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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
MARCH 17, 1923
83
IKTKlrWORLD OF
CONDUCTED BY V. D. WALSH
LENTEN TIME WITHOUT EFFECT ON SHEET MUSIC SALES
Spring Season Promises to Be Best the Industry Has Enjoyed in Years—Record and Roll
Manufacturers Report Heavy Demands From Public—Popular Song Standards Improving
The Lenten season does not seem to have
affected the sale of popular music, which has
been-quite active since shortly after January 1.
From all indications the Spring season promises
to be the best in music publishing circles in
some years. The standard catalogs continue to
report gains in sales and, with the popular field
in such a healthy condition, the year should
be the best since the depression period.
From the publishers' and dealers' standpoint
there are several other angles that indicate
health and increased business in the music field.
For one thing, despite the fact that there are
several makes of records on the market ranging
in retail price from 35 cents up, all of them
seem to be thriving. This, of course, means
record royalties for the publishers and sales
for dealers. The player roll, too, which prob-
ably saw a low ebb in point of sales during the
year 1922, has come back to life with renewed
activity, some of the manufacturers reporting a
larger demand than present production will sat-
isfy. This, too, is a healthy situation all around.
The rise in wholesale prices of popular prints
and the consequent stabilization of the retail
prices favorable to the legitimate dealer are also
a new gain, the effects of which are only slightly
apparent at this writing. That the price situa-
tion has improved, however, there can be no
doubt and dealers are stocking sheet music
with an assurance of not only good movement,
but with a comfortable profit in the sales.
Probably the present situation is the most
healthy in the last decade. It is true that, dur-
ing the 1919-20 period, sales were heavy and
profits good. But the situation could not re-
main permanent through the fact that commer-
cial activities were going through the inflation
period.
It might also be added here that the music-
buying public is getting a better run for its
money. The present-day type of popular song
is of a better grade, a higher standard, than
was the case some two years ago. This, natu-
rally, gives satisfaction to the purchasing pub-
lic.
FOREIGN MUSICIANS CONCERNED OVER AMERICAN VOGUE
American Dance Music and Orchestras Hold Sway in Both France and England—Our Own Pub-
lishers Steadily Extending Their Work in Foreign Field to Increase the Demand
The popularity of the American fox-trot in
France has been a source of anxiety to native
musicians. However, they are in no worse pre-
dicament than those of England, where Ameri-
can music of the fox-trot order and the Ameri-
can orchestras hold sway. In England they
have not tried to fight the encroachment upon
what might be termed their preserves, but the
musicians and publishers there have accepted
American publications as timely money-makers.
According to the representative of an English
publishing house, who spent several weeks in
the United States recently, any protest would
have little effect, as the melodies have been
"sold" to the English public. The English mar-
ket is proving a profitable field for American
popular publishers who, prior to the war, had
found few or no sales in that country for their
works. Many things in the past have been
SONGS THAT SELL
Dealers who stock and display these
songs obtain gratifying results.
"THE LILAC TREE"
"HOME SWEET HOME
LULLABY"
"SOMEWHERE SOMEDAY"
"WHEN YOUR SHIP
COMES I N "
"IN THE AFTERGLOW"
Write for Special Introductory Offer
Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, Inc.
11 Union Square
New York City
blamed on the war, but the international recog-
nition of American music certainly was one of
the outcomes of the visit in Europe of two mil-
lion Americans and their musical organizations
with their songs and music.
Some of the American publishers, of course,
are well represented in England and, therefore,
have for some time past been receiving regular
dividends on the exploitation of American songs
here. Those who are not represented or feel
that they have not the be"st agents on the other
side are making haste to correct their errors.
The field is evidently so lucrative that a num-
ber of publishers are making trips or contem-
plating trips to Europe to close negotiations
for the more extended exploitation of their cat-
alogs.
When staid old England and the conservative
music-publishing houses of that country adopt
American methods and American music as a
profitable adjunct to the entertainment and busi-
ness of the country it might be wise for the
American retailer to consider those facts and
realize his opportunity for getting the most in
the way of profits out of the popular end of his
business. All too often heretofore the Ameri-
can retailer has looked upon popular sheet mu-
sic as a nuisance. Indeed, there are some stores
in the country that carry a full line of musical
goods and standard sheet music with no repre-
sentation or recognition to popular selections.
This would seem to be a narrow viewpoint and
an unbusinesslike attitude.
There is, of course, little or no relationship
between popular and standard music, although
quite often music buyers are interested in both.
The turning up of the nose and making no
effort to attract the popular enthusiast into the
store is certainly not a measure for the propa-
gation of better class music, whereas if every
effort was bent towards attracting the pur-
chasers of popular music into the establishment
the possibility of improving the individual's mu-
sical taste would be at hand.
Unquestionably the music-publishing business
is in a period of expansion that should bring
profit to both the dealer and publisher.
SONGS THAT SELL
You Know You Belong
to Somebody Else
(So Why Don't You Leave Me Alone ?)
Dearest
(You're the Nearest to My Heart)
You Tell Her—I Stutter
— Homesick
Open Your Arms, My Alabamy
Ivy (Cling to Me)
Choo Choo Blues
—
Some Day You'll Cry Over Someone
Some Little Someone
Every Wednesday Night
Come on Home
Down Among the Sleepy
Hills of Tennessee (new)
Don't Bring Me Posies
—
(It's Shoesles I Need)
Some Sunny Day
Truly
Just a Little Love Song
Yankee Doodle Blues
Early in the Morning (Bines)
Night
New Hampshire
Venetian Blues
Constantly
Kissing Time (Waltz)
—
Universal Dance Folio for 1923
IRVING BERLIN'S NEW
Music Box Revue
Crinoline Days
Lady of the Evening
Porcelain Maid
Pack Up Your Sins
—
and Go To The Devil
—
Will She Come From the East?
The Little Red Lacquer Cage
Bring On the Pepper
IRVING BERLIN, Inc.
1607 Broadway, New York
AL DUBIN WITH JACK MILLS, INC.
Al Dubin, well-known songwriter, formerly
on the writing staff of M. Witmark & Sons, is
now in charge of the special material depart-
ment of Jack Mills, Inc. He has also placed
in the Mills' catalog two new songs, one a
ballad entitled "Just the Kind of a Girl Men
Forget," and a novelty entitled "Broadway."
PUBLISHES NEWJRISH NUMBER
The Frank Williams Music Co., which re-
cently opened offices at the Gaiety Theatre
Building, New York, is the publisher of a new
ballad entitled "The Four-leaf Clover My
Mother Brought Over From Ireland."