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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JUNE 24, 1922
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Did anyone discover during the conventions
any way of selling music rolls which does not
involve either price inducements or indirect
methods of some other kind? We did not hear
of anyone performing this feat and so must con-
clude that the music roll industry will have to
get along for another year without seeing any
miracles specially performed for its benefit. Per-
haps, now that the members of the National As-
sociation of Music Merchants have returned to
their stores, it will not be out of order to make
some remarks about selling music rolls in hot
or other weather.
As a starter we should say that we do not pre-
cisely envy the man who, never before having
taken an interest in the subject, suddenly finds
that he must busy himself with getting up a
campaign for music roll selling. His is not an
enviable task. If every music merchant in the
country had to-day to get up a campaign to in-
terest the public in music rolls, how many, think
you, would have any clear notion of how to set
about the task? Very few, we imagine.
This, of course, is all because the music roll is
the stepchild of the music industries. Depend-
ing wholly upon a mother who has neglected it,
a mother married to a trade which philanders
from one favorite to another, never staying home
long enough to get to know the family, the music
roll has had a bad time of it. The player-piano
has been a careless mother and the music trade
an indifferent stepfather. Poor Music Roll!
What Our Rivals Do
How do talking machine merchants sell rec-
ords? The records are just as much dependent
upon the talking machine and just as little able
to stand by themselves. The answer is simple:
the talking machine men demonstrate. They
A Good
Electric
Piano Roll
tell the people, through the medium of the rec-
ords themselves, how good those records are.
They demonstrate all day and every day. They
advertise. And their own advertising is backed
by the powerful, compelling national advertis-
ing of the makers. What is the consequence?
The talking machine record, far more than the
talking machine, is the money-maker and the big
seller in the talking machine industry. Of
course it is. And so, in fact, should be the music
roll.
For it needs little wisdom to see that the talk-
ing machine business would be a very -small bus-
iness if all the energy of retail dealers was put
into selling machines, and none left over for rec-
ords. Yet just that is what we find in the player
business. We do all our advertising and put all
our energy behind the instrument. We talk tech-
nical points and construction and prices and
terms till you can't rest; and then at the very
end, if we are so fortunate as to make a sale,
we throw in some music rolls and forget it. Nice
sort of salesmanship, isn't it?
Cart and Horse
Did it ever occur to our music merchants
that they are putting the cart before the horse?
Instead of directing the attention of the cus-
tomer to the player-piano, why not make all the
merchandising revolve around the music roll;
which is to say, around the music itself? Instead
of advertising a player-piano in the same spirit
and almost the same language as would be em-
ployed for a kitchen range, why not talk only
music, listing prominently the monthly bulletins
of music rolls, inviting everybody in to try them
over, and so working up sentiment in favor of
the musical side of the player-piano? If once a
man or woman has been won over to the idea of
music as embodied in the roll there will be no
difficulty in selling instruments. But when the
attempt is concentrated on the instrument it" is
first of all necessary to get away out of the
prospect's mind the bogy of high price and the
general unwillingness to make what looks like a
large investment. Then, further, when the sale
has been made, the prospect is at best only half
sold on the musical side of the deal. That
customer must then be sold all over again on the
ZEPHIR IS
AIRTIGHT LEATHER
Unsurpassed for Pouches and Pneumatics
JUUUS SCHM1D, Inc.,
costs more than an inferior
roll but it earns so many
more nickels that in the
end it is the wisest invest-
ment.
Try a CLARK ORCHES-
TRA ROLL for results.
WHITE, SON CO.
Manufacturer! of
ORGAN AND PLAYER-PIANO
LEATHERS
530-540 Atlantic Are., BOSTON, MASS.
PLAYER--ORGAN--PIANO
LEATHERS
A Specialty of Pneumatic Leather*
T. L LUTKINS, Inc.**
NEW TOR*
music roll. Which, by the way, is a part of the
performance usually quite neglected.
.
M
Change the Spirit
Of course the music roll market is not in a
healthy state! How on earth should it be, in
the circumstances? Change the spirit of the mer-
chandising policy, get the horse in front of the
cart, sell the roll first and the player second,
and then we shall see the changes for the better.
Here is something for the music roll men to
take up with the retail music merchants.
AEOLIAN CO.
The Duo-Art offerings for July are, naturally,
light-hearted from beginning to end. There is
just now neither need nor demand for anything
calculated to make the brow pale with thought.
The present lot is just jolly good-humored music,
for singing, dancing and listening to. No more
comment, in fact, is needed on this list save to
say that the last three numbers bear some con-
solation for those who, like ourselves, sometimes
get tired of the "snappy stuff" when it comes in
very large doses.
Composer
Title
Played by
Donaldson—Sweet Indiana Home—Fox-trot and Song-
roll
Akst
Donaldson—Bamboo Bay—Fox-trot and Song-roll
Banta
Hanley—Gee! But I Hate to Go Home Alone—Fox-
trot and Song-roll
. Banta
Liszt—The Nightingale (Le Rossignol)
Beebe
Bennett—Elfin Dance No. 4, "Mother Goose Suite,"
Bennett
{Continued on page 12)
IDEAL
WO
FID
ROLL
O1512
75c
THE QUALITY ROLL
THE R05E VALLEY MU/ICG>
551H.ST.MO HUNTtR AVE.
PA.
Additional Income for
Tuners and Repair
Departments
W e can supply you
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Simplex Player Action Co.
Worcester, Mass.