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THE
104
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
J U N K 1.?, 1025
Convention of the National Association of Sheet Music Dealers
up of school children, who played instrumental
selections with a finesse that would have done
credit to grown-ups. The dramatic intensity of
the closing measures of the "Star Spangled
Banner" gave me a thrill that I have not experi-
enced for a long time.
If by the use of some magic carpet we, as
music publishers and music dealers, should find
ourselves years hence, when these children are
taking the places of men and women of to-day,
in the music business, we would, I believe, find
our present equipments and stocks wholly in-
adequate to meet demands, for it seems to me
the seed that has been sown and that is being
sown in the field of music, as exemplified by
these children, will bear results for the future
that we cannot realize. For we must remem-
ber every city in the country is making simi-
lar efforts and in many place the results are
even more impressive than those I witnessed
in Boston.
Now for the question of participation by the
sheet music trade in the activities of Music
Week, etc. Although results are slow in ma-
turing we should not be discouraged for the
culmination is bound to be immense. There is
a time honored saying: "In times of peace pre-
pare for war" and we can change that to meet
our own requirements and say: "In time of seed
sowing, prepare for harvest." Publishers by an-
ticipating needs and issuing music and books to
meet the demand of educators, and dealers, by
working every available avenue in their terri-
tories and by painstaking attention to personal
requirements, should secure all the orders from
music teachers and music lovers for their Old
Home Town.
Music publishers and music
dealers should amicably agree to work hand in
hand and shoulder to shoulder in an endeavor
to co-operate with National Music Week activ-
ities and in all other activities that have for
their objective better music in the schools, in
the home, in the studios, on the concert plat-
form and on the operatic stage, not forgetting
that Rome was not built in a day and that cul-
ture and refinement in music are worth striving
for and a desire for them must spring from
humble beginnings and be cultivated step by
step.
In closing I urge you to respect true prices.
You need every dollar of your income to build
for the future and to train and educate your
clerks. What I want to know is this: Are we
the captains of our souls and the masters of
our fate or are we going to submit meekly and
be dictated to by those who, influenced by fear
of consequences, do not dare to charge list
prices?
William C. Steere
' T * O the question: "Does radio broadcasting
tend to increase the sale of music?" I can
answer without hesitation, yes! In fact I can-
not well understand how there should be any
question about it. I realize, of course, that no
one dealer can answer this for the whole coun-
try, but on the other hand it is not likely that
our experience is different from that of all
others.
This side of the argument is best proven in
my opinion by the renewed demand that has
been created for old and almost forgotten num-
bers both vocal and instrumental. These older
numbers have received no publicity by either
publishers or performers in recent years and
their sale can only be ascribed to the radio.
This demand, however, is by no means con-
fined to the older pieces, but is as noticeable
in the case of new popular music as well as in
symphonic pieces for orchestra, piano solos,
etc. The expression by customers, "I heard
this last night on the radio," seems to have
become almost as common as remarks about
the weather.
Advertising and publicity are'almost synon-
ymous terms, and to deny the publicity value
of the radio in the music business would be
to condemn the whole theory of advertising as
it has been built up in the last fifty years.
I hope I may be pardoned a slight digression,
to look at another phase of this question. I
understand that popular music publishers claim
that there is not as much sheet music sold as
of the better class of songs that have been
formerly. This can doubtless be explained from
heard.
more than one angle, but I have a theory that
If "My Best Girl" "Sally" had not "Followed
T ^ H E question has been asked, "Does radio
one reason for it is that popular songs of the
The
Swallow"
to
"Spain"
and
left
me
"All
-^ broadcasting tend to increase the sale oi
present day do not hold a sufficiently wide ap-
music?" My answer to that question is em- Alone," or if "The Pal I Loved Had Not Stolen
the Gal I Loved" I might feel that I was mis- peal.
phatically Yes.
These songs, if I may so term them, are not
taken in my answer, but I am not.
In our section we do not have the opportunity
singable:
that is, they are dance tunes first and
of hearing and seeing the new shows, the big-
I really feel that the radio has done a great
songs afterward. As such they appeal only to
time vaudeville artists, nor the popular dance deal in creating an interest in and a demand for
the dancing element, which means largely the
orchestras, all of which contribute so much to music, that the artists who lend their talents
younger generation. A song, to be truly popu-
popularizing new music, especially the music of
to this end are making a good investment, and
lar, must appeal to all classes, and it should
the masses. In consequence of this the best
that the publisher and composer who does not
be obvious enough and simple enough to catch
'medium we have for getting the new songs, and stick too closely to the privileges granted him
the ear of the listener at one hearing.
bringing to the attention of the public the go- in the copyright laws will certainly reap the
It is a significant fact, I think, that the big-
ing numbers, is over the radio.
benefit from this kind of publicity, for radio
gest hits in the last few years have been the
does help to put it over.
Our counter calls for music heard over the
Such are my experiences so far as radio is simpler songs. It is also interesting to note
radio convince me that my answer to this ques-
tion is correct. The calls are not confined to concerned in increasing sheet music sales for that at all public gatherings where po'putar mu-
sic is sung or played, the music most in demand
the retail dealer.
the popular jazz numbers but embrace numbers
are the songs of a past era such as "The Good
Old Summertime," "Sweet Adeline," etc.
This is, I think, because they are popular
songs in the true sense of the word and because
the public can sing them and loves to sing
them.
Does Radio Broadcasting Tend to
Increase the Sales of Sheet Music?
J. B. Gressett
ENOCH & SONS
SUCCESSFUL SONG PUBLICATIONS
Daniel Wood
I HEARD YOU GO BY
Victor Record 1005, Sung by Frances Alda
Stanley Dickson
THANKS BE TO GOD
Victor Record 1059, Sung by John McCormack
COME TO THE FAIR
Easthope Martin
Sung by Paul Althouse. Marguerite Dalaney
Columbia Record, Florence Macbeth
OPEN THE DOOR SOFTLY
Herbert Hughes
Sung by John McCormack
SHEPHERDESS, THE
DERMOT MACMURROUGH
H. O. Osgood
Sung by John McCormack
IT'S A LONG WAY FROM SINGAPORE
JUST COUNT THE STARS
* J. Will Callahan and Frank H. Grey
A ballad that has become immediately popular
BRIDAL DAWN
Easthope Martin
A splendid wedding song Victor Record 1040, Sung by John McCormack
I PASSED BY YOUR WINDOW
May H. Brahe
The World-wide Success Q R S, DeLuxe and Ampico Roll's
Aeolian, Vocalion, Columbia, Edison, Pat he and Victor Records
ENOCH & SONS, 9 East 45th Street, New York
George B. Wiswell
* T H E question of whether radio broadcasting
*• tends to increase the sale of sheet music,
if answered quickly, would no doubt cause the
average dealer to say it surely does. As I pre-
sume my trade does not differ materially from
that of the average music store throughout the
country, and as I have stood behind my counter,
I have heard approximately 50 per cent of the
popular sheet music purchasers ask for "So-and-
so, I heard it over the Radio last night."
But after thinking of this question for some
time, I hesitate to say outright that it does
increase the sale of sheet music, for the reason
that I am sure we did not sell as many "Dream
Daddy," "Follow The Swallow" and "I'll See
You in My Dreams" as we did of "Missouri
Waltz," "Dardanella," "Margie," etc., which
were sold before the radio came to popularize,
so-to-speak, the numbers that are to go over
big.
Of course, then again, perhaps, we would not
have sold so many of the later numbers had it
not been for the radio. However, as my cash
register jingles to an average of $1000 yearly
increase in sheet music sales, I am willing to