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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
VOL. LXXII. No. 7
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th Are., New York. Feb. 12, 1921
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CCORDING to a number of financial and business authorities who have talked for publication during
the past few days, there is every indication that the turning of the tide has come and that the period
k of "depression 11 or "readjustment" is passing rapidly. It may be hard for certain factors in the
^ music industry to visualize the change and to believe that it is already making itself apparent in their
own particular field, but the fact remains that there must be a bottom to everything, and there is every indica-
tion that the bottom has been reached in the downward* trend of business.
The financial authorities tell us that the prospects for the current year, from the business viewpoint,
are excellent and that there is already an upward tendency in demand that should bring early relief. It is felt
to be a matter of congratulation that, unlike the readjustment situation following the Civil War, there has
been no financial panic to bring disaster to industry. There have been losses, heavier in some trades than in others,
and there has been a sizable number of failures, but the industries of the country have remained firm and are
weathering the storm manfully.
Although there may be some members of the music industry who will not agree with the statement, the
fact remains that the music industry has come through the period of readjustment, as it came through the war,
much more fortunately than did a number of other industries, taking the clothing trade as an example. Re-
ports of 1920 business, taking an average for the entire year, indicate that trade was considerably above normal
for both musical instrument manufacturers and retailers, and there are a surprisingly large number of con-
cerns who report that the month of January this year measured fully up to normal or better.
Although the houses that can report satisfactory business are still in the minority, there is in evidence
a steady, although somewhat slow, improvement in general demand, due, perhaps, to the efforts of the travelers
who have once again become active factors in the industry and returned to their legitimate business of going
after business instead of, as during the past couple of years, devoting their energies to placating the retailers who
have been waiting for delayed shipments of stock, and due also to the fact that the steady inroad into stocks in
retailers' hands has made replenishment necessary.
Factories which shut down right after the holidays, and in some cases before, have resumed operations,
several of them on full time and with full forces, and there are enough orders coming through to keep the wheels
spinning. There are even telegraphic orders reported from dealers who, being over-conservative, let their stocks
dwindle down to the dangerous point and then demanded quick action from the manufacturer to save the day.
Optimism that has no real basis- is foolish, but there are enough facts right now, indicating improved con-
ditions, to encourage the business man mightily. It would be well for the members of the industry in general
and particularly the travelers to gather together these facts as they make themselves apparent and offer them for
the consideration of those retailers who still persist in seeing blue.
Piano travelers are, taken all in all, a happy and competent lot. The nature of their calling makes it
essential that they get close to the dealer and enjoy his confidence, and a few words from the traveler setting
forth conditions as they actually are and drawing the picture as encouragingly as may be will have a tremendous
effect in stimulating effort and thereby aiding in the work of bringing the industry back to normal.
It is too much to ask that the pendulum of business in swinging back from depression will go the full
route to the abnormal, and the intelligent business man does not want to see the abnormal again because he knows
it is unhealthy and cannot last, but it is swinging back to normal trade—the sort of trade that is sound and per-
mits both the manufacturer and the retailer to regulate their business on a basis of certainty. Not having in-
dulged in inflated valuations to any material extent, the music industry has been unable to shave prices as
radically as some other industries in meeting the situation through which we have just passed, but because of
that very fact the trade is in an ideal position to get quickly and permanently back to a normal basis.
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