Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TFADE
VOL.
LXX1I. No. 21
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
Achievements
T
May 21, 1921
Single Copies 10 Cent*
$2.00 Per Year
Conventions
H E national trade conventions for 1921, the best attended and most resultful meetings in the annals
of the industry, are now history, although the results thereof, and the masterly manner in which the
Chicago trade handled the meetings, will long remain fresh in the memory of those 1,200 or more
trade members who were privileged to attend.
It will probably be several weeks before the full results of the Chicago meetings can be estimated, for
there was so much done, and most of it was done so quickly, that the individual will require some time to
separate the different accomplishments and get them properly catalogued in his mind.
One thing that has been proved to the satisfaction of even the most pessimistic is that the industry,
with its several divisions, has been welded together into one common unit, and that the industry has been
sold most solidly on the Chamber of Commerce idea. From first to last it may be said to have been a general
convention of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, just as was outlined in the original program.
Members of the music industry, or for that matter of any other industry, are not inclined to appropriate
money for those things which have no value and, therefore, the approval by the various associations of the
budget of $129,000 for the Chamber, fixed as the minimum for covering the activities of that body for the
ensuing year, and the willingness of each of the allied associations to meet its quota as set in that budget,
can be accepted as proof that the trade has been convinced that the Chamber is worth the money and that it
has, particularly during the fifteen months which have elapsed since the last convention, rendered full value
for the money invested. It may not be best, of course, to weigh the Chamber and its works on a dollars-and-
cents basis, but it at least affords some standard by which to measure the trade's actual valuation of that
institution.
The convention halls offered no refuge for the man with the one-track mind, for every subject brought
up was treated from a variety of angles in order to give the delegates the benefit of many viewpoints. Like-
wise the individual who was able to think only of the commercial side of music found himself out of place in
an assemblage that succeeded definitely in linking up musical art and musical instruments.
The musical authority and the educator found a place on the program equal in importance with that
of the individual who sought to shed light on purely trade subjects, and if any cause in which the trade is
interested was accorded a dominating position in the discussion it was that of advancement of music generally.
New light on the importance and scope of this work was offered at each session, and those who are actively
interested in the carrying on of the progress might bear in mind the caution of the Mayor of Dallas that the
movement be kept free from the taint of commercialism for its own salvation. The Review issued this same
warning a year ago and it is still timely.
Taking it all in all, the spirit of optimism was strongly in evidence, and when President Hamilton of
the Merchants' Association asked at the banquet, "Are we downhearted?" he brought forth a chorus of "No"
that broke up the proceedings temporarily. The music men dealt not so much in the past and present as in
the future and, although the volume of actual business handled by the exhibitors fell far below expectations,
that fact did not overcome the belief that the general trade situation is on the mend. Certainly the average
retailer can learn much from the addresses made and the papers read at the various meetings to enable him
to conduct his business along better and more profitable lines, and to take advantage of the opportunities that
come to him through the more general appreciation that has been won for music.
The spirit of co-operation that was evidenced, the willingness of the various trade divisions to work one
with another in the solution of the problems that are in many respects common, leads to the belief that the
conventions and the work of the associations in the months to come will have an important effect in keeping
the trade on the proper level, and enabling the industry as a whole to carry through.