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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
(Registered in the U. S. Patent Office)
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
President and Treasurer, C. L. Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Vice-President,
T. B. Spillane, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Second Vice-President, Raymond Bill, 373
Fourth Ave., New York; Secretary, Edward Lyman Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York;
Anistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
RAY BILL, B. B. WILSON, BRAID WHITE, Associate Editors
WILSON D. BUSH, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
L. E. BOWERS, Circulation Manager
Executive and Reportorial Stall
EDWAKD VAN HAKLINGEN, V. D. WALSH, E. B. MUNCH, LEE ROBINSON, C. R. TIGHE,
EDWAKD LYMAN BILL, SCOTT KING WILL, THOS. W. BRESNAHAN, A. J- NICKLIN
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Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
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tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning,
regulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos
I C l l l l U L d l W J I d l UllcillS are dealt with, will be found in another section of
this paper. W« also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
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Cable Address: "Elblll, New York"
Vol. LXXV
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 4, 1922
• No. 19
THE VALUE OF MUSIC MEMORY CONTESTS
F all the activities that come under the head of music advance-
O
ment work the most productive feature, from the standpoint
of direct results to music merchants, is the music memory contest,
and such contests have met with so much favor in many localities
that they have become established as annual features.
It is true that concerts and recitals and music week celebra-
tions are all calculated to spread a more general understanding of
music and its value throughout the land, but the music memory con-
test provides for the actual study of music, and the several hundred
people, young and old, who take part in the average contest will not
soon forget the musical facts which they have gleaned as a result of
that study. It means as a rule the seeking after more musical
knowledge even after the contest is ended.
The substantial character of the prizes offered in recent con-
tests affords additional proof of the importance of such movements.
In Detroit recently grand pianos to be selected by the winners were
given as major prizes, with talking machines and other musical
instruments as secondary prizes. In this manner direct attention
is called to the instruments that produce music as well as to music
itself.
The music merchant who does not connect himself in some
way directly with the music memory contest in his town is over-
looking a very good bet.
NOVEMBER 4, 1922
six decades. During that period the number of establishments in-
creased from 204 to 778; the wage earners from 2,331 to 68,741;
capital invested from $1,545,935 to $268,318,333, and the value of
the products from $2,580,715 to $320,905,149. An analysis in-
dicates that although the number of establishments increased less
than fourfold during the sixty year period, the invested capital in-
creased one hundred sixty-eight times and the value of the products
one hundred twenty-three times.
A very substantial part of this gain was made during the five
years from. 1914 to 1919, when, although the number of establish-
ments increased only from 737 to 778, the number of employes
jumped from 48,700 to 68,700; the invested capital from
$168,618,000 to $268,318,000, and the value of products from
$119,688,000 to a grand total of $320,900,000.
Those who take more or less pleasure in emphasizing the fact
that the music industry is either standing still or going ahead at a
snail's pace might study the foregoing figures with considerable
profit and, by comparing them with figures from other industries,
find much to provoke optimism.
SIGNS OF A HEALTHY CONDITION
ACH week The Review publishes numerous reports of new and
elaborate music stores opened in various localities and of
established stores that are being enlarged to take care of substantial
increases in business. This work of progress has been going on
for many months and even during the so-called period of depression
there were many retailers who had a suffcient faith in the future
to take advantage of the lull and enlarge their facilities and prepare
to handle the business in prospect.
The entrance of new merchants into the field and the growth
of the older houses is a matter of interest not only to those who are
making new moves but to the manufacturers who supply them and
to the trade at large, for it indicates a healthy condition, even
though post-war prosperity has been side-tracked temporarily, and
promises to bring that increase in distribution which is so essential
to the success of the producing branches of the industry in the
months to come.
The retailer, or for that matter the manufacturer, who is wait-
ing for conditions to return to normal is taking a long chance, for
the reason that the normal that we knew in 1914 and the years
preceding has passed by the board and there is fast developing a
new normal as a standard for future business calculations. In the
matter of expansion it is as dangerous to be over-conservative as it
is to be over-zealous. In the first place the competitors win out,
and in the second place the creditors frequently have occasion to
mourn. The middle course is for the individual who can see clearly
and weigh accurately-—in other words, the good business man—to
expand sanely according to existing conditions.
E
DEMAND GREATER THAN SUPPLY
from all over the country indicate continued and
R EPORTS
steady improvement in the business situation, particularly as
it affects the music industry. All kinds of musical instruments are
being sold readily and in substantial quantities and the problem in
most localities is apparently one of getting sufficient goods to take
care of the anticipated rush rather than of getting rid of goods
already on hand.
In various large manufacturing centers, such as Chicago,
Boston and New York, we find piano factories that were working
only part time during the Spring and Summer, or which were
closed down entirely for periods owing to lack of orders, now put-
ting forth every effort to produce enough instruments to take care
of current demands, to say nothing of the demands that are
anticipated.
It is a peculiar situation in that few of the factories are work-
STATISTICS WHICH SHOW REAL PROGRESS
ing to the capacity of their plants, due to inability to recruit their
HE complete figures of the census of 1919 covering musical
forces to the maximum on short notice. The situation is not a new
instruments, an advance analysis of which was published in
one, and has for some months been anticipated by the manufac-
The Review in August, have just been issued by the Department of
turers and, it is fair to say, by some dealers. The condition has
Commerce and afford much food for thought on the part of those
developed so frequently, however, even in years of subnormal busi-
who are interested in the development of the industry and gauge
ness, that it is about time that those who help create it by with-
that development by statistics.
holding orders until the last moment become cognizant of the fact
Of particular interest is the comparative summary for the and anticipate their requirements to a sufficient degree to keep the
combined industry covering the sixty years from 1849 to 1919, for musical instrument plants operating steadily throughout the year,
it gives some idea of what the trade has accomplished within those
and fully manned.
T