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SEPTEMBER 6,
1924
THE MUSIC TRADE
37
REVIEW
IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC PUBLISHING
Conducted By V. D. Walsh
How Direct Demonstrations Can Be Made
Pay Direct Profits to Music Dealers
E. C. Mills, Chairman of the Board, Music Publishers' Protective Association, Points Out They
Are a Direct Means of Greater Sales, But Must Be Under Control of the Dealer
T N the Music Trade Review, issue of August
*• 23, under the caption "Paid Demonstrations
Properly Handled Are a Direct Means of In-
creasing Sales," appears an article commenting
upon the abandonment by the "popular" pub-
lishers of their one-time policy of sending
demonstrators, singly and in crews, around the
country to demonstrate their songs at the music
counters of dealers.
The article is sound and accurate in its
premises, and beyond any question of doubt a
great and noticeable stimulus to the business
of any sheet music department occurs imme-
diately the store arranges for singing and play-
ing demonstrations, more or less continuously
throughout the day.
In fact, such a demonstration is to a music
store what the "ballyhoo" is to a circus. It
attracts custom for all departments-of the store;
brings people in to listen who remain to buy,
often not only in the sheet music department,
but in the piano, phonograph and other musical
instrument departments.
The sound of singing and piano playing in a
store will bring many passers-by to a dead halt
on the sidewalk in front of that store; they
pause, stroll in to listen, to buy, and very likely,
if properly, promptly and courteously served,
to become permanent patrons of the store.
During noon or luncheon hours especially do
crowds gather around such demonstrations; if
the department is placed toward the rear of
the store the listeners are drawn past the dis-
plays of other musical instruments, contact is
established between the merchant's selling staff
and the public, and he is "dumb" indeed if he
does not profit substantially thereby.
I know of no other business, running year in
and year out, for which there is available such
an excellent opportunity of "cashing in" on
passing crowds, and the great value of this
medium is daily evidenced by the use made of
it by the large chain and syndicate stores which
would not think of abandoning their singing
and playing demonstrations.
But, unless
demonstrating is properly supervised and in-
telligently done, it may work an even greater
harm than good.
First, it is essential to choose the demon-
strating staff with care. At the piano is needed
a quick and versatile reader and a convincing
player. At the counter, singing and selling, a
winning voice and magnetic personality, as well
as a quick thinker, must be had. Two pleasant,
smiling, good-natured persons, working in har-
mony, adapting their offerings to the mood of
the crowd, passing from song to song in reason-
ably quick succession, giving all of the current
popular compositions an equal "break," with an
assistant clerk, able now and then to "chime in,"
perhaps, with a little close harmony as occasion
offers, passing music of the number being sung
up and down the counter where the listeners
can pick it up, scan and buy it, rolling, wrapping
and selling to the merry undertone of the cash
register's bell, will pay mighty big dividends
on what they cost the dealer.
Second, the demonstrating staff must be
trained to sell the entire counter; not to empha-
size in their demonstrations the publications of
any one publisher, but the whole counter; with
the emphasis, if any, upon music which has
been purchased but seems to be moving slowly.
Third, keep the tone of the demonstrations
up to a high standard; discourage any inclina-
tion upon the part of listeners to make the
counter a rendezvous for clandestine meetings
and that sort of stuff; don't permit the singers
to be "shouters"; on the contrary, "make 'em
listen"; as well as preserving a better tone for
the activity this will save the singers' voices—
a six or seven hour day of singing is mighty
hard on them.
Fourth, don't expect the publishers to pay for
your demonstrators. Of course, this will look
as though we were trying to save the publishers
money. On the contrary, it is the dealers'money
we save. If the publishers furnish the demon-
strators, or pay any part of their cost, those
that do so will expect their particular songs
to be "plugged." If particular songs or catalogs
are plugged and not the entire counter, the
dealer's turnover will be limited to that catalog,
and soon he will find himself with a lot of dead
stock on hand. Too, he will soon find that in
competition, publishers will be subsidizing his
employes and the end is chaos, confusion and
loss.
A demonstrating staff, properly organized and
intelligently supervised, will pay any dealer in
a good location who has a constant passing
{Continued on page 39)
SONGS THAT SELL
—
What'H 1 Do?
Charley, My Boy
Driftwood
Red Hot Mamma
Lazy
I Can't Get the One I Want
Oh, Baby (Don't Say No Say Maybe)
Mindin' My Business
She's Everybody's Sweetheart
Old Familiar Faces
Nobody Loves You Like 1 Do
Nobody's Child
Where Is That Old Girl of Mine?
—
—
Cover Me Up With the Sunshine of
Virginia
Indiana Moon
Morning (Won't You Ever Come 'Round)
(New)
No One Knows What It's All About
(New)
Come Back to Me (When They Throw
You Down) (New)
Superstitious Blues (New)
Dance Folio No. 7
X Universal
Special Edition
Peterson's Ukulele Method
World's Favorite Songs
Lundin'a Tenor Banjo Method
—
Song Gems Irom Irving Berlin's Third Annual
MUSIC BOX REVUE
—
An Orange Grove in California
The Waltz of Long Ago
Little Butterfly
Learn to Do the Strut
Outstanding Song Hits from
TOPSY and EVA
Rememb'ring
I Never Had a Mammy
IRVING BERLIN, Inc.
1607 Broadway, New York
WHY
LIVE
Mante