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APRFL 18, 1925
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
What the Piano Industry Needs Today
Theodore P. Brown, President of the Simplex Player-Action Co., and a Veteran in the Development of the
Player and Reproducing Piano, Analyzes the Problems C o n f r o n t i n g the Trade at the
Present Time and Presents a Series of Remedies for Their Solution
CONTINUOUS career of forty years in
the piano trade, a career that is still ac-
tive and full of promise, well qualifies
Theodore P. Brown, founder of the Simplex
Player Action Co., to review the developments
that have taken place in the music industry as
a whole and offer prophesies as "to how the
latest of these developments may
affect the industry.
Mr. Brown has seen the first
type of piano player, or rather
player-piano, viewed with despair
by some piano dealers who saw in
it the death knell of their trade.
As a matter of fact, it proved in
a sense a rejuvenator. Then came
the talking machine which also
caused endless worry, but that,
too, proved chiefly a business
builder. Now the speculation con-
cerns the radio.
In the matter of the player-piano
Mr. Brown was distinctly a pio-
neer, and it is recorded that he ac-
tually produced one of these in-
struments some years before the
cabinet player came into vogue,
making it under a patent applied
for in April, 1896, and issued in
April, 1897.
Mr. Brown engaged in the manu-
facture of the cabinet player and
from 1900 to 1905 the Brown &
Simpson Co., and its successor,
the Simplex Player Co., manufac-
tured thousands of these instru-
ments which received the endorse-
ment of many prominent artists
and were handled by agencies in
many foreign countries. In these
same years Mr. Brown was granted
no less than seventy patents relat-
ing to player actions, particularly
of the type designed for installa-
tion within the piano case.
It was in 1914 that the Simplex
Player Action Co. presented to the
trade Mr. Brown's new unit player
action in which was incorporated
the simplified four-piece valve; the
demand for this action was so great that factory
additions were necessary to take care of it.
About this time, too, came the reproducing
piano; but instead of rushing into the new field
Mr. Brown made many careful experiments
with a view to developing a reproducing player
action that would measure up to Simplex stan-
dards. The latest development of all this work
is the new Simplex reproducing grand mechan-
ism of the unitary drawer type structure.
In his trade career Mr. Brown has repre-
sented a curious combination of progressive and
conservative—progressive in the visualizing of
future possibilities, and capitalizing them, but
conservative in the matter of rushing into these
new fields until experiments had shown the
right way.
Incidentally Mr. Brown has full faith in the
future of the piano industry and confidence in
the fact that any setbacks are simply of a tem-
porary nature. In this connection, he said:
"There is no doubt that the piano industry
has been seriously affected by the present mob
psychology of the public in relation to radio.
This infection is not only manifested as applied
to the buying public, but also the retail music
dealer, with a result that the dealer, taking the
lines of least resistance, has devoted his atten-
A
tion in a large measure to the sale of radio
(which at the present time does not require
canvassing) and has neglected his close appli-
cation to the canvassing of piano sales. This
condition of affairs, so far as the dealer is con-
cerned, cannot help but be transitory, for within
the next sixty or ninety days he will find a
Theodore P. Brown
decided slump in radio, which has heretofore
always dropped off in the Summer months. He
will then find that all his competitors, including
the hardware stores, grocery stores, peanut
stands, etc., are slashing prices in radios, with
a result that the dealer will have to get out and
either closely canvass radio sales, or return to
his old love, the piano industry.
"It is true that the piano industry must be
progressive if it is going to maintain the public
interest in its activities, and it is with this
thought in mind that the Simplex Co. has pre-
sented to the trade this new reproducing mech-
anism above referred to. The small reproduc-
ing grand at a moderate price should do more
than anything else to stimulate the buying pub-
lic in pianos, and this stimulus will not only
increase an interest in grand pianos and player-
grands, but will also stimulate the sale of regu-
lar players. It is quite true that many people
who would have purchased player-pianos during
the past year purchased radio, but it is equally
true that the purchase of a radio set will not
permanently hinder the individual from ulti-
mately purchasing a player-piano.
"Progressive piano dealers will do well to
realize that the new small reproducing grand at
a popular price unlocks the door to hundreds of
prospects which he otherwise could not reach.
Every dealer who keeps accurate records of his
sales should find it comparatively easy to find
hundreds of individuals to whom he has sold
instruments of some sort during the last ten
years, and he will find on investigation that in
the majority of cases these are live prospects
for one of the new reproducing grands.
"His advertising should be planned in a man-
ner to cause the readers to feel that unless they
have in their homes a baby grand reproducing
player-piano they arc out of style and not up-
to-date. It is safe to assume that at least thirty
per cent of the automobiles that are bought on
a trade-in are so bought because the owner
wants his car to be up-to-date in style, appear-
ance, etc., rather than that the car he has been
driving is worn out or really needs replacing.
"The piano industry will do well to cash in
on this psychology of the buying public and
the sooner the advertisers in our industry fol-
low these lines and drop the price cutting ap-
peal, the more quickly will it offset the present
mob psychology in reference to 'radio. The
price cutting appeal tends to give the public the
idea that the piano industry is bankrupt, does
not create a fundamental public demand, but
simply guides a prospective purchaser to some
particular wareroom. Accordingly this type of
advertising could be called a selfish form and
must in the ultimate sense completely demoral-
ize the industry, for as a man thinketh, so is he,
and as an industry thinketh, so is it, whereas
the type of advertising referred to above is
more in the form of a public-spirited work
which tends to build the commonwealth.
"Another point it is well to remember in this
connection is that advertising should be educa-
tional, and would do well to point out facts such
as the following: The piano industry is pro-
gressive; that the piano is the fundamental in-
strument of the musical world; that the piano
is the universal medium of musical expression;
the piano has done or docs more than any other
instrument to put music in the home, and keep
the children round the fireside; the piano has
been the foundation of most young people's
musical education; both the player-piano and
the reproducing piano have enabled every mem-
ber of the family to get their particular kind of
enjoyment out of a given instrument, whether it
is the education of the child, or the relaxing in-
fluence of the music for the older members of
the family; then, the reproducing piano opens
up an entirely new line of educational propa-
ganda. The reproducing piano perpetuates the
art of the virtuoso for future generations. The
reproducing piano unlike the radio and phono-
graph, or any other instrument, is not an in-
strument of imitation, but one of exact repro-
duction, inasmuch as the same medium of the
artist, namely, the piano, reproduces the same
pure tones with the same values that the artist
has brought forth. This is not true of the radio
or phonograph and while we should not do any-
thing to discourage the sale of the radio or
phonograph, we should educate the public to
realize that while these instruments have a place
in the home, they cannot replace or displace the
fundamental instrument which produces full
tone values without static or other contortions
of the tone values."
Mr. Brown is of the opinion that necessity
will force the Musical Industries Chamber of
Commerce and other leading bodies in the in-
dustry to unitedly tackle these basic problems,
and the results achieved will prove conclusively
(Continued on page 9)