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Music Trade Review

Issue: 1924 Vol. 78 N. 1

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
(Registered in the U. S. Patent Office)
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
President and Treasurer, C. L. Bill, 383 Madison Ave., New York; Vice-President,
J. B. Spillane, 383 Madison Ave., New York; Second Vice-President, Raymond Bill, 383
Madison Ave., New York; Secretary, Edward Lyman Bill, 383 Madison Ave., New York;
Assistant Secretary, L. E. Bowers; Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
RAY BILL, B. B. WILSON, BRAID WHITE, Associate Editors
WM. H. McCLEARY, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
FREDERICK G. SANDBLOM, Circulation Manager
BOSTON OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
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Telephone, Main 69S0
Telephone, Wabash 5242-5243.
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NEWS SERVICE IS SUPPLIED WEEKLY BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN T H E LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA
Published Every Saturday at 383 Madison 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.
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countries, $5.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, rates on request.
REMITTANCES, should be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill, Inc.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
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Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma.... Pan-American Exposition, 1901
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St. Louis Exposition, 1904
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TELEPHONES—VANDERBILT 2642-2643-2644-2645-2647-2648
Cable Address: "Elbill, New York"
Vol. LXXVIII
NEW YORK, JANUARY 5, 1924
No. 1
FINANCING AND THE YEAR'S PROGRESS
I
tity. In at least one case, a dealer with some $15,000 worth of
paper simply gave up the problem in disgust and disposed of his
business taking as its chief consideration for the time, effort and
money put into it, the instalment paper in his safe. He used this
income to keep him going until he got located in another line.
Capital is too valuable a factor in business to permit of its
being tied up with non-productive leases for any considerable time.
It is the turning over of capital two or three times at least each
year in the piano business that makes progress and profit. Financing
leases in one way or another is just as much the problem of the large
merchant as it is the small one, for the bigger the business the more
necessary it is to have the cash capital with which to operate.
T
Executive and Reportorial Staff
WESTERN DIVISION:
JANUARY 5, 1924
COUNTING ONLY THE CLOUDY DAYS
E. B. MUNCH, V. D. WALSH, EDWAHD VAN HARLINGEN, LEE ROBINSON,
THOS. W. BRESNAHAN, E. J. NEALY, C. R. TIGHE, FREDERICK B. DIEHL, A. J. NICKLIN,
A. FREDERICK CARTER
ARTHUR NEALY, Representative
REVIEW
N casting up his balance sheet for the year just closed the
average music merchant, if he has handled his proper volume
of sales during the fall months and the holiday season, is going
to find a very substantial quantity of lease paper in his safe and
much of his progress during the twelve months to come will de-
pend on just how he utilizes that paper.
The question of financing instalment paper is not merely, as
some appear to think, the question of doing business with a recog-
nized finance company. It means, as. a matter of fact, utilizing
that paper as an asset in meeting obligations and developing busi-
ness.
Paper that is kept in the safe, even though it bear interest
at 6 per cent or more, represents stagnant capital, and if the re-
tailer is going to allow that capital to remain dormant, or produc-
tive of only a small interest income, he might just as well put his
cash into guaranteed mortgage bonds and save the trouble of sell-
ing goods and worrying over merchandising problems.
Piano paper, as has been pointed out many times, is of the
soundest sort for the reason that when used as collateral it is
backed not only by the endorsement of the purchaser and of the
dealer but also by the value of the instrument itself, which can
be repossessed and resold should the contract obligations go by
default.
The retailers who are really successful and enjoy the proper
percentage of business growth are those who realize upon the
value of their paper as an asset either by liquidating their obli-
gations to manufacturers to a certain degree, by putting it up as
collateral with local banks in exchange for cash loans to be uti-
lized in business development, or by realizing upon it according
to any one of a number of financing plans.
The January totals give many dealers something worth think-
ing about in the matter of instalment leases in view of the heavy
selling done during the last three or four months of the year. There
have been instances where dealers have simply been forced to stand
practically pat in the matter of business progress until a suffi-
cient number of payments have been made on the paper in their
safes to allow the purchase of new stock in any considerable quan-
H E wind-up of 1923 for the music merchants appears to have
been generally satisfactory with a volume of business for
December that was limited in many cases by inability to get a
sufficient supply of instruments, particularly of low-priced pianos
and players and the high-priced reproducing instruments.
In a number of localities the opening days of the New Year
saw in stock only limited numbers of instruments, and most of
them of the medium grade. As it is, some retailers will be busy
for the next couple of months shipping to customers instruments
ordered before Christmas, but which will not be available from
the factory for some weeks to come.
The peculiar phase of the situation is that early in December
considerable complaint was heard in certain quarters regarding
slowness of business and, in fact, a falling off that was referred
to as a slump, yet, when the final summing up came, it was dis-
covered that even during the slow period the sales were at least
equal to and, in some cases, greater than those of the correspond-
ing period of the year before.
The results for the entire year should provide a lesson for
members of the retail trade who are inclined to be pessimistic as
soon as prospective buyers cease crowding the warerooms. There
have been those who, at the slightest apparent lull, have been in-
clined to curtail sales effort by cutting down advertising appro-
priations and, in some cases, reducing sales staffs.
In gauging business for 1924 it might be well for some of
the timid ones to compare the business of several months with
that of corresponding months of the previous year instead of bas-
ing their calculations on the sales of one or two particular weeks.
BANKERS FORESEE A GOOD YEAR
B
ANKERS as a rule are inclined to be more or less conserva-
tive in their prophesies regarding future trade developments
and seldom are they influenced to any great degree by the enthusi-
asm and, perhaps, excess optimism of those actually engaged in build-
ing up of an industry. When, therefore, the bankers, almost as
a body, declare that they foresee a prosperous year ahead of us,
particularly in view of the possibilities of the lifting of the tax
burden, the attitude is one calculated to lend encouragement to
those who are planning big things for months to come.
The increased value of crops, the improvement in the railroad
situation, the growth in home building, and the development of the
various basic industries during the year just closed are all taken
to presage a very prosperous condition throughout 1924. There are
little or no prospects of labor disturbances or other troubles to
upset the business world, and although there may, of course, be
unexpected developments that will halt progress temporarily, they
are not foreseen now, and it is seldom that any serious upsetting
of industry comes suddenly and out of a clear sky.
KEEPING UP THE TAX REDUCTION FIGHT
W
H E N Congress went into session on Thursday of this week
the members found piled on their desks numerous demands
from constituents for their support of the tax reducing program.
The pressure exerted thus far by the business interests of the
country has had its effect, and it is only by continuing that pres-
sure can satisfactory final action be secured. The members of
the music industry who desire relief both from general war taxes
and the several discriminatory levies against the trade will do
well to persist in their demands on their respective Congressmen
for the support of the tax reduction measure. A little pressure
now is better than much loud protesting later.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JANUARY 5,
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1924
THE POINT OF REVIEW
HIS, the beginning of a new year, has started with a sur-
T prisingly
large fund of optimism in the music industries, all
of which is justified by the facts. Pessimism and pianos seem
no longer to be a pair of alliterative twins, to judge by the gen-
eral opinion in the industry. And it is a good thing that they
have been separated, for more than once a crisis in the music
industries has been more or less "psychological," to use the phrase
to which former President Wilson once upon a time gave cur-
rency. A good many of us can still remember the piano man
who never saw a rift in the clouds, that is for quotation at any
rate, whose gloom was perennial and whose forebodings were
eternal. What joy he took out of constantly seeing the dark
side of things no one could ever fathom—perhaps it was the
satisfaction of having himself proved wrong, as more often than
not he was. At any rate his number are growing fewer and
fewer every year, until this year, even with a presidential cam-
paign staring him in the face, he is a difficult man to find. Which
is as it should be.
*
*
*
HERE is many a piano man who conceals hidden talents and
who, to the surprise of his friends in the industry, at some time
or other in his career, blushingly reveals them. Such a one is
John L. Cotter, of the Hallet & Davis Piano Co. Mr. Cotter
is known to all of us as a good piano man; in fact, one of the
best. But all these years he has been hiding from his many
friends in the industry no mean talent as a poet as well as a re-
markable ability to tell a story. Few suspected these hidden tal-
ents until Mr. Cotter blossomed forth as a full-fledged author
with "Facts and Fancies Along the Way," which gave the writer
a mighty pleasant hour in going through it. With becoming mod-
esty Mr. Cotter attributes the responsibility for his appearance
in print to his wife, Ruth Emily Cotter, and so his friends' thanks
are due to her. Mrs. Cotter is not only to be thanked but to be
congratulated, for poets are not so many among piano men that
the industry's literary ability should be hidden from view and
permitted to molder among old and forgotten accumulations of
papers. Mr. Cotter heads his little volume with an apology. It
only takes a few minutes' reading to discover that the apology
is quite unnecessary, for the facile and graceful pen that he wields
would do credit to a professional writer. Light verse, that is
good light verse, is a difficult thing to write and few succeed
where many are found wanting. But Mr. Cotter is not among
the latter, if the samples he has given us are to be taken as the
real type of his work. Those who have not been so fortunate
as to receive one of these little volumes have missed a rare treat,
all the more so since it contained such an element of surprise.
It is to be hoped that this is not the last of the work of Mr.
Cotter we shall see and, as the newspaper literary critics say:
"We look forward to his next effort with anticipation and
T
pleasure."
•
*
*
the 'seventies the silver cornet band used to be a leading
I N social
feature of every Middle Western town. To play in
the band was one of the greatest ambitions of the average young-
ster of that time, and never was he so happy as when he finally
marched down Main street tooting lustily at a cherished horn
and, in his opinion at least, the admired of all beholders. During
the past few years the same ambition seems once more to have
made its appearance with the result that today the average boy
and girl, too, for that matter, again vizualize themselves as fu-
ture Sousas or other famous bandmasters. All of which is bring-
ing scores of sales to the stores of the music merchants who have
been wise enough to handle these instruments on the proper basis.
Now the proper basis in this case means organizing the bands
themselves and, especially, children's bands. There is not a city or
town in the country where a youngsters' band can not be organ-
ized, provided someone is on the job to give the first impetus.
That is distinctly up to the music merchant himself and a good
many of them are succeeding in doing it and reaping the profits.
The Band Instrument Manufacturers' Association has done its
part in promoting the national contest which attracted so much
attention and which was so successful last year; it is up to the
individual merchant to do his part and create the bands which
are going to take part in the future contests of this type, for
they have been made an annual fixture. And here it might be
the proper thing to point out that Association work of any kind
is rarely of much use to the individual merchant unless he co-
operates to the greatest extent with the national work that is
being carried on.
*
*
*
ACK in the old days New York had a Piano Row in Union
Square, and there are still a good many members of the
trade who remember the hot competitive fights that took place in
the old warerooms that fronted on that open space. But like
most things in New York, the location was temporary and the
trend uptown soon became apparent. Fifth avenue in the Twenties
and then Fifth avenue in the Thirties and the Forties followed, and
now Fifty-seventh street, on the west side, has succeeded it. There is
one thing, however, noticeable in all this trend, and that is that one
house seemed to lead the procession. The piano executives who
had foresight enough to hold this place are those who have directed
the destinies of the House of Sohmer. From Fourteenth street
to Thirtieth street and from Thirtieth street to Fifty-seventh street
is the path this house has followed, and always first. Without plac-
ing too much confidence in speculation on the future, it seems now
that New York's Piano Row has found a permament home, for it
is unlikely that New York's best retail shopping section can go much
further north due to the physical limitations of the city's layout.
But it is a mighty good bet that, if at some future time, there is
another move, and there are chances for it since New York has
never been a city of permanencies and would lose much of its char-
acter if it were, that Sohmer & Co. will be found making the first
move once more.
*
*
*
EFIGHTING old battles is a tedious process, but it always has
to be done in the piano trade. Some time ago, after a hard-
fought battle, it was thought that the mania so many retail piano
dealers have to present the purchaser of a piano or player with
everything loose in the warerooms, had been effectually scotched,
but lo and behold! it has raised its head once more and evidently
the whole struggle has to be gone through with again. Why a cer-
tain type of piano dealer loves to pose as a philanthropist, at least
in his advertising, is beyond reason. He at least might leave that
reputation to Rockefeller, who can beat him hands down, and only
indulge in competition where he stands a chance of winning out.
But no; he prefers to dodge the good old competition that is based
on honest values and fair business methods, and confine himself
to competition in so-called "free gifts," which are anything but free
and anything but gifts, if the truth is to be told about them. It
may be confidently expected that some day a budding genius, which
has not yet come to flower, will startle the trade and the public with
an advertisement that if any young couple who have just been mar-
ried will buy a piano, he will willingly and, with great pleasure,
throw in the rest of the furniture for the loving little nest. It's a
wonder some philanthropic dealer has never hit on this idea, so
herewith we give the suggestion, absolutely gratis. In the mean-
time it seems that the trade might well once more begin a campaign
against the pernicious practice of "free gifts" and kill them off.
*
* *
ERHAPS in beginning this department an apology is due to its
elder brother further back in The Review, where happenings in
the Mid-West section of the music industries have been commented
on freely and happily for many years. Two commentators holding
forth weekly is perhaps more than this paper's readers can stand,
and possibly too ambitious a hope for this page ever to expect to
win the standing of its Mid-West brother. However, there is always
plenty of room for comment in the music industries, we say.
B
R
P
THE REVIEWER.

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