price
he desires. He can eliminate terms from his advertisements, simply stating that convenient payments can be
arranged, and yet sell his instruments for a dollar down and a dollar a week if that is the kind of business he
happens to favor.
(Continued on page 5)