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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
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Vol. LXXI
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 4, 1920
No. 10
CALL THE DOCTOR!
M
USIC dealers who are inclined to be pessimistic over business
conditions, and allow their pessimism to reach a point where
they are in a mood almost to welcome business disaster, should take a
leaf from the book of a New York automobile man who recently had
the following comments to make regarding the logical thing to do
when business appears sickly. He said in substance:
"If your children break out with the measles do you run for
the undertaker? Most certainly not. You get a doctor. And from
then on Mr. Husband and Father gives service, attention to details,
affection and real care until everybody gets well and they live
happily ever afterwards.
"All of the above being an object lesson for a few birds (and
there are only a few) that are always moaning about how the busi-
ness they are in has slipped on the top stair and after a terrible
descent has "turned out to be a total wreck. Oh! for the good old
days!
"To hear these crepe hangers talk everything's on the blink,
when the only trouble with these calamity howlers is they're sick.
They need an M. D. to diagnose their ailment and to prescribe for
their attack of 'Good Old Days.' That's the trouble. Always their
minds carry them back to earlier times, when sales were made with-
out effort, business was easy to get—prospects were congenial and
the 'sign here' was a cinch. The ones that make good today have
to think quicker, work harder and earn more—and gosh, how that
hurts. But don't forget that the money earned that way lasts
longer and does us more good."
MORE MUSIC, BETTER MUSIC, BRITISH MUSIC
T
HE organizing director of the Federation of British Music In-
dustries; Lieut.-Col. R. H. Tatton, has just issued a most inter-
esting and comprehensive statement relative to the aims and objects
of the Federation and some of its plans.
The Federation, be it said, owes its organization largely to the
inspiration furnished by the Music Industries Chamber of Com-
SEPTEMBER 4, 1920
merce of America, and its various activities and departments are
modeled closely after the successful American institution. Accord-
ing to Mr. Tatton's summary, the activities of the Federation are
mainly centered on two propositions—trade organization and propa-
ganda. Sixty per cent, of the total revenue for the financial year
beginning September 1, 1920, is to be devoted to propaganda, and
the other remaining forty per cent, to cover administrative costs,
trade organization costs and general expenses. Inasmuch as prac-j
tically all the divisions of the music industry, with the exception of
the music publishers, are members of the Federation and have been
liberal in their financial support, it is believed that the campaign to
be carried on by that body will be an extensive one.
As in America, most of the propaganda work will be in the
cause of music as a whole, but with this significant difference—- :
while we in the United States devote our energies to forwarding the
cause of music as an art without favoring this or that particular
form of music, the British Federation has for its slogan; "Music,
more music, better music and British music." It will be seen that
these last two words alone are calculated to change what might
be accepted as a propaganda for art into a propaganda for trade. It
is fortunate that the National Bureau for the Advancement of Music
in America has not taken it upon itself to specify what kind of
music should be favored in this country.
TWO IMPORTANT TRADE GATHERINGS
merchants throughout the Middle West will do well to
M USIC
take an active interest in the proceedings of the annual con-
vention of the Piano Merchants' Association of Ohio which will be
held in Youngstown on September 14th and 15th, and if possible to
attend the sessions, for there is every prospect that it will be a
noteworthy trade gathering, surpassing in interest the very successful
conventions held by the piano men of Ohio in the past. Men promi-
nent in every division of the industry, men rated as authorities in
organization work and in business, will come from many sections of
the country to address the conventionists, and there are listed a
number of discussions that are distinctly pertinent at this particular
time and under existing conditions. In many respects the annual
convention of the Ohio Association is almost national in scope and
its various activities, particularly the maintenance of an Ad Censor,
are worthy of consideration and emulation by other trade bodies,
both national and local.
While the Ohio Association is in session music merchants in
New England will likewise have an opportunity to get together at
the meeting of the New England Music Trade Association to be held
in New York on September 15th and 16th. The meeting will be
in the nature of a two-day outing, and is calculated to foster the
social spirit in the New England trade rather than to develop into
a strictly business session.
THE SHORTAGE OF CONCERT GRANDS
the new concert season approaches, a concert season that
A S promises
to offer rich treats for music lovers of America, it
becomes apparent from the reports of those piano manufacturers
whose instruments are used most frequently on the concert stage
that a shortage of concert grands promises to be just as acute, and
perhaps more acute, during the coming season as it was last Fall
and Winter.
Conditions during the past year have been of a sort still further
to curtail in many instances concert grand production, for these
instruments require the attention of experts of wide experience
and genuine ability. They cannot be turned out with the facility of
instruments of which less is demanded. The increase in the number
of pianists who will tour the country in itself serves to complicate
the situation, for to keep the average pianist supplied with a grand
wherever it is desired during the season means the tying up, or at
least the keeping available at all times, of not one but several
instruments.
Some prominent artists' have already discovered that they will
not only be compelled to modify their demands in the matter of
concert grands for next season's use, but that they may be kept on
the anxious seat for some time as to whether they will be able to
receive assurances of being able to use regularly pianos of their
favorite make. It is an interesting situation that, however, does
not make itself felt in the general run of retail trade.