Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MUSIC TMDE
PLAYER SECTON
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 30, 1918
The Period of Reconstruction Which Will Follow the Coming of Peace Will
Be an Era of Prosperity for the Player-Piano Dealer If He Will But Put His
Prices and Terms on a Par With the Increased Costs of Other Commodities
The end is come. With the carrying out of
the terms on which armistice has been granted
to the defeated Central Powers, with the sur-
render of Germany's battle fleet, with the as-
sembling of the peace conference, only a few
weeks away, we are at liberty to say that the
dawn is here, that the thought of the world may
now be turned definitely to the problems of eco-
nomic and industrial adjustment. The states-
men who will assemble next month at Versailles
will have upon them the task of defining the
terms on which the world is to conclude its in-
ter-agreements for the future. Keeping upon
their deliberations an attentive eye, resisting
every subtle suggestion that may tend to disrupt
the agreement between the two great English-
speaking Allies, let us turn to the problems of
to-morrow. The dawn breaks. It is time to
look out upon the sunrise.
We are about to begin the process of read-
justing ourselves to our environment, and to re-
store, as well as we may, the normal processes
of industrial expansion. We wish to see once
more normal demand for our goods and normal
conditions of production. We wish to get back,
as nearly as the interests of our country and of
the world may permit, to the normal operating
of commerce and industry.
We of the player business especially hope to
see the last of the day of restricted output, labor
shortage and excessive costs, feeling that, al-
though the sellers' market has its advatages, it
also has its difficulties, especially when demand
so vastly exceeds supply.
These desires are natural enough. They may
to a satisfactory extent perhaps be realized,
but they can only be realized after the underly-
ing conditions are understood. An attempt is
made here briefly to set forth some probabil-
ities of the case as respects our own branch of
the music trades.
Economics
Let us begin by setting down a simple state-
ment of fact, one which is so simple that it is
hardly ever understood, one which, nevertheless,
must be understood if the world's industrial sit-
uation is to be understood at all. It is this:
The sole standard of money value lies in its
purchasing power.
A dollar is not a fixed value, it is a medium of
exchange. Money is worth what it will pur-
chase and this is more or less per unit from time
to time. The dollar is the unit and the dollar
therefore is constantly fluctuating in value.
When, through scarcity of productive activ-
ity, diversion of buying power into definite lim-
ited chanels, shortage, of man-power, and other
causes, needed articles are to be had with diffi-
culty, and prices rise, the dollar buys less, and
then its value has decreased. The remedy is
not to complain about prices but to adjust prices
to costs; in a word, to regard the dollar as an
unit of measure, not as one of value.
The Piano Dollar
Judged on this, the only rational basis, the
piano man's dollar is to other man's dollars as
65 is to 100. Piano prices, and player-piano
prices, too, are much too low, and the proof is
found in the fact that the price of a piano will
buy much less to-day in furs, or automobiles or
real estate, than a similar price would buy two
years ago. Our goods, then, are not keeping up
with the procession; a piano is worth less at its
present-day price than it was in 1914 or even in
1917.
That is plain good sense.
But how less? Not less in terms of its cost,
surely, for it costs more. Not in terms of its
intrinsic value, for it is more aesthetically de-
sirable than ever and is demanded more insis-
tently than ever. It is worth less in terms of
its relative exchange value as compared with
other goods. This relative value is measured
in dollars and the dollar measure shows that
the value of a piano is less than it was a year
ago, upon the only rational basis of valuation
that exists.
Boost Prices
The remedy is obvious, just as the condition
to be remedied is plain. Prices of pianos must
be advanced until a piano holds the same rank
in comparison with other goods as it held be-
fore the war. Similar considerations, even more
powerful, apply to the player-piano.
Prices
must be raised, and must in all probability be
placed upon a basis, measured by figures, higher
than they have ever occupied before.
Yet, be it understood; there is no real boost-
ing up for values are not boosted. The piano,
if it cost on an average 40 per cent, more in
figures of dollars than it does now, would sim-
ply be worth its true value with relation to other
goods. For years it has been artificially kept
below this relative value, simply because, while
other manufacturers have been adjusting their
prices to the constantly decreasing purchasing
power of the individual dollar, piano men have
been afraid to do the same thing. Why have
they been afraid? The story would be long,
and it would reveal the fundamental weakness
of the trade, the evil of long time instalment
selling.
If prices are raised, and raised to a repre-
sentative level, new methods of selling mttet
come in. It is obvious that the cause of low
prices has been found in the method of selling
pianos, and, even more, player-pianos, which
have depended upon the argument of how easy
it. is to buy in terms of money. The reasoning
has been vicious, and its results have been per-
fectly in accord with their causes.
The Demand for Music
The war has shown us much, and above all
it has shown us of the player business that w,e
are plain ordinary fools if we do not compte-
hend that music is just beginning to get under
the skin of the American people. The demartd
for pianos, once the supply began to get a littje
short, has been marvelous. The people opened
their purses and have demanded pianos. They
paid for them, and without kicking. The thip^g
can be done. Shameful prices and insane terms
are now proved to be not only wrong but wholly
unnecessary. Ts there the slightest reason any
longer why a player-piano should be offered
for $325, at $15 down and $8 per month?
>-
A minimum price of $550 for a player-piano
on terms that will pay out inside of two years
should constitute the lowest offer.
Advertise "Music"
_;
But if we are to get away from unhealthy
terms how are we going to get the people to
buy player-pianos at the higher prices we are
to demand? The war again has shown us the
way. We have learned during the war that the
people want music. Then if the people will
not buy player-pianos at the right prices and
in the right quantities, this can only be be-
cause they have not yet heard the story of the
player-piano told to them with sufficient per-
suasiveness. Let the player-piano be advertised
as it ought to be advertised, and the question
of getting- the volume of sales will take care of
itself. That is to say, just as our advertising
of music during the war has so nobly justified
itself, so also our advertising after the war
should continue to be conducted along lines sim-
ilarly high-minded and righteous. We have ad-
vertised prices and terms long enough; let us
now begin to advertise MUSIC.
Along sane and safe lines like these we must
certainly make up our minds to travel unless
we are to find ourselves falling behind in the
industrial race and the piano business falling
into the background. Pages could be covered
with amplifications of the above suggestions,
but it is sufficient to have laid down the main
lines along which, in our opinion, post-war re-
tailing should travel.
. '