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PLAYER SECTON
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 25, 1920
Wherein the Editor of This Player Section Sets Forth His Opinions on Various
Matters, Economic, Industrial and Technical, With the Hope That His Humble
Views May Prove Interesting and Also Instructive to the Gentle Reader
The Practical Conservative
It always helps when a sane and safe man,
who nevertheless is not a hide-bound conserv-
ative, says a word in season to a trade which
is not excessively fond of self-analysis. The
president of the National Piano Manufacturers'
Association, who is Otto Schulz, of Chicago, has
been speaking to that progressive bunch of
men who constitute the Ohio Music Merchants'
Association. The annual convention of these
gentlemen is always an occasion of considerable
interest to all who think well of the intelli-
gence of our trade and have hopes for its future.
President Schulz said a good many things which
need not concern us here for the moment, in-
teresting and timely as they were. But he par-
ticularly said one thing which needs to be re-
membered at this moment. He took occasion to
voice a sentiment which this newspaper has
voiced before, and which is interesting, not for
that reason, but for the reason that it was now
set forth so clearly by the presiding officer
of the piano manufacturers. "We manufacturers
of player-pianos," said Mr. Schulz, in effect,
"have been supporting inventors, building up
technical organizations of great magnitude and
devoting ourselves generally to the development
of the player-piano for years. We have now
a right to ask that you merchants shall show
enough intelligence in your methods of selling
the player-piano to assure that we shall not see
our efforts entirely wasted. It is not only that
the dealers ought to wonder why the player-
piano evokes so very little interest or enthu-
siasm amongst the people at large. It is much
more the manufacturers who, against many ob-
stacles, have developed a really wonderful and
artistic product which gives good music at the
behest of everyone who cares to acquire the
simple tricks of manipulating it. The manufac-
turers, above all others, have reason to feel dis-
appointed if the sales of their product do not
come up to the mark."
Alpha and Omega
The view which Mr. Schulz so clearly ex-
presses is striking on account of its compara-
tive novelty, rather than for any other rea-
son. We are not aware that it has been so
clearly expressed by a manufacturer before
the present occasion, but we are quite sure that
its force must have been felt by everyone who
listened. For nothing is clearer than that which
we of the trade press have long ago seen with
wonder, namely, that the manufacturers who
have put forth so much of energy and of labor
in the development of the technical side of the
player-piano have stood so nearly alone in ap-
preciating the worth of the work they were
doing. Even they have not appreciated this work,
apparently, and the merchants to whom their
products have gone, en route to the consumers,
have been relatively unappreciative and disin-
clined to take any trouble in the matter of
studying the sales science involved. After all,
it is a simple matter all round: The player-
piano is a musical instrument. It can only be
sold rightly on the basis of its ability to fur-
nish to the consumer the kind of music he or
she wants, as he or she wants it. That means
that the salesman who is selling must sell
"music," and that, again, means just one thing
—demonstration. There is the Alpha and
Omega of player-piano salesmanship.
Shh! The Woist Is to Come!
Whenever any affrighted person—and the
world is full of completely and thoroughly af-
frighted persons who are always wondering
what calamity is next going to overwhelm them
—begins to talk with us about the state or
condition of trade, we set ourselves to ask, not
how sincere, but how well informed, he is.
Only thus can one find out the cause of the
fright, and only when that cause is uncovered
can one understand the reason for the belief
that calamities are impending. Wherefore, let
us ask ourselves why many persons are at the
moment much afraid. There can be only two
reasons: guilty conscience or cowardice. One
can understand, perhaps—not excuse, but un-
derstand—how the profiteering trades might for
this long time past have been feeling that they
would some day face a declining market—but
what has all that to do with the piano or player-
piano business' We have never profiteered,
even though piano prices are higher. Price?
are no higher than is proportional with the
present cost of making pianos and player-pianos.
That is not what is the matter with us. We
have no guilty consciences. So it is evident that
some of us, at least, are just plain cowards.
But a coward does not want to be one, he wants
to be brave and heroic. Only, he cannot do it
when the time comes. So with us. We don't
want to be scared, but we are. Why? Is it
not because we have been believing for a good
many years that the player-piano, and the piano,
too, are in reality not necessities at all, but
merely luxuries which, the peopLe will some day
p.j*tv.aside, like disused toys? That, in fact, is
the root cause of most of our trouble. We have
never believed in our business. It would serve
us right if our business ceased to believe in us.
This Queerest Business!
But it won't. That is one of the beauties
of the music business. The music business never
goes back on its votaries. During twenty years
the annual variation in numbers of pianos and
player-pianos sold has not been worth consid-
ering. The highest production figures were
reached years ago, but even they were not
enormously larger than the figures of to-day.
Of course, this may be considered a cause for
congratulation, but it may also be considered
cause for astonishment and searching of heart.
The music business does not go back on us, in-
deed. Good times and bad included, year in and
year out we sell just about so many instru-
ments. We, therefore, on that basis, may com-
fort our shuddering hearts and anticipate that
the coming year will at any rate hold up its
average. But we might just as well consider
likewise that the only real reason why the piano
business has held up so well is to be found in
the not particularly heartening fact that it has
never yet reached anything like what ought to
be the normal annual output. Instead of selling
somewhere about three hundred thousand pianos
and player-pianos annually we ought to be sell-
ing twice as many. Even these we have, in the
past, sold more through the lure of prices and
terms than for any musical reason. Whilst
then we may comfort ourselves with the thought,
cowardly as it is, that the usual three hun-
dred thousand folks who need pianos and player-
pianos will have duly stepped up by December
31, 1920, we might better ask ourselves what
earthly reason there is why we should not do
a great deal better than this. Well, we shall do
a great deal better when, and only when, we
sell "music" instead of prices and terms. The
mere statement is not the solution, but it points
the way. In heaven's name, let us wake up.
DRAG FOR PLAYER TRANSMISSION
WASHINGTON, D. C, September 20.—William
T. Waite, Kansas City, Mo., was last week
granted Patent No. 1,351,881 for an automatic
drag for player-piano transmissions.
The object of this invention is the provision
of simple and effective means in a player-piano
transmission for preventing overrunning of the
loose spool during the winding or rewinding of
the record strip, maintaining the proper tension.