Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
VOL. LXXV. No. 24
FMEffl
Published Every Satirday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 373 4th Ave., New York, N. Y.
Dec. 9, 1922
Single Copies 10 Cents
«2.00 Per Tear
SIIIKI!IKiliXII!XIIIKIIIKIllKlilKi!IM!IIKIIIKIII«lll«!O
Looking Forward to Greater Accomplishments
•
" " ' "
•
JKIIIKIIIKIIiKIIIKIIiKIIIKItlSIIIKIIIKIIIKIIIKIIIKIIIM
IEWING it from every angle 1922 has been a good year for the music industry—a year
during which there has been completed such liquidation as has been necessary in the trade,
and a year that has seen business returned to a near normal basis. The prospects are that
the benefits realized by the industry during the past few months will continue during the
coming year, with business on a sound and steady basis.
There are those who are, and will be, disappointed with the results realized during the
year coming to a close—those who predicted a return to what was considered normal business of the good
old days, but these for the most part are optimists without foresight. The wiser business men have long
ago realized that normal business as it was known prior to 1914 will not be seen again for many years, if
ever, and that the goal at present is a new normal providing for sound, profitable business, carried on
steadily on a basis of new price levels and new methods.
Fixed predictions for the future are dangerous, but every indication points to a condition of business
throughout 1923 that will prove most satisfactory to all members of the industry who take proper cog-
nizance of the new situation and profit by it. Manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, almost without
exception, as witnessed by the reports from the trade in every section of the country published elsewhere,
view the immediate future with assurance and confidence, and that confidence is emphasized by the move-
ments that have been made by numerous retail houses to expand and improve their establishments with a
view to handling properly a greater volume of business.
One of the unfortunate features of the music trade during the past few months of the year, when a
scarcity of instruments of all kinds was in prospect and in many cases actually existed, was the widespread
reversion to pre-war terms or less, it being no unusual thing to see advertised instalment terms covering
a period of ftfur years or more.
It is very likely that a number of those who have ignored the writing on the wall and done business
on an extraordinarily long-time basis will not find 1923 to their liking for the reason that they will have
much of their capital tied up in long-time leases, and will not be able to realize the necessary rapidity of
turnover that spells profit.
From a financial as well as from the business angle, the year has been a kindly one to the industry
. as a whole, for although there have been a few names added to the business obituary list, the proportion
has been very small and in practically every case disaster has been due to poor and unwise management
rather than to existent conditions.
So far as can be foreseen the problem of the New Year will be that of reorganizing the working-
forces in the piano factories and keeping those forces intact so far as possible throughout the year in an
effort to keep production at a regular and substantial figure. It is generally recognized that the practice
of disorganizing factory staffs during periods of slack demand and then seeking to recruit them again
during busy periods is an unsatisfactory and expensive process.
The problem is a real one and affects every branch of the trade, for when the retailer is unable at
certain seasons to get sufficient instruments to meet local demands he suffers a loss of profit and, through
the intermittent activity of factories, pays his share of an excessive overhead that is excessive because it is
unbalanced.
Not in a number of years have the prospects for the coming twelve months been quite so bright as
(Continued on page 5)