Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
fflJJIC TRADE
VOL. LXXIV. No. 2
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
Jan. 14, 1922
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£L CentB
s $3.00
2 g°^
Per Tear
Now, All Together for the New Year
T
H E New Year just opened is filled with possibilities for the piano men of the country—possibilities that
stand out distinctly and should serve to encourage even the chronic pessimist to make every effort
to realize on them. The year 1921, with its many problems, has been regarded as a poor year, and
yet for the majority of piano men the business totals have been as large as, and in many cases larger
than, the total for the preceding year.
The closing month of last year saw the industry in fairly good shape, with liquidation about over,
inventories greatly reduced and a demand that taxed the facilities of the manufacturers to handle. It is to
be expected that this demand will continue right through the coming twelve months, for it reflects a return
of confidence on the part of the buying public rather than any sudden growth in musical appreciation through-
out the country.
At the year-end gathering of piano men in New York some well-informed members of the trade
made estimates as to the total production of pianos during 1921. They took into consideration the fact that
few factories had operated on a full-time basis, that many had been operated at only a fraction of capacity
throughout the year and in some cases had been closed down entirely for several weeks. The estimates ranged
from 110,000 to 150,000 instruments, with a tendency to favor an average figure of 125,000, or approximately
one piano per thousand of population.
All things considered, it is not likely that the figures are greatly out of the way. This fact alone should
be accepted as proof of the opportunities that lie before piano merchants and manufacturers to develop their
business to the point of normalcy, if nothing else.
If by energetic selling and publicity methods and by earnest attention to the problem of developing
musical appreciation, which is already being handled most successfully, the demand, and consequently the out-
put of pianos, can be doubled during the next year (the term pianos including players and reproducing pianos)
the next twelve months will be busy ones.
This is not an impossible proposition. It does not mean finding new fields for a product that has reached
the point of absorption. It does not mean the marketing of something which the public must be educated to use.
It simply means the capitalization of the present musical trend of the country and of the influence of the music
weeks, music memory contests and the other musical activities that have become such prominent factors in our
national life. • •
•
One piano per thousand of population is an almost unbelievably low average, but if it is correct the piano
merchant need only sell one piano to every five hundred of population during the coming year to double his busi-
ness—that is, on an average basis. When it is considered that in many States there is registered one automo-
bile to every seven of population the comparison is particularly discouraging. On such a basis, if one piano
were sold for every twenty automobiles owned in various communities, the volume of business coming into the
piano factories would be sufficient to stagger the trade and would serve to utilize to the utmost those facilities for
piano production which some manufacturers quote when asked regarding an average output.
Despite the prophecies, more or less serious, regarding unfavorable conditions which may develop in the
business world before the new year has grown old, there is no question but that any unfavorable developments
which may come will affect the music industry less than any other line of trade. The piano men have the distinct
advantages of now being free from excise taxes, having little, if any, excess stock to worry over in figuring
their inventories and of being in a position to go actively after business.
If the demand during 1922 means the doubling of the 1921 output of pianos and players it will not break
production records, but it will mean a business of most substantial proportions — really an average production
and sale of instruments during the year.