Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE
APRIL 3, 1920
REVIEW
ss
PUBLISHERS RESENT ALLEGATIONS
The Song and Dance Triumph of the Country
Sheet Music Men Declare That Royalties Are
Not Wholly Responsible for High Music Roll
Costs and That Rolls Are Not Responsible for
the Development of Sheet Music Sales
The comments regarding the music roll situa-
tion offered by S. W. Christine, a music dealer
of Bangor, Pa., and published recently in The
Review, in the course of which Mr. Christine
makes some statements regarding the music
roll man's attitude toward the music publisher,
have brought forth a number of replies from'
publishers who feel that some of the statements
should not be permitted to go unchallenged.
The publishers feel that the problem of music
roll distribution and sales is a matter that does
not concern them, but they do feel that while it
is true that the music roll cutter may pay 10
or 12 cents royalty on his song rolls, offering
that fact as an excuse for his entire price in-
crease is unjustified, inasmuch as the actual in-
crease in the cost of manufacturing rolls has
also been heavy.
The publishers likewise resent the alleged
claims of the music roll makers that the pub-
lishers ought to pay them a royalty on the
500 per cent business increase realized by the
publishers in the past few years. The publishers
call attention to the fact that their business
began to show a substantial increase even be-
fore word rolls became really popular, and while
the sheet music business was growing the de-
mand for music rolls likewise jumped several
hundred per cent, as did the demand for musi-
cal instruments and talking machine records.
Moreover, it is maintained that word rolls de-
tract from the sale of sheet music and that the
advance in the demand for sheet music has been
realized in spite of the sale of word rolls rather
than as a result thereof.
Attention is also called to the unfair com-
parison between the price of talking machine
records and music rolls. The words of a song
are not used on talking machine records in
printed form and the royalty for the mechanical
reproduction of the music itself is fixed by law
at two cents. Thus the maximum royalty on a
double-sided talking machine record is four
cents and many.of the records now sell at one
dollar or more. The talking machine record
may, and sometimes does, lead to the sale of
sheet music in order to secure the printed
words of the song, while the word roll offers
both words and music complete.
Apart from other facts the publishers say it
SWEET
and
LOW
V
]
'
SinCIOC
"Wond'ring"
" Tents of Arabs "
" Romance "
B. D. NICE & CO., 1 5 4 4 Broadway, NEW YORK
might be well for the dealer to know that they
after all make the songs. They spend thou-
sands of dollars on advertising, orchestrations,
branch offices and other things for the exploi-
tation of their works and much of this invest-
ment is more often than not made before the
mechanical reproduction companies record the
number. As a matter of fact the mechanical
reproduction companies have a line on just what
each and every individual publisher is doing and
they can cut their rolls with more than a fair
knowledge of the possible sales as a result of
the publisher's exploitation.
There are not the tremendous profits in music
publishing that the average layman would think.
As a matter of fact, if it weren't for the
mechanical recording companies in the days
when popular music retailed for 10 cents many
of the publishers would not now be in exist-
ence. It is true t*o-day that they get a higher
price for most of their works, although they
still print some 10-cent music; but, after all,
they got this increase through necessity. They
found it unprofitable to publish music to retail
at 10 cents and they were forced into the 30-
cent field. Their expenses have constantly in-
creased on every side just as have the expenses
in other lines of business and there are no pub-
lishers retiring with large fortunes. The pub-
lishers feel when they release their words to
the player roll manufacturer they are giving
well over 50 per cent of their rights to an
individual publication. Some of them have not
A Triumvirate of Triumphs
Every Ounce of Forster Energy
is being concentrated on
A
Sensation
^ THESE 3 HITS
KARAVAH
Hundreds of
VaudeviLLe Acts
THEM
Thousands of Orchestras
WhichTHE PUBLIC has selected!
ALREADY
TREMENDOUS
SELLERS!
The Original, by
Wiedoeft
Ano
ALL The Phonograph Records
miD Player Piano RoLLs *RE FEAI
OLman
HITS OF THREE PRODUCTIONS
'JW^Tano LOW" in "HELLO ALttAfiWR* 1 f j ^ y JOBBER CA« SUPPLV you
"tidUGHTy VdLTZ" in "ZKGFCLD FOLLIES'
OR IF V0U PREFER
'KARAVAfT
in
"PASSING SHOWor iqm"
FORSTER
DIRECT FROM US
MUSIC
(That Pass in the Night)
FOX-TROT
SONGS THAT SELL
SONG
F0R5TER5DIG3
he Wonder
WaLtz
flRt
" CLOUDS "
WALTZ
NoveLty WaLtz
Son^HIt
PUBLISHER
F J.A. FORSTER PRES.
736 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVE.
.
IMC
CHICAGO, ILL.
been overly anxious for the roll manufacturer
to use the words, as was shown during the past
few months when several of the publishers
created much agitation in music roll circles by
threatening to go into the manufacture of rolls.
The dealer who has increased his business on
sheet music can ascribe it to more than one
cause and among these more recently is the
fact that there are not many 10-cent numbers
at the present time.
BEST SELLERS OF THE MONTH
List of Most Popular Numbers as Reported by
Retail Sheet Music Dealers During March
Some time ago The Review promised the
dealers throughout the country that it would
from time to time give them a list of the best
sellers, and in the future such a list will appear
in this publication the last issue of each month.
Shortly after we made the above announce-
ment we had conversations with several music
publishers, and some of them appeared bent
upon discouraging us from creating such a
column. Among other things, they predicted
that we would lose all our friends, inasmuch
as it will be impossible to run all the numbers
published, and as everybody is enthusiastic over
his own works there will no doubt be times
when some will feel slighted and probably
peeved.
However, such a list should not be judged
as to value in any one month, and over a series
of months no doubt all will be satisfied. At
least we hope so. This list, by the way, is se-
lected with great care. It is compiled from
sales reports of syndicate stores from the lists
of leading jobbers, and includes data taken from
the reports of leading dealers in all sections of
the country. No attempt has been made to
place them in the order of salability: "Vene-
tian Moon," "Sweet and Low," "My Isle of
Golden Dreams," "Dardanella," "That Naughty
Waltz," "Patches," "When You're Alone," "Oh,
by Jingo! Oh, by Gee! You're the Only Girl
for Me," "You're a Million Miles From No-
where When You're One Little Mile From
Home," "Peggy," "My Baby's Arms," "Let the
Kest of the World Go By," "You'd Be Sur-
prised," "Karavan," "I'll See You in C-U-B-A,"
' O h How 1 Laugh When I Think How I Cried
About You," "Pretty Little Rainbow," "Caro-
lina Sunshine," "Wonderful Pal," "Sweet Ha-
waiian Moonlight," "All That I Want Ts You,"
"Don't You Remember the Time?" "Swanee,"
"Weeping Willow Lane," "Tn Shadowland,"
"Bvc-Lo" and "On Miami Shore."
MACEO PINKARD A FREE LANCE
Maceo Pinkard, writer of "Mammy o' Mine"
and other successes, at the recent expiration of
his exclusive contract with Shapiro, Bernstein
& r Co., Inc., decided to free lance as a song
writer.