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THE
REVIEW
VOL. LXXIX. No. 11 Pmblished Every SaUrday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. Sept. 13, 1924 * l **H&°$£ £° eacrent8
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The Radio Department During This Fall
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H E radio department in the retail music store is no longer an experiment. Its development has been
rapid, its merchandising- problems are being solved, and it has taken its rank as an essential part of the
general retail music store.
Experience has shown that those in the music industries who saw in radio's rapid popularity a
menace to the musical instrument per se were entirely mistaken in their analysis of the situation, for in what-
ever depression that may have existed during the past several months the music industries suffered in common
with all other industries. That was caused entirely by conditions extraneous to the internal organization of
the industry. With the turn that has come during the past thirty days, this situation has been clarified beyond
the necessity of any further evidence.
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No better indication of the essentiality of the radio department to the retail music store has been given
than the attitude on this question taken by Sherman, Clay & Co., the big Pacific Coast musical merchandise
firm. Early in the Spring, when interviewed on their attitude towards radio, its officials stated to The Review
that it was entirely one of waiting for future developments in this field, that they were not yet ready to act,
and that their activities would depend on the trend of events.
On September 1 this house announced the formation of a radio department, retail in its branch stores
and wholesale in its San Francisco headquarters. The move was made after long- study of the field, a
thorough appreciation of the relation of radio to the distribution of musical instruments and the development
of confidence in the future stability of this industry, as well as a warranted belief that the inevitable fluctua-
tions of any industry in rapid genesis had been left behind.
This big Pacific Coast house is no exception to the general rule in the retail music trades at the present
time. The past Summer has seen an extremely rapid development in this direction, music house after music
house announcing the establishment of such a department as well as further development of those already es-
tablished. Merchandising is rapidly becoming standardized, service problems, which were the first big obstacle,
have been solved, and the fear of competition with lines already carried has been removed, by the realization
that radio is not competitive with other musical instruments in the average home, but purely supplementary.
The coming Fall months will see actually the first real radio selling campaigns carried out by the retail
music merchant. So far as the efficiency of these is concerned, the selling problem involved is so similar to
that of musical instruments of comparatively large unit values that the music merchant starts with a fund of
information and experience which should leave that element without question. The average music merchant
will sell the radio receiving unit as purely and simply a means of home entertainment, the appeal which is
efficient with by far the largest class of its possible purchasers, and the one which, through the selling methods
necessary, will eliminate at least 50 per cent of future service problems. This is no sweeping statement, since
in several radio departments where this method of selling is consistently followed the reaction on the service
demanded by purchasers has created exactly this effect.
A second important development in the retail music merchant's radio department has been a clear com-
prehension of the financing side of the sale. Unwarranted terms, which were found extremely often in the early
days of experimentation, have practically disappeared after a few disastrous experiences, and today the aver-
age radio set which is sold upon instalments is sold with a proper down payment, and'the average contract pays
out within a reasonably short time. Radio financing thus presents no difficulty once these ideas are firmly im-
planted in the selling organization.
Best of all, the music merchant no longer regards himself as being forced into handling radio because of
the competitive factor. Today the department stands « i iis ^wn--4»e4li^it&-^ame as the piano department,
the talking machine department, the musical merchandise department, or any other section of the store.