Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
COMMUNITY MUSIC AS A TRADE FACTOR
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IUit also it is directly cultivating your musical territory, making- it fertile, sowing seed that shall return
an hundred-fold.
Many clever ideas are being put forth for the further improvement and expansion of the piano business.
Most of them have to do with ways of forcing sales, of appealing to the prospect, of eliminating this or that
or the other inefficiency in the machinery of business.
But here is something that goes deeper. Here is something that looks at the piano business as a music
business primarily. After all you might as well treat pianos as musical instruments; and sell them as such.
To stir up excitement about pianos, stir up excitement about music. The rule is simple and it works.
producing a catalog that stands out from the printed represen-
tatives of other houses even though the effort costs more time
and money. Individuality pays in any line and particularly in
the matter of catalogs.
One thing can be said of the piano trade today, however,
and that is that with very few exceptions the catalogs of all reflect
individuality, and there are few indeed that are commonplace.
NE of the problems faced by piano and piano supply manufac-
O
turers at the present time, especially those located in the
smaller cities and towns, is the growing scarcity of labor, both
skilled and unskilled, together with increased cost of the labor
still obtainable. Incidents are on record where manufacturers
of munitions and products of such character have opened re-
cruiting offices in towns where other types of factories are located
and have taken away a large percentage of workmen. The success
of the munition makers in getting this help has been due to
the fact that they have been able to offer wages that could not
be met by any piano manufacturer in his right mind. It has
been recorded, too, that supply factories located in towns away
from munition plants have experienced much difficulty in get-
ting" any sort of help, despite the fact that really good pay was
offered for work that could be learned easily in a week or two.
There is no question but that there is a strong tendency
towards higher cost of labor of all sorts, and piano men, as well
as manufacturers in other lines, will have to consider this labor
cost in connection with other increased expense of manufactur-
ing. There has been little complaint from New York manufac-
turers to date, although the newspapers carry numerous
advertisements for piano workers of various kinds, but with the
military demands of the nation, now the President has signed the
new Army Bill, there will probably be a still further labor
shortage that the piano men must prepare to meet.
of the National Piano Travelers' Association
T are HE to members
be congratulated upon the success of their efforts to
enlist new members in the National Association of Piano Mer-
chants, for the results demonstrate that the traveling men
answered the call promptly and efficiently. The traveling man
makes an ideal recruiting agent for a national association of
retailers, for he is the connecting link between the individual
dealer and the outside trade. His suggestions and his advice
are heeded because in his tours about the country he is enabled
to gather a fund of valuable business information that a man
tied to one location is bound to miss, unless the traveler brings
it to him. As the traveler, therefore, tells of what the Piano
Merchants' Association has accomplished, ,is doing and plans to
do, his words command respect, and invariably are heeded.
TheInwardof*Merit
he high position that the A. B. CHASE Piano occupies in
the musical world is solely the reward of merit. The
reputation of this distinguished instrument was not gained
in any other way except by continually and conscientiously adhering
to a rigorous manufacturing policy for over forty years.
As a result of this policy the tone of every A. B. CHASE Piano is as
perfect as human ingenuity can make it. The construction is as
flawless as expert workmanship and select materials can devise. The
design is as distinctive as artistic genius can create.
During convention week the A. B.
CHASE Welte ' Mignon Reproducing
Piano and the complete line of A. B.
CHASE Grands and Uprights were on
exhibition at Grosvenor, Lapham fe?
Company, Fifth Floor, Fine Arts Bldg.
THE A'B'CHASE
COMPANY
NORWALK. ' OHIO