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THE
MILHC TRADE
VOL. LXXXI. No. 1
Published Every Satirday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. Jaly 4, 1925
Single Copies 10 Cent*
$8.00 Per Year
A. D. LaMotte Discusses Inexpensive
Players at Western Meeting
President of the Thearle Music Co., San Diego, Cal., Points Out Before the Convention of the Western
Music Trades Association Why the Low-Priced Player Has Suffered a Loss in Prestige and
Places the Responsibility on the False Methods of Merchandising Used to Sell It
T seems to me that my subject to-day should
be What is Wrong With the Inexpensive
Player-Piano? For everywhere I go I find
dealers complaining that the player-piano is not
meeting with the enthusiastic response from the
public that it did a few years ago.
In analyzing the situation the cause for this
growing apathy is very clear. On the one hand,
we have better player-pianos to-day than ever
before. They are better mechanically, but most
important of all, they are better musically. Im-
provements have been made from year to year
until the player-pianos of to-day are so con-
structed that most of them can be operated with
a very small amount of energy and still render
the very finest results. The player-piano is
really a musical instrument, capable of render-
ing music in a manner acceptable to the most
critical. The prices are favorable.
We all know that the public has a greater
buying ability, that there is more real wealth
in the country to-day than ever before. The
natural conclusion is that the business in the
inexpensive pJayer-piano should be increasing
month by month and year by year.
In carrying out the analysis, however, the
facts reveal that dealers complain they are sell-
ing fewer player-pianos. Their roll departments
are selling fewer rolls and the rolls selling are
mostly popular. There has been a falling off on
the part of player owners from the better class
of music to the cheaper, jazz type.
The situation seems quite contradictory. On
One hand we have better player-pianos, better
prices, instruments easier to operate, capable
of a higher degree of musical rendition; and on
the other hand we have a declining public in-
terest. It is obvious that something is wrong.
To me it is perfectly clear.
The Fallacy in Marketing
The fault lies with the manner in which the
player-piano has been marketed. The blame
for the present condition can be laid fairly at
the doors of the department stores, furniture
stores and those music stores who have felt that it
is necessary to emulate their methods of doing
business. I presume I will hurt somebody's
feelings, but I am going to tell you exactly
what I think and you can judge for yourself
whether I am right or wrong.
Personally, I am very sorry that the depart-
ment stores took up the marketing of musical
instruments because, as we know, the basis of
the department store method is always the price
I
appeal. Take up any of the dailies from the
great cities of the United States and read the
department store adve'rtisements—always price
concessions—marked down — sale — sale — sale.
Their selling psychology is trying to get people
A. D. La Motte
to act quickly. In other words, they are trying
to do the business to-day which they would
normally get to-morrow. It does not make a
great deal of difference in the average market-
ing of drygoods, clothing and other commodi-
ties handled by department stores, but as far as
the music business is concerned, the marketing
of musical instruments wholly and solely from
price appeal, unbusinesslike terms and the free
merchandise thrown in is ultimately going to
prove ruinous.
You all know the fable about the little boy
who always called "wolf." Finally, one day he
called "wolf" and everybody thought it was the
same old bluff and assistance did not come.
This department store type of advertising, ap-
plied to the music business, is like the constant
cry of "wolf." The public flock to it for a
while and after they learn that it is nothing out
of the ordinary—that they are not getting any
special values, but probably paying more—they
respond less and less, with a result that this
type of advertising 1 ultimately becomes ineffec-
tive and public interest even in the legitimate
purchase is gone.
This, however, is only the smallest part of
the damage done. The particular line of mer-
chandise which has been dragged through this
process is destined to suffer.
The History of a Sale
I want you to analyze with me just a minute
the average history af a player-piano purchased
at a certain type of department store sale. The
cheapest instrument it is possible to put to-
gether, marked up to $800, then down to $450,
with fifty free rolls of music, a free cabinet, a
free bench and free scarf; terms nothing down
and a dollar or two a week. The pianos are
delivered to the customers.
Why did they buy it? First, because they
thought they were buying a bargain. In reality
they were paying far more than the ordinary
one-priced music store would ask them for the
same thing—very much more, in fact. Their
second impulse to buy was the supposedly free
rolls, bench, cabinet, piano lamp, etc. And,
lastly, the fact that it required but a very small
amount of money each month or each week to
become the owner. In other words, the appeal
could be said to be entirely covered in three
fields. First—Bargain; Second—Terms; Third
—Free Goods.
The instrument is delivered to the home. The
purchaser, probably proud of the bargain and
of all the free things that were thrown in, plays
it, but with very unsatisfactory results. No
particular effort had been made to sell it as
a musical instrument; it was sold through an-
other appeal entirely. The result is that
the customer never gets out of the instrument
1 per cent of its real possibilities. He finds out
eventually that it wasn't such a bargain, that
his neighbors have bought at regular prices in-
struments which were better for less money. The
fact that he really didn't buy it as a musical in-
strument, and never has learned how to play
it, results in the fast waning interest, so, in a
few months' time, it simply stands in the house
unused.
A friend calls, possibly a prospective buyer,
and asks questions about the player. "Oh, we
never use it any more. Once in a while the
children play on it but we are tired of it." What
is the result? This unfortunate buyer of price,
free goods and terms has purchased no musical
satisfaction whatever and, in addition to this, is
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