Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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,
. : B. Spillane, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Second Vice-President, Raymond Bill, 373
ourth Ave., New York; Secretary, Edward Lyman Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York;
Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
i
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
RAY BILL, B. B. WILSON, BRAID WHITE, Associate Editors
WM. H. McCLEARY, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
L. E. BOWERS, Circulation Manager
Executive and Reportorial Staff
E. B. MUNCH, ARTHUR NEALY, V. D. WALSH, EDWARD VAN HAKLINGKN, LEE ROBINSON,
Jos. A. MULDOON, THOS. A. BRESNAHAN, E. J. NEALY, C. R. TIGHE, A. J. NICKLIN
WESTERN DIVISION:
BOSTON O F F I C E :
Republic Bldg., 209 So. State St., Chicago
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Telephone, Wabash 5242-5243.
Telephone, Main 6950
LONDON, ENGLAND:
1 Gresham Buildings. Basinghall St., D. C.
N E W S S E R V I C E IS S U P P L I E D W E E K L Y BY OUR C O R R E S P O N D E N T S
LOCATED IN T H E L E A D I N G CITIES T H R O U G H O U T AMERICA
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
Entered as second-class matter September 10, 1892, at the post office at New York, N. Y.,
under the Act of March 3, 1879.
SUBSCRIPTION,United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada, $3.50; all other
countries, $5.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, rates on request.
REMITTANCES, should be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill, Inc.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal... Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma....Pan-American
Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal— Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
TELEPHONES—MADISON
SQUARE
5983-5983-5984-9458-7898-0620
Cable Address: "Klhlll, N e w York"
Vol. LXXVI
NEW YORK, MARCH 31, 1923
No. 13
A NEW POSITION IN RETAIL ORGANIZATIONS
NEW position is being gradually created in the modern music
A
dealer's organization. The man who fills it, for want of a
better name, may be called the music promotion man. His duties
are wide and varied, ranging all the way from promoting the local
concert course in the dealer's own city down to arranging for an
occasional reproducing piano demonstration concert with the instru-
ment that the dealer carries in his line. At any rate, all the general
promotion work carried out by the dealer is under his charge, and
in some cities where he exists he has become the most important
factor in their musical life.
It is a difficult position to fill. The man who does it adequately
must have a sharp commercial instinct and be able to keep it in the
background in all his work. He must be able to meet musicians on
their own ground, to discuss their art with them intelligently and
to be accepted as one of themselves. He must be able to work-
in harmony with those people interested in civic development, for
much musical promotion work to-day is closely linked with such
development. Finally, he must be able to enthuse both adults and
children to participate in making music and arouse this enthusiasm
among many who previously had no particular interest in it.
Yet, if the proper man is found, and that is an easier task than
is generally thought, he becomes one of the most valuable links in
the dealers' selling organization. For he is the man who works
constantly to create the demand and it is the salesman's job to fill
that demand so created.
SEPARATE USED-PIANO WAREROOMS
interesting angle on the used-piano situation is found in the
A N opening
in the past month or so of two warerooms under the
auspices of established piano houses of standing to be devoted
entirely to handling used pianos. The idea, of course, is to keep
those instruments off the main wareroom floor, away from the new
pianos, and thus make it possible for the main sales staff to devote
its attention entirely to turning over new stock.
The first of these used piano stores was opened some weeks
ago in Newark, N. J., by the Griffith Piano Co., which operates a
chain of retail piano houses in Newark and other cities in New
Jersey and Pennsylvania and does a very substantial annual busi-
MARCH 31, 1923
ness. Practically from the day of the opening the venture proved
satisfactory and the movement of used pianos has been steady. The
result has been that the main sales force has been relieved of the
used-piano problem, and that a class of purchasers has been appealed
to which ordinarily would hesitate to enter, a regular piano store and
risk having a new, and to them expensive, instrument sold them.
The Lyon & Healy venture is too new to warrant the passing
of judgment, but it is certain that this experiment of handling
used pianos separately and apart from new stock will be watched
with great interest by the trade in general. It is expected, of course,
that a store devoted entirely to the sale of used pianos will do some-
thing better than break even on the venture which should have
a direct effect on the granting of allowances.
ARBITRATION IN T H E MUSIC INDUSTRIES
N view of the earnest attention being given in many quarters to
I presented
the question of the arbitration of commercial disputes the report
on another page of The Review this week of the accom-
plishments of the Musical Supply Association of America in mak-
ing and carrying out plans for the arbitration of disputes in the
piano trade, particularly between the buyers and sellers of musical
supplies, is of particular interest.
The key to the situation, of course, lies in the adoption by the
Musical Supply Association of a standard acceptance of order
form, one of the provisions of which is that in cases of dispute the
questions involved shall be submitted to an arbitration committee of
three members, one selected by the buyer, one by the seller and
the third by the president of the Chamber of Commerce.
The wisdom of arbitration in the matter of commercial dis-
putes is so evident that it is hardly open to argument, and in many
cases the only difficulty appears to be some provision for a com-
mittee or board of arbitration that can consider the matters at
hand with some authority and render decisions that are just to both
interests involved.
It is claimed first, of course, that the chief argument in favor
of commercial arbitration is that it is calculated to save hundreds
of thousands of dollars each year in attorney and court fees, to
say nothing of much time that would otherwise be given to legal
conferences and court sessions. The big fact, however, that can-
not be overlooked under modern business standards is that arbitra-
tion serves to prevent development of enmities that almost invariably
grow out of extended, and very frequently ruinous, court actions.
In the adoption of the arbitration principle the Musical Sup-
ply Association is following out the recognized policy of modern
business—policies that break away from precedent and make for
economy and peace.
ELIMINATING COSTLY BANKRUPTCY FEES
OT so many years ago the circulation of a rumor in the piano
N
trade regarding the financial status of a concern known to be
not overstrong would call for a swooping down of creditors and
putting it through bankruptcy, with the attendant loss to creditors
in general.
Nowadays the policy is one of tolerance, and several cases
recently have served to prove the genuine wisdom of that principle,
for it has saved to the industry at least three concerns which,
were it not for the willingness of creditors to co-operate, would
most assuredly have landed in the bankruptcy courts, ruining them
and shaking the stability of the industry as a whole to a substantial
degree.
In all too many cases really sound concerns get into financial
difficulties through force of circumstances rather than their own
neglect, and it is a matter of common sense that the creditors of
the company, and others in the same, or associated, lines of business
are more qualified to straighten out the tangle and put the business
on its feet again than are a half dozen receivers or lawyers.
The policy of all for one and one for all in plain prose sounds
decidedly idealistic, but in the piano trade, and, for that matter,
several other industries, it has worked out excellently in practice.
There have been many bankruptcies, and some of them in
the piano industry, where the court fees have practically eaten up all
the assets of the bankrupt estate, to the detriment of both the cred-
itors and the concern going through this procedure. If the present
policy continues, a repetition of this condition will be impossible,
and to the benefit of all concerned.