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54
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
SEPTEMBER 18,
1920
CONDUCTED BY V. D. WALSH
A REVIEW OF CONDITIONS IN THE PUBLISHING FIELD
Erroneous Impressions Regarding the Causes of the Quiet Business in Publishing Circles During
the Past Season Have Been Spread Broadcast by Writers Who Were Not Thoroughly Informed
Too frequently of late the writers in several
weekly papers catering to the singing profes-
sion have taken it upon themselves to tell the
music industry, particularly the publishers,
"what is wrong with the music business."
Some of these articles have been absolutely
devoid of real facts relating to conditions and
others have contained only half truths. All of
them, no doubt, have been written in a con-
scientious vein, but by those who are not equip-
ped to give a close analysis of the music situa-
tion as a whole. Most of them probably have
been written from material emanating from
short conversations with publishers who them-
selves did not give enough attention to ques-
tions involved in order to place specific data
before the writer. These articles have been
prone to attribute much of the abnprmal de-
pression in the sheet music field to the lack
of distribution of popular music through the
ten-cent syndicates and to the great strides
made by sales in the player roll field, as well as
those of talking machine records. None of these
is to be seriously considered as contributing to
the falling off of sales of popular music at this
time.
Most of these writers forget that the sales in
the ten-cent syndicates were very poor long be-
fore the slump of the past few months arrived.
They also either forget or have no knowledge
of the fact that player rolls, pianos, player-
pianos and talking machines also had a very
inactive Summer. While it is true the record
sales have been about normal, this may be traced
largely to the fact that the record manufacturers
have not been able in the past two years to meet
the demands. So, if the sales in their field were
not as heavy as in some months gone by (and
this is probably not true) it would be hard to
determine this condition.
The whole music industry has had anything
but activity during the past few months. There-
fore, to endeavor to find out what, if anything,
has been wrong with the sheet music industry,
it is well to take into consideration the
conditions affecting all branches of the music
field.
One of the writers mentioned above recently
brought out the point that much popular music
is now retailed at 200 per cent over and above
pre-war prices. No consideration, however, was
given to the fact that the publishers do not get
this 200 per cent, but that most of it is absorbed
by rising production costs. The writer seemed
to think that the publishers should go on- pub-
lishing popular ten-cent music at a loss, and in
order to prove his contention he tried to show
that despite increased costs all down the line
the increased retail price was not justified. To
do this he compared the sheet music business
with various other lines which had absolutely
nothing in common with it.
The point is that the publishers were losing
money on ten-cent publications long before the
raise in price, and it was well known that if
it were not for the royalties received from me-
chanical reproduction sources ten-cent popular
music would have been discontinued long be-
fore it was. For many months previous to the
raise in prices of sheet music the publishers had
endeavored, by curtailing expenditures, to make
it possible to continue to publish ten-cent music.
Some very effective measures were brought
about by these efforts showing substantial de-
ductions in appropriations but with all of this
the publishers found it impossible to continue
exclusively in the ten-cent field.
One of these writers also contended that
popular sheet music was a luxury. This is abso-
lutely a pre-war belief, and it has been almost
three years since anyone in the music field, or,
for that matter, the general public, believed
music in any form was a luxury. It has long
been recognized as a necessity even by the Gov-
ernment during the strenuous days of war.
This is not to advocate that ten-cent music
should not be continued. Some of the leading
popular publishers have decided that they will
always issue music at a popujar price, and while
this may not always be at a ten-cent figure it
will be low enough, considering conditions, to
satisfy the most exacting.
There have been any number of hits, includ-
ing novelties, comedies and jazz numbers, that
would ordinarily be rated as of the ten-cent va-
riety but which have readily sold for thirty cents,
and this, too, during the recent slump. There-
fore, it only shows that it was a lack of hits
more than anything else that has curtailed sales.
There has been no tremendous hit during the
past several months and, to aggravate the situa-
tion, practically all of the publishing houses dis-
THE TORNADO OF SONG HITS-IT
continued or curtailed their publicity in many
channels. In addition, those who had good num-
bers to offer, instead of issuing them during the
Spring or Summer, held them over until the
Fall season.
During the past few weeks sheet music sales
have again become active, not as active as one
would wish, but there is a decided increase in
volume. All of the publishing houses are be-
ginning to spend money on their Fall catalogs,
and while the writer believes there is at least
one situation that is still to be remedied, the Fall
outlook, from all indications, will be normal.
Taking everything into consideration, it is
true that it is quite hard to find all of the
causes that have affected sales. Therefore, it
would be well for the writers of articles on the
situation in the sheet music trade in the future
to take in just a little bit less territory. By
doing so they can put forward something con-
crete, something that will be enlightening, some-
thing that may prove of value. Most all such
articles have represented space wasted and
wasted time on the part of both the writer and
the reader, as well as mayhap falling into the
hands of a reader who would regard them as
offering accurate information, to the detriment
of the trade as a whole.
CAN'T BE STOPPED
TED LEWIS' SENSATIONAL SONG-DANCE HIT
"FAIR ONE" has set a new sales record. In exactly two weeks from the first day it was featured in
Chicago the combined dealers in that city sold over 100,000 copies. Everyone loves the song.
Special Price for Sept. Only 18c, After Oct. 1, 20c.
IRVING BERLIN, Inc.
Rush Your Order
1587 Broadway, New York