Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
REVIEW
fflJJIC TIRADE
VOL. LXX1.
No. 7
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Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York. Aug. 14, 1920
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RESENT conditions in the music trade, while not warranting extravagant optimism, still give little rea-
son for a pessimistic attitude. The immediate necessity is a clear understanding of the various factors
which influence the industry, plus a constant remembrance of the fact that the United States is funda-
mentally sound both industrially and financially.
There is no question but that the special discount sales of clothing and other seasonable commodities
which have been sweeping the country during the past couple of months have had a bad effect upon the public
mind, but the effect cannot be permanent and will wear away as soon as the actual conditions are recognized.
The public has been led to believe through special propaganda with self-interest as its basis that there
was a break in high post-war prices, and that this break would extend through all channels of trade.
The
propagandists, however, have neglected to inform the public that the broken prices were those on goods which
represented inflated valuations—goods in which, in the majority of cases, there was to be found the handiwork
of the profiteer—the man who worked upon the basis of getting all that traffic would bear.
This charge of profiteering and of unduly inflated prices cannot rest against the music industry as a
whole. There is yet to be brought to light any particular instance where a musical instrument manufacturer
has advanced prices out of proportion to the increased production costs. There being no inflation, it is logical
that there can be no deflation. Relief will come only when legitimate manufacturing costs take a tumble all
along the line, and the prospects in that direction are meager.
The real danger to the industry is the retailer who, finding that he now has a few more instruments on
his floors than he lrad at the corresponding period last year, sees some neighboring department store featuring
a "twenty per cent off" sale, and immediately gets the impression trjat business is falling behind—that the public
is hesitating about buying, and that he must offer cut prices, or long terms, to sell his stock. Such a move, in-
stead of improving conditions, simply tends to aggravate the situation. If the panicky dealer will compare his
business for this year with the volume he handled during the corresponding period last year he will find that
he has equaled, and in most cases exceeded, last year's record.
The music dealer or the business man in any other line who confines his thoughts to his own business
and draws his conclusions regarding conditions from the situation as he finds it in his own particular field is
not so likely to be perturbed as the man who, reading that the woolen trade, for instance, is 'not very active, and
that some stocks have gone down, immediately sees horrifying visions of disaster.
Piano and music dealers who have liberal stocks of musical instruments on their floors are really to be
congratulated, for they are protected in some measure against increased freight charges, and in some cases
against higher wholesale prices that are already talked of. A substantial stock affords opportunity for sell-
ing goods with the knowledge that the instruments can be delivered from stock, and that the sale will thus
prove bona fide. As many music merchants know, it is not pleasant to live in fear that several customers may
become tired of waiting for the delivery of instruments which they have ordered from sample or catalog, and
do their buying elsewhere.
The cry for many months past has been for stock. There have been many statements regarding what
might have been accomplished had sufficient instruments been available. With stocks now obtainable in fair
measure there is no reason why every effort should not be put into getting as many instruments as possible into
the warerooms as a purely businesslike, protective measure. Any business disturbance in the Fall is more
liable to result from inability to get goods promptly than from inability to sell the instruments received.
Present conditions call for the clear thinker—the man who can see and understand conditions as they
are, and can appreciate the soundness of the country and of the industry.