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THE MUSIC TRADE
MARCH 30, 1918
11
REVIEW
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ROM all that can be deduced through study of business con-
F ditions,
it seems fair to conclude that the output of player ac-
tions this year will beat all records by a very comfortable margin.
Nothing can be more certain than that the buying public have
more money to spend than they ever had before and are as well
disposed towards spending it as they ever have been. Just how
far they will go in buying player-pianos can only be estimated.
but it is well known that the biggest dealers are making every
effort to buy up large stocks and the manufacturers are laying
plans for a season of intense activity. There are two ways of
looking at this war-time prosperity. We may call it artificial
if we like, but all war is artificial and founded in error, as far
as that goes. The idea of some good people is that money should
not be spent in war-times because, in some way, spending is sup-
posed either to be wrong or to be unpatriotic or both. If this
were really so, then of course no patriotic citizen would have any
right to buy pianos. But it is not so. There is a real reason for
the intense spending proclivities of the public during war-times.
Business activity is very great and manufacturing of all sorts
for the carrying on of the war is expanding to the utmost. The
Government spends huge sums of money with the business men.
The supply of skilled labor is made smaller by the needs of the
army and navy, and so the remaining labor can almost fix its own
prices. Hence business man and laborer alike prosper, each in
his way. But the sums the Government spends must be obtained
from the people by taxation; and so the people must keep busi-
ness of all kinds going at full speed in order that they themselves
may earn the money to pay the taxes. This again means that
the more each man or woman earns, the more they must spend;
for otherwise business, which depends upon reciprocity, will not
go on, and the whole structure will fall to the ground. That is
the simple explanation of the enormous spending of war-times.
You cannot expect people to spend their all in Government bonds,
for if they do, when that money is spent, business will have
languished meanwhile for want of new supplies of capital to
keep it going; and then the Government might whistle for the
next loan!
HERE is a special reason why every effort should be made
T
by dealers to bring before the people the excellent reasons
that exist for putting their money into player-pianos and musical
instruments generally. It would certainly be wise for dealers to
bring out persistently in their advertising that the player-piano
is the one musical instrument which has been found universally
popular in the army and navy camps, on board the ships of the
navy and in the Y. M. C. A. and K. of C. huts on the front. It
would be equally wise to point out that the piano or player-
piano bought to-day is an investment that will not have to be
replaced, at probably a higher price, next year, like an auto-
mobile. Dealers can advertise the utility and necessity of the
great musical instrument trades to the nation in time of war,
and point out, too, how the musical instrument men utilize noth-
ing that is needed for war material construction, but almost en-
tirely materials that have no value for any other purpose. All
the lumber, for instance, is of sizes that have no value in other
industrial works. The same is true of the iron, the wire and
other materials. The musical instrument trades also employ a
larger percentage of men above military age than perhaps any
other of equal magnitude. There is nothing unpatriotic, there-
fore, in encouraging the manufacture of player-pianos, pianos and
AUTOMATIC
PIANOS >
other musical instruments. On the contrary, every such instru-
ment bought means one more contribution to the prosperity of
the nation, and one more to the national ability to pay the cost
of the war. There is no reason why these things should not be
told to the public, and there are many reasons why they should
so be told. The people are taking kindly in these days to logical
appeals, based upon sound sense; and dealers might do worse
than take advantage of this.
enormous output of small grand pianos is forecast by the
A N present
demand for them, during the year 1918. This, of
course, will bring with it a new problem in respect of the player.
There is no doubt whatever that the player-grand is a proposi-
tion worthy the practical attention of all dealers. The popular-
priced grand is beginning to supersede the high-priced up-
right because it gives greater selling value for the same money.
Equally so, the player action fitted to a popular-priced grand,
making with it a popular-priced player-grand, will ultimately
supersede to a large extent the high-priced upright player-piano.
Nor is the day of this supersession so far distant as might be
imagined by those who do not watch closely the signs of the
times. The present is the best of times for giving a good start
to the player-grand of this type, for the people have money and
the disposition to spend it. So many good arguments can be
put up for the player-grand, arguments which will appeal to
every man and woman who reads them, that the task of adver-
tising these instruments cannot be very difficult. Much, of
course, depends upon the intelligence and enthusiasm of the
salesmen. Much also depends upon the intelligence of the tech-
nical men. The very small demand that existed prior to the last
year for player-grands conduced to a sort of indifference among
the inventors and superintendents towards this instrument. We
have seen some poor examples, examples showing that a good
piano and a good player are not enough to make a good player-
grand, but that in addition there must be a sympathetic and
intelligent attempt to combine the two in a manner that will
shock neither the artistic sensibilities nor the- physical powers
of those who undertake to play the completed instrument. There
are one or two very good grands on the market; and all of them
might be equally good. It is good business to put one's thought
just now on the player-grand.
HE articles which appeared in the last number of this Player
T
Section, February 23, on the subject of special music for the
player-piano, have attracted a good deal of attention from music
roll men, to judge from what the writer has heard. But it would
be even better to be able to say that the music roll manufacturers
were willing, as well as able, to see the possibility of working out
a new field for the exploitation of the music roll by careful re-
search along these lines. There is not the slightest doubt in
the minds of those who have studied the subject that the music
roll and the player-piano together have hardly yet begun to know
themselves, as it were, and that they stand only on the threshold
of the opportunities which lie before them. The new work which
has been done by pioneers like Dr. Schaaf is not only technically
and musically interesting, but practically valuable. The player-
piano will come into its own when it is understood and used for
what it really is; namely, for a new instrument of music, not for
a mere self-playing piano, and those who have the future of the
industry at heart should awaken to this fact.
A NATURAL PAST OF EVERY PIANO DEALERS TOADE
THEATRE
OPGANS
Iff THE AUTOIIATZC FIELD
5EEBUHG
PIANO
COMPANY . . .CHICAGO ILLINOIS