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JUNE
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
17, 1922
MUSIC PUBLISHING THE GREATEST
ADVERTISING BUSINESS IN THE WORLD
The Successful Exploitation of a Popular Song Entails the Use of More Avenues of
Publicity Than Does Any Other Line of Commercial Activity
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlllllllllllllH
It is not generally recognized that the suc-
cessful publishing of popular music is the greatest
advertising business in the world and even the
majority of the music publishers themselves are
not aware of this fact. A fact it is, nevertheless,
and an indisputable one.
That such is the case is responsible for the
fact that advertising experts have been unable to
any great extent to interest music publishers in
their various schemes of giving publicity to or
exploiting songs. Any idea that an advertising
man might present can be but supplementary to
the usual methods of exploiting a song through
the use of singers and orchestras.
Naturally, in this gigantic business, and it is
gigantic when one considers the speed and rapid-
ity with which a number is made known from
coast to coast, the song must have merit. That
is fundamentally true of all advertising, be it a
bar of soap, a tooth powder or a new motor car.
A song, however, having merit and that indefin-
able something that appeals to the public is in a
position by itself for gathering publicity, sales
momentum and making itself nationally known,
often internationally known.
With all due respect to our friends in the ad-
vertising business, if the products they are now
putting over or have put over on a national scale
were adaptable to the same means of exploita-
tion it would be unnecessary to have advertising
agents. At least, all their work would be sup-
plementary and the smaller revenues from that
sort of business would not recompense the brains
of present-day advertising organizations.
At times it has been said that the release of
rolls and records after a given number has gained
the ascendancy as a sales creator is of assist-
ance in adding to the total sales of the song. But
these products, too, are supplementary. In-
variably they are released after the sheet music
has been on the market for some weeks; the
public's pulse has been felt and the professional
singers and orchestras have been shown to favor
the song or instrumental selection, in other
words, after the song has won a certain measure
of popularity.
The popular publisher, considering his profits
and the capitalization of his organization, is still
a persistent advertiser. He has, at one time or
another, tried practically all mediums of pub-
licity and in most cases he has found them want-
ing. All of them were absolute failures with the
exception of such instances where the funda-
mental work of giving publicity to the numbers
through professional channels was previously
carried out.
There have been instances where the daily
papers have tried to inveigle the publisher to use
their columns regularly. Some of them have even
gone so far as to open special departments on a
weekly or monthly basis to exploit new or cur-
rent works. Invariably, after a few weeks' trial,
these proved failures because there was no sub-
stantial return. Car cards have been used with-
out result as far as sales are concerned and vari-
ous other channels of publicity have been tried
with discouraging returns to the publisher.
The mere displaying of a title in a newspaper,
magazine, car card or other medium does not
sell sheet music, and there is really no reason for
their use with the exception of special drives,
limited campaigns or sales plans along such lines.
Some years ago a publisher who is well known
for his advertising expenditures carried a series
of ads in some well-known magazines. All of
his campaigns were a success because the num-
bers were specially selected and meritorious and
he received the support of both the trade and the
public. However, in one of his campaigns, using
national mediums, he made mention in a con-
spicuous way of two numbers, which, while good,
did not have behind them the energies of his
professional and orchestra departments. These
two numbers were supposed to ride on the suc-
cess of two other songs advertised in the same
copy, both of which, however, had in a short
time become nationally known. We have not
the exact figures on this particular campaign, but
we do know it to be a fact that the two num-
bers without the aid of the professional and or-
chestra departments did not prove sellers of any
magnitude.
We know of another publisher who selected
the city of Philadelphia for a special campaign.
He sent to that city one of his best salesmen; he
had the support of the entire trade; window dis-
plays were profusely given and all the usual
angles were covered. Attached to the staff of the
salesman was a well-known newspaper advertis-
ing writer, one who could write clever catch lines
and who had a record for composing advertising
copy that pulled. The campaign was not a com-
plete failure, but it did not justify the expense
and the publisher was cured of such innovations.
It is a matter of history that a certain chain
of newspapers throughout several seasons had
on a royalty basis engaged themselves to several
different publishers, each at different periods, and
they proposed and did by illustration and stories
link up song titles in their news columns. In
practically every instance the paper selected num-
bers that the publisher was already working on
and, while, no doubt, the additional publicity
given the numbers through these papers added
somewhat to the sales total, the increase was
not substantial enough to recompense the pub-
lisher for the royalty outlay given for this serv-
ice.
These songs had originally been selected
by the professional departments of the publishers
for exploitation and their sales would have
reached large figures without any outside aid.
The following season the newspapers were in-
formed that the arrangement of the preceding
year could continue, but that the newspaper sup-
port could be only upon songs in the publishers'
catalog upon which the publishers' own depart-
ments were not working. This was not accept-
able to the newspapers and they forthwith of-
fered their services to a smaller publisher on the
basis of their past arrangements. The smaller
publisher, naturally, took kindly to the idea, as
he was a new entry into the field, and any pub-
licity, no matter from what source, was accept-
able. He, too, however, in one short season
found the costs too great for the service.
Probably no other way will be found to give
a song greater publicity than the method of hav-
ing it sung or played. In the most depressed
periods of the history of the music business a
song frequently sung and played sells. During
April and part of the month of May of this year
was probably a period when sales were as low
as they ever were in music publishing experience.
But the hits sold and at least two or three of
them on a scale larger than had been attained by
any number during the past twenty months.
There recently appeared in these columns an
article which was a resume of the history of ex-
ploiting songs through the aid of motion pic-
tures. Several successes were given in this his-
tory, but in each case the songs so exploited in
that manner would have been successful by the
usual methods. And then, too, it must be remem-
bered that the real publicity for the number was
by the exhibitor's orchestra and the motion pic-
ture, after all, was only supplementary publicity.
There no doubt can be many ideas devised
and arranged for supplementing a publisher's
advertising. The song, however, must always
have merit and at no time must the fundamentals
that make a song a success be overlooked. Play-
(C on tinned on page 7)
Don y t Be Without These Hits—The Demand Is Increasing Fast
RIO NIGHTS
AFTER TODAY YOU'LL REALIZE
Wonderful Hawaiian Waltz Song
Atlantic City's
Biggest
Fox-Trot
Craze
.......
LONELY
1
Great Dance Number—Fox-Trot
ONE LITTLE WORD
Wonderful Melody and Lyric—Fox-Trot
56 W. 45th Street
A. J. STASNY MUSIC CO.
New York