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NEW YORK, JUNE 14,1919
Cotntnents by The Man on The Street
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T he past season, tak en from all angles, has
without doubt been one of the most successful
in th e histo,ry of th e sheet music trade, for
both the publishers and the great majority of
dealers have handled a greater vo lum e of busi
!1 e's s than ever before and much of ita t qui te
substantial prices. The r esu lts have bee n ex
ce ll ent in face of the fact that. the cost of doing
business, both in the publishing and se lling of
music, has increased substantially.
To sum
up, the character of the demand is a somewhat
d iAlcu lt proposition, but it call be said that the
music that has found the most favor with the
public during the past few months has been
popn lar and semi-popular productions and the
newer works of the charact er termed stand
a rd rather than the prints of other days, like
wise called standard.
War Adds New Dignity to Music
Music, it must be admitted, ha s tak e n on a
lIew dignity as a result of the war. Var ious
forc 0S, orga ni zed and unorganized, hav e been
striving to get for music a new r ecognition . Its
importance as a stimulator for th e lighting men
and as a beneficial influence at home ha s been
recognized by Government officials and other
men of prominence in the country. The prestige
that has been won by music ba s natur a lly bee n
1 eflected in the demand, not only for music it
self, but for instruments upon which to play it.
Then, too, the advertising of music during
th e past season has taken a tremend'ous jump
Those publishers who in the past have been
r eckoned as pioneers in the adverti·sing in na
t,onal magazines have increased thei r appro
priations and gone into this field on a higg er
scale, while others who have been watching r e
s ult s ha ve take n hea rt and will probably use the
'national magazines for exploiting their publica
tions in tIle near future. The class of music
thllS advertised has been neith er exclusively
from the popu lar catalogs nor has it been fr0111
the thirty-cent or production catalogs.
National Advertising of Music
The embarkation ,o.f music publisher·s into the
f,eld of national advertising is to be commend
ed, not alone for the results that may, or, for
that matter, did, come to the advertisers them..
selves direct, but for the general effect upon the
public mind in arousing interest in sheet music
generally. Advert.ising music in a big way gives
to the business a certain dignit y that reverts to
the benefit of everyone connected with th a t in
dustry. Already advertising campaigns for next
fall are being mapped out by the publishers and
some big things may be looked for along that
line.
When the War Song Became Passe
Whether or not the sheet music publisher was
gifted with a sort of premon:tion or second sight
during the early fall, the fact remains that when
the armistice was signed it caught very few
publ'i shers wit h r eally li ve war songs in their
\ catalogs. In fact , the reaction had begun to be
felt ear ly in th e fall, and with the feeling that
v;ar songs were being overdone the great ma
offices in various cities 0'£ the country by leadiug .
jority o,f th e publishers turned the~r thoughts
publishers makes it pos·s i.ble fO'r the perf9~.r;;el<·~<:··: ",'
who fav o r s songs of any one Pllblishj~1 hou·s~ ·
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to music of other kinds and were, therefore, in
a position to go right ahead when the cav ing 0~0 keep in touch w ith that company's tepresent
in of the Germans mad e eve n the best war so ng atives and change his material at frequent inter
suddenly passe. There were, of course, a num
vals. It multiplies the work of. the professional
ber of songs, semi-war in character, such as
department and means constant watchfulness,
"Rose of No Man's Land," for instance, that
but the publicity is there ju,st the same.
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kept right on, but the real dyed-in-the-wool war
Publicity in Motion Picture Field
song ceased to be an asset.
The motion picture field is steadily gaining in
A Season of Musical Comedies
i11lportance as a medium for the popularizing of
It has been a season of musical comedy pro
songs. On it number of occasions recently spe
ductions. They have been plentiful and a sur
cial songs have been writt en to go with specia:l
prising number of them have been successful.
film s, and in several instances, ·particular.ly that
The result is that there has been an abundance
of "Mickey," the results have be\:n little short
of production music to find its way on the mar
of wond\: rful. It is believed th·a t close co-opera
ket and the publishersl who have given some
ti on between composers, publishers and motion
attention to· thi s so rt of music have managed
pictu·re men will result in a closer alignment
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to do ve ry we ll. This is particularly tru'e of of t hes e. two interests for the purpose c>t giv
in g' the d es irable touch of mus['c- to' -the pictures
those publi s her,s who fortunately held -the rights
to shows that held< over from other seasons, with a nd likewise open an avenue of exploitation for .
three o·r four companies on tour. The continu
the music.
ance of the dance craze has serv ed to keep new
Thf! Canadian Copyright Situation
Much interest is naturally manifested in this
life in the band and orchestra departments. For
country in the attempts made to have passed
several seasons the end of the dance craze has
been predicted , but it st ill persists, and the in
th e new Canadian Copyright Law, which is par
ticularly desirable in that it will provide for the
troduction of each new dance appears to add
somewhat to its longevity. Whole the one-step
drafting of agreements between this country and
and fox-trot continued right along through the
Canada 'regarding the payment of royalties for
season, the real dance stimu l'a nt , it would seem,
th e mechanical reproduction of copyrighted
was the seductive "s himm y." The big question
music. Publishers in the United: States have
has been raised as to whether the "shimmy" long worked tp put such a measure through the
music was re~ponsibl e for the "shimmy" dance
Canadian Parliament and have pointed out the
or vice versa. The fact · r ema ins that any sort injust:ce of the existin&, Canadian law. It was
oi lively dance music appeared to find favor with
1I0t until some prominent Canadian composers
the "shimmy" artists.
wer e th emselves the victims of this lack of pro
Publishing Business on More Stable Basis
vision for mechanical royalties, however, that
There is no ga ins aying the fact that as a
the matter came to a head. The fact that
business that of music publishing appears to Ca nadi ans, rather than citizens of the United
have become consid erab ly more staple than was
States, were losing royalties as a result. of the
the\ case in other days. The joining of many
weakness of the Canadian Copyright Law
prominent publish e rs in the Music Publishers' changed the entire complexion of things.
Protective Association , with the resultant elimi
The Benefits of Co-operation
nation of the practice of paying hundreds of
There is 11 0 question but that during the past
thousands of dolJ.ars each year to professional yca.r or two the music publ·ishers and music
performers for p op ulari zing songs, was in it
dealers through co-operation at their annual
self a wonderful step t owards better bus iness
conventions and other times during the year suc
methods, and there have been ot her steps in the
ceeded in solving many of the business problems
same d'irection. This stabi lity of the indus
affecting both interests,. There are still several
try is als,o reflected in the success tha·t has at
questions regarding discounts, the working to
tended a number of concerns who have entered
gether of publisher and dealers and exploitation
the publishing field within the last couple of
plans to be solved to the benefit of each.
years. The majority of them have managed to
The broadening of the Music Publishers' As
keep going and one, at least, starting with a
sociation of the l.'nited States· throu g h the amal
very small capital, thrived to such an extent that gamation with that body of the Music Publish
a half interest recently brought close to $100,000.
ers' Protective Assoclation has meant an im
Vaudevimans Still Song "Pluggers"
portant step in trad·e a ssoci ation work. There
Stopping the paying of vaudeville artists has are those who see in the combination two rival
not in any sense discouraged the use of popular camps which will be unable to meet togeth er
songs on the stage: It has simply meant that on common g.round . There are others who see
in many cases acts which clung to one s·ong, or in thi s broadening of the association the means
group of songs, for a certain price until the
for bringing the music publishing industry into
lIumber became tiresome , did not hesitate to one harmonious whole, working to the advan
change frequently in orde,r to keep their act
tage of publishers of a-ll classes.
It is to be
fresh and interesting.
The establishing of hoped that this last view is the correct one.
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