Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
VOL. LXVI. No. 21.
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 Fourth Ave., New York. May 25, 1918
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T has been over ten years since New York has had an official
music show, for the last official exposition of musical instru-
ments in this city was held at Madison Square Garden in Sep-
tember, 1907, and no better guide to the tremendous progress
made by all branches of the industry during' the past ten years
can be found than by making a comprehensive comparison be-
tween the character and scope of the exhibits at the last show
and the exhibits that will be offered at the forthcoming show
at Grand Central Palace. Of the twenty-six concerns, piano,
player-piano, musical merchandise importers, piano supply
houses and music publishers listed among the exhibitors in 1907,
only two will be found at the Grand Central Palace Show, ac-
cording to the present schedule, viz., the Pease Piano Co. and
the Estey Piano Co. That fact, however, does not interfere with
the work of making a comparison, inasmuch as the products ex-
hibited in 1907 were to be considered as distinctly representative
of their particular types, just as will be the exhibits at the forth-
coming show; and they, therefore, can be judged on that basis.
As a matter of fact, the period from show to show—prac-
tically a decade—has been a period of distinct progress through-
out the industry. The ten years that have elapsed have seen
developments never dreamed of in 1907 or 1908. Developments
have been particularly noticeable in the matter of player-pianos
and talking machines, both of which have attained an entirely
new status in trade and in public opinion.
Considering the trade happenings of the last decade, it is
found that the occasional claim that the piano industry, for
instance, is slow-moving and inclined to keep to beaten tracks,
so far as production methods go, has no basis in fact. This
industry can hold its head up with any other in the country
for the progressive spirit shown.
Business Basis Established
Developments in all branches of the trade during the past
ten years have been greater than those of the previous half cen-
tury or more,' and the progress has been real, measurable by
tangible results that are before us to-day, due in no small measure,
may it be said, to the new type of men who have entered the field
in a big way—men who regard the musical instrument business
not as something to be carried on along old-established lines,
but as an industry pregnant with possibilities.
With such an idea foremost, it has been natural that these
possibilities should be brought to the fore. Meanwhile the piano
business is not devoid of its sentimental atmosphere. There are
instruments still manufactured, and they will continue to be
manufactured, that reflect in every detail the desire of the maker
to create something of distinct artistic worth, regardless of the
labor and investment involved. In other words, each instrument
is a monument to the man who made it, or under whose direc-
tion it was made.
Although this spirit still exists in considerable measure,
new times, new conditions and new requirements have brought
into the business arena a type of business man who has regarded
the piano also as a manufactured product—a product that can be
made with full consideration for quality in every .detail—but
with the factor of efficiency never absent; believing that pianos
could be made good, but efficiently—that pianos could be made
by the artisan as well as by the artist. The result has been the
establishment of tremendous manufacturing interests, turning
out thousands of pianos annually, pianos in most cases that have
met every demand made upon them. They have been good in-
struments, well and properly built, but at a price that has meant
heavy increase in output.
The modern piano factory has been developed to a point
where it compares favorably with factories in other lines in the
matter of businesslike methods. Machinery equipment has been
improved to a tremendous extent, and it has been found that
many operations can be done more satisfactorily and far more
quickly by newly created machines than by the old-time hand
methods. There has been a standardization of supplies and
of parts that has meant a substantial increase in producing costs.
There have been systems introduced for routing pianos through
plants in a way to reduce handling to a minimum and increase
speed to a maximum. This all has tended to reduce labor costs
and, consequently, producing costs. So much for a decade of
development in manufacturing methods.
Trade progress has also been marked in the development
of new fields for piano selling, and this is most noticeable in
the attention that has been given in recent years, and particularly
since 1914, to the export trade. Where ten years ago only a
few houses did any export business, to-day a goodly propor-
tion of piano manufacturers are not only studying the situation
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