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NOVEMBER 26,
1921
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
11
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The end of our year approaches fast and we
take up the present issue of the Player Section
at a moment when everyone is thinking about
holiday business and is wondering what will
happen during December. On the whole, the feel-
ing is cheerful, but it cannot be said that anyone,
in the music roll business at any rate, is crazy
with joy over the immediate prospects. The
general expectation is that wholesale and retail
trade will be fairly good during the forthcoming
holidays, but there are no excessive hopes.
Which, after all, is just as well.
Not So Gloomy
The music roll business has been going through
a time of storm and stress, just like the other
branches of the music industry, but not in quite
the same way. For the music roll business has
always had a hard row to hoe and is accustomed
to the sort of struggling which some other
branches of the music industry have thought dur-
ing the last few months was so terrible and un-
usual. Wherefore, we find that the music roll
men have never been so deeply depressed, never
plunged so profoundly into gloom, never so very,
very unhappy, at any time during the past year,
as were occasionally some of their fellows.
Which, again, is all to the good.
One Moment, Please!
Now, therefore, that the music roll men are
taking breath prior to tackling the holiday busi-
ness, let us ask their attention for long enough
to introduce some ideas of our own, calculated
to produce, we hope, a fairly pleasant feeling
and to give them strength for the strenuous ac-
tivities we hope, and expect, they will have to
engage in during the next thirty days.
Imprimis
Imprimis, as the law documents say, it is not
amiss to remark that the music roll business
ought to be fairly well satisfied at having man-
aged to pull through the past year with a whole
skin. This, of course, is not wholly a compli-
ment. It is just a little by way of being a left-
handed compliment—a sort of damn-with-faint-
praise sort of compliment. The music roll busi-
ness has managed to' come through alive, and
ii
Staffnotc
Player Rolls
Are Best"
is now the answer received by the
many progressive dealers whenever
they invite comparison by their trade.
Their one main reason for de-
ciding is that Staff note rolls are the
most complete, in that, all that is
pertaining to music, is printed on the
roll and are therefore a greater value
for the money. Another reason is
that they are easier to read and have
an outstanding individuality in the
hand played recording of same that
is not to be found in other rolls.
The opinion is unanimous among
the players of wind and string in-
struments.
Send for catalogue and our free trial offer
and learn more about this latest and best achieve-
ment in music rolls.
Billin&s Player Roll Company
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U. S. A.
to that extent it merits the congratulations which
are herewith respectfully tendered to it. But
there is another side to the proposition. For the
reason—or, at least, one of the reasons—for this
pleasant state of affairs is undoubtedly that the
music roll business was not being exploited to
an extent where it would have manifested the
results of a slump immediately and plainly.
There are two sides to the question and doubtless
it will be better for us to confine our attention
for the moment to the second of these.
The Same Old Way!
Secondly, then, let us forget for the moment
the impending holiday rush, for which there will
be time to prepare from Monday next. Let us
ask ourselves if, during 1922, we are going to be
content with the same, old, unsystematic ways
of doing business. Let no manufacturer think
that the writer does not understand his troubles.
He does understand them and sympathizes with
those who have to bear them. The cause of the
difficulty is rather with the retailer. Manufac-
turers expend energy, ingenuity and much money
in getting publicity and sales helps, the first for
the purpose of attracting the purchaser and the
second to enable the dealer to give good retail
service. When, however, the dealer declines to
take needed trouble to put into operation the
arrangements devised for him what is to be ex-
pected save" that those arrangements shall fall
flat? Wherefore, of course, the dealer says that
the music roll business does not pay. Certainly,
it does not in these circumstances.
Be It Resolved
Even though, then, it be a bit early to think
about making New Year resolutions, we venture
to suggest to the retailers that they can very
easily make 1922 the best year for music roll
selling they have ever known if they will but
attend to one or two elementary considerations
—if, in a word, they will resolve to realize:
The
Silent Motora
1. That the player-piano is useless without the
music roll, as useless as a rifle without cartridges.
If you were in the gunsmith business you would
find that every time you sold a rifle or shot-gun
to a sportsman you had to sell him also (whether
you liked it or not) a box, at least, of cartridges.
You would soon find the sales of cartridges to
be quite a large item, the profits on it paying
a lot of overhead expenses which otherwise would
be inconvenient and even, perhaps, unpleasant.
2. That if there is only a small demand for
music rolls, whereas there are in the community
many player-pianos which they and their competi-
tors have sold, then, plainly, the trouble is with
them, the dealers, not with the owners of player-
pianos. If the owners of player-pianos get tired
of their instruments the fault is with their music.
They are not supplying themselves with new
music each month. Why?
3. That if the manufacturer goes to all kinds
of trouble in supplying publicity at great expense
and other means of assisting in retail sales, with-
out charge, it is at least the part of a good sport
to take advantage of the same.
4. That if the interest of player-piano owners
is once aroused price will not stand in their way,
and that, in any case, the present prices of
music rolls are not excessive.
5. Finally, that the cornerstone of all merchan-
dising in the music industries is demonstration.
Rotten demonstration has killed, and will con-
tinue to kill, the finest propositions ever advanced.
AEOLIAN CO.
December brings the concluding movement of
the fascinating Grieg concerto, brilliantly played
by Percy Grainger for the Duo-Art recordings.
The great Tausig arrangement of Schubert's
military march is made greater still in a four-
hand arrangement by Harold Bauer and Ossip
Gabrilowitsch. John Powell, of Virginia, does
a Chopin scherzo and Rudolph Ganz does the
Weber fyfoto Perpetuo. It is a brilliant assem-
blage of talent, with an appropriate trimming of
{Continued on payc 12)
This electric vacuum
playing device elimi-
nates all foot pumping
We a r e d i s t r i b u t o r s in
Pennsylvania and extend our
services and co-operation to you
Motora Sales Co. of Pennsylvania
35 S. 18th Street
Philadelphia, Pa.
WHITE, SON CO.
Manufacturers of
ORGAN AND PLAYER-PIANO
LEATHERS
530-540 Atlantic Ave., BOSTON, MASS.
PLAYER--ORGAN--PIANO
LEATHERS
A Specialty of Pneumatic
T. L LUTKINS, Inc.
Leathers
Additional Income for
Tuners and Repair
Departments
We can supply you
with an action of universal
scale that can be installed
Hi any 65 or 88-note
player-piano that is giving
unsatisfactory service or in
a n y ordinary piano by
making some minor altera-
tions in the piano case.
Write
for details of this monej>-
maliing possibility.
Simplex Player Action Co.
,.
Worcester, Mass.