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DECKMBER 27, 1924
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
15
Increasing the Demand for the Player
Piano Industry Represents the Remarkable Economic Phenomenon of Being a Static in Its Relation to the
Wealth and Population of the Market — Some of the Considerations Underlying This
Condition as They Relate to the Merchandising of the Player-Piano
NY one who has ever given his serious
thought to the problems of the player
business knows that one of the most im-
portant among them is the problem of increas-
ing consumption, the problem of forcing up the
..ales figures, of increasing the volume of busi-
ness. It is, of course, a commonplace to say
that in some sense just this is the problem of
every industry; yet in the present case there are
elements of special urgency which are to a large
extent peculiar, and not to be solved by any
process of reasoning from analogies presented
by other trades. In fact, there are really no
analogies" worth considering between the lead-
ing aspects of the sales problems in the piano
business and the same features of other indus-
tries.
The player end of the piano business, which
we shall here specially consider, differs from
the straight piano end chiefly in being more
attractive in one way and less attractive in
another. The player is more attractive in that
anyone can use it, and less attractive in that
it costs more money. We may, however, as-
sume for the present purpose that the two
factors cancel each other and that the ques-
tion of sales and of volume of business in the
player industry is on much the same level as
in all others within the same general field.
A Static Industry
It is one of the most curious facts of in-
dustrial history, and a constant wonder to the
statistician, that the sales of pianos and player-
pianos remain so nearly constant from year
to year. If we take the average of these sales
for the past twenty years we shall find that,
while the ratio of players to pianos has con-
stantly been approaching unity, the total sales
in numbers of instruments have never been far
below or far above the one average figure of
three hundred thousand per annum. During
the whole of this period there has only been
one year during which the number of items
made and sold has dropped below two hundred
thousand, and that was during the recent post-
war depression. On the other hand the num-
ber has never yet risen above four hundred
thousand, and the maximum was reached dur-
ing one twelve-month some fifteen years ago,
although the corrected figures for 1923 may
alter the statement.
In other words, the piano business has dif-
fered from most others in showing neither a
progressive decline nor a steady increase. It
has managed to continue in something like a
nearly stabilized condition year after year,
never falling as low as more active trades do
in the worst years or rising as high as these
others in years of great prosperity.
Now the player-piano is the piano of the
future, or rather it may be said more accurately
that the player-piano in its various forms will
divide the field with the grand piano, through
the next few years at least. It is therefore
of the utmost importance to gain some clear
notion of why, in spite of the undoubted
growth in the numbers of player-pianos as
compared with their "straight" fellows, the
total figures of the output of pianos are so
astonishingly stable. If the ordinary progress
were being registered, the number of player-
pianos sold should increase relatively to the
increase of population year by year as well as
relatively to the numbers of other pianos sold.
Why is it then that the player-piano, active
as its sales have been, does not sell much
more readily?
In cases like these one is usually safe in turn-
A
ing to history and trying to read from its pages
some valuable lesson to apply to present con-
ditions. Now history tells us that the player-
piano in its first days was "put upon the map"
of the piano trade and also impressed upon
the mentality of the people everywhere by the
elaborate and systematic efforts of the manu-
facturers, who, at first alone and in the face
of almost open hostility, demonstrated that
there was a genuine market for the new instru-
ment, and that this market could be expanded
by wise methods to almost any imaginable ex-
tent. No one who knows the history of the
period 1898-1908 will attempt to deny the truth
of this statement.
It was the work of the manufacturers that
ploughed and cultivated the ground in the first
place and when these men felt that they could
safely turn over the results of .their work to
the dealers they left a ground well tilled and
sown, showing all signs of being ready to bear
a fine crop. This too cannot be denied.
On the other hand, if we consider the his-
tory of the following ten years we cannot help
seeing that the slowness of the growth of the
player business during that time is to be at-
tributed to the fact that for the campaign of
exploitation was substituted a campaign of bar-
gain offerings. Instead of continuing to labor
to build up a quality idea in the public mind,
the trade believed that the best way to large
production and corresponding sales volume was
to be found in assuming that the public was
sufficiently sold on the whole idea of the
player to be ready to come into the market with
its money in great quantities if only prices
could be cut to something like moderate di-
mensions, nearer to the prices of ordinary
pianos. There can be no doubt that the trend
of invention and of mechanical progress within
the player trade, which permitted the quantity
production of player actions suited for any
make of piano, did much to bring about the
state of mind which favored the policy we
have described. Nor can it be denied that the
immediate result was to boost up the volume
of player business. The figures show the facts
beyond any doubt.
On the other hand, it has equally to be ad-
mitted that when the novelty had worn off,
the public did not continue to come into the
market with the early eagerness. There came
a slackening of volume, relatively to the growth
in population, and by degrees the trade found
it necessary to resort to new schemes to stimu-
late sales. All these newer schemes, however,
depended in one way or another upon the idea
of low prices as the principal magnetizing ele-
ment. All the contest schemes and other sales
stimulators have depended upon this bait.
And Yet It Has Not Worked!
Still, the volume of business has not increased
in accord with the registered increases either in
population or in public purchasing power. It
ought to be evident by now that the trade
has in reality been barking up the wrong tree
for some years.
It ought to be evident, that is to say, that
the trade has forgotten that the player-piano
was too revolutionary an invention to be taken
up by the public mind within four or five years.
Ten or fifteen years of steady exploitation
would have done the trick. But the player-
piano never had so much. Tt had only five
years of worth-while exploitation, and during
these it made for itself whatever position it
has since maintained. If it is to be built up
into the bigger, better position one expects for
it, then the sound, even if elderly, policy of
exploitation must again be brought forward.
That, one thinks, is the lesson of history.
A lot of time consumed and space occupied
in telling a very simple story, perhaps! Yet
if simplicity and even obviousness were guaran-
tees of attention and interest, there would be
no need to write this article, which indeed could
not have been written, for there would not
have been the present state of affairs to deal
with. It is because the plain lesson has gone
unheeded that one must speak in words, as it
were, of one syllable.
Let us get back, at the beginning of a new
year, to the old policy, to the old principle.
The field is white to the harvest, but the har-
vesters must use the appropriate tools if they
are to cut down the wheat cleanly and gather
it up neatly. The player business is crying out
once more for competent retail exploitation.
Its salvation will be there and nowhere else.
And exploitation means what it meant a quar-
ter century ago. It means selling the idea of
the player-piano as the one great music-bringcr
again to the people. It is an idea which no
event, inventions or development of the past
two decades has done aught to weaken. The
musical appeal of the player-piano is as power-
ful as ever; but even the most powerful weapon
rusts if it be disused, not to say misused.
Let us get back to the musical exploitation
of the player-piano.
New Organ Manufacturers
to Move to Portland, Ore.
William Wood Organ Co., Inc., Formerly Lo-
cated in Hillsboro, Ore., to Move Plant to
Portland and Expand Its Activities
PORTLAND, ORE., December 20.—The William
Wood Organ Co., Inc., with William Wood as
president, which was organized recently with
headquarters in Hillsboro, two miles from here,
has decided to move to Portland and has
leased a factory site at 101 Thirteenth street
and will move to its new location after the
first of the new year, and will be in a position
to construct organs of all sizes. The company
since starting in business has installed a num-
ber of organs in various parts of the Pacific
northwest and recently installed four instru-
ments in Hillsboro and in Portland at the Nob
Hill and Ideal Theatres. They are now instal-
ling a $14,000 organ at the new theatre at
Twenty-first and Hoyt streets, in Portland.
New Store in Woburn, Mass.
WOBURN, MASS., December 20.—A general music
store, called the Music & Novelty Shop, has
just been opened here by James J. Costello at
516 Main street. Mr. Costello is known to local
patrons as an actor, having appeared here last
season on the Keith circuit. His popularity as
an entertainer has drawn a consistent patronage
to his fnusic store.
Fox in New Quarters
SOUTH NORWALK, CONN., December 22.—New
quarters are to be taken soon by the Alfred
Fox Piano Co. at Marshall and North Main
streets. The new warerooms are being remod-
eled and will be ready for occupancy some time
in January.