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THE
JUNE 10, 1922
MUSTC TRADE
REVIEW
Fifth Annual Convention
of the
Music Industries Chamber of Commerce
New York City, June 5, 1922
The opening 1 session of the 1922 convention of
the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, the
first official meeting of Convention Week, opened
at the Hotel Commodore on Monday afternoon
with close to 200 members of the Chamber at-
tending the session and as many more at the
convention headquarters.
The businesslike spirit of the Jubilee Conven-
tion was early made evident in the rapid progress
made in handling the business of the Chamber,
which ran smoothly and strictly according to
schedule in the handling of the various reports
and talks.
The session served to reflect the accomplish-
ments of the Chamber during the past year and
something of the program for the future, the lat-
ter being embodied in the recommendations of
the Finance Committee fixing a budget of $103,-
000 for the Chamber's activities during the en-
suing year, as compared to a budget of $130,000
allowed for the Chamber during the year just
closed. The new budget is particularly interest-
ing in that it provides additional funds for car-
. rying on the work deemed most important, but
it is so carefully arranged that it is not likely to
curtail heavily any secondary activities. The
budget was presented to the various member As-
sociations during the week for their approval.
The meeting opened with the annual report of
the president of the Chamber, R. B. Aldcroftt,
who presided and who said:
argument for active support of the Chamber by
every member of the industry in the years to
come,
We can be proud of the way our united indus-
try has supported organization activities during
the past year in spite of hitherto unprecedented
business conditions. Not only has practically
every former supporter remained loyal, but more
members of the industry are now supporting the
Chamber than ever before.
What the Chamber Has Accomplished
The Chamber has carried on its regular activi-
ties with its usual effectiveness in spite of cur-
tailment of expenditures. The progress of the
National Bureau for the Advancement of Music
has been remarkable. However, from necessity
the Chamber has neglected to develop certain
important activities for which there is a demand
PRESIDENT ALDCROFTT'S REPORT
It is a great honor and pleasure to greet the
members of the music industry at our fifth annual
convention.
When we last met in convention general busi-
ness was in a deplorable state and our own in-
dustry was chaotic. We faced a year of great
uncertainty with the only certain factor being the
critical situation of our business. Business con-
ditions, it is true, are still far from normal and
the immediate future is to some extent uncer-
tain, but there is every indication that we face a
year of constant approach to prosperity. Music
merchants have to a large extent liquidated their
inventories. The production of the piano branch
of our industry since January 1 has been more
than double that of the similar period last year;
although it ought to be said that prices are far
from satisfactory.
The great wave of appreciation of music in
the home which is sweeping over our land fore-
casts a prosperous future for our industry. The
home building boom, which is now assuming
amazing proportions, assures us an early market
expansion, especially for pianos and phono-
graphs. Now is the time for optimism.
A Perplexing Year
Your Chamber has passed through a more crit-
ical and perplexing year, I dare say, than it will
ever meet again; yet it has been a year of success
such as few dared anticipate a year ago, when the
discriminatory 5 per cent music tax, which ap-
peared to be firmly entrenched in our Federal
revenue system, constituted a paralyzing influ-
ence on sales, sapped the cash resources of our
industry, and erroneously classed music as a non-
essential.
The winning of the tax fight will always be a
striking example of the power and possibilities
of our industry through wisely directed co-op-
erative effort, and will constitute unanswerable
Richard B. Aldcroftt
from our industry. Insofar as finances permit
during the coming year there should be:
1. An expansion of the activities for the pro-
motion of music.
2. Greater assistance to merchants in adver-
tising and selling plans.
3. A beginning in the way of constructive pub-
licity for the industry as distinct from music
promotion.
4. Gathering of statistics of the industry.
5. Stimulation of interest in Association activi-
ties through local meetings throughout the coun-
try addressed by representatives of the Chamber.
I recommend as soon as possible the Chamber
have one or more regular field representatives. In
this connection I cannot refrain from mentioning
the wonderfully beneficial trip of President De-
Foreest, of the Merchants' Association.
This is primarily a business session, and is held
first in order that members of the industry may
be informed of the work of the Chamber and
plans for the coming year before going into the
convention sessions of the individual Associa-
tions.
The Chamber and the Associations
The Chamber is the operating organization,
functioning every day in the year; its constitu-
ent members are the convention convening As-
sociations. Yet the relationship between the
Chamber and its member Associations from the
standpoint of the convention programs of these
Associations is very intimate; first, because it is
in the annual deliberations of the member Asso-
ciations that are crystallized the ideas of the in-
dustry with respect to matters which should have
the active attention of the Chamber; and, second,
because not a little of the routine work of the
Chamber results in important deliberations by its
member Associations sitting in convention.
Programs of Importance
As president of your Chamber 1 have, there-
fore, been especially gratified at the superior pro-
grams of this year's conventions, which not only
foreshadow new and important work for the
Chamber during the coming year, but reflect im-
portant activities which have been carried on
quietly by the Chamber throughout the past year.
Without detracting from other features of the
programs I mention particularly those parts of
the program of the National Association of
Music Merchants having to do with advertising,
which is both a result of the early development
of the Chamber's Trade Service Bureau and a
source of future work for it; and the delibera-
tions of the National Piano Manufacturers' Asso-
ciation and the Musical Supply Association of
America upon mutually vital questions of con-
tracts and credit.
More Co-operation Desirable
The federation of our national Associations in
their operating organization, the Chamber, is a
particularly effective form of organization for our
industry; and I am sure you will be gratified, as
I have been, to learn that the Chamber has been
the subject of study and approval by other indus-
tries during the year. However, our organization
is not complete, and I must emphasize now, as I
did a year ago, the fact that the smaller Asso-
ciations of the industry should become more
actively allied with the Chamber, particularly by
using the Chamber facilities in matters of im-
portance to their particular branches of the in-
dustry. I also suggest that the Chamber devote
more attention to co-operation with local Asso-
ciations and to assistance in their organization
and development, as they fill a real need.
As your retiring president, I desire to thank
you for the full and hearty co-operation which I
have always received, to give a word of apprecia-
tion of the effective and loyal work of our exec-
utive staff, and, above all, to express the convic-
tion that the past achievements of the Chamber
foreshadow a long and successful career in the
service of our great industry.
Next in order came the report of the general
manager and secretary of the Chamber, Alfred
L. Smith, who gave a detailed account of the activ-
ities of that organization during the year as
follows:
THE GENERAL MANAGER'S REPORT
The past year has been an exceedingly busy one
at the executive offices of your Chamber. For the
first six months there was the dual task of main-
taining the regular work for the advancement of
music and protection of the industry, and at the
same time pressing energetically the campaign
for the elimination of the discriminatory 5 per
cent music tax. In the Chamber's efforts to
arouse the industry to action and to educate the
general public to the harmful effects of the tax
on music and the home, all of its bureaus parti-
on page 11)