Music Trade Review

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VOL. LXXXI. No. 19
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Published Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. Nov. 7, 1925
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New York Program of Merchants'
Ass'n Meets Organization Crisis
Growing Strength of Local Association Movement in Retail Music Trade Must Be Utilized by National
Body if It Is to Become Truly Representative of the Retail Section of Industry—
Affiliation Must Bring Tangible Results for Local Bodies in the Future
H E National Association of Music Mer-
chants to-day is confronting a crisis in
its organization. Upon the attitude which
its executives adopt between now and the next
national meeting in June depends its future as
a constructive force in the music trade. The
problem which faces them is essentially one of
co-ordination and development, one which will
require careful thought and consideration, and
one which has been forced upon them largely
by the logic of events which have necessitated
its solution.
The local, State or sectional association has
become a power in the trade. Those bodies
to-day are assuming a position which tends
steadily to overshadow the national organiza-
tion in its importance. This trend will continue
unless the affiliation which the national body
has offered to the local bodies and which has
been accepted by them, becomes an affiliation
in fact and not a mere honorary connection
which brings nothing in its train.
The national body, as existing at the present
time, is checked in its efficiency by its very
organization. No organization can properly
represent 5,800 music dealers through individual
memberships. It cannot meet and deal properly
with the trade's problems through a single an-
nual meeting. It cannot contribute information
for the solution of the individual dealer's diffi-
culties through a casual discussion of such ques-
tions as collections, trade-ins, etc., before a
meeting that rarely has more than fifty or
sixty present. The function of the national
association is to deal with the broad, general
problems of distribution, the relations between
manufacturers and dealers, and it cannot do this
properly unless it is really representative of
the men for whom it presumes to speak. Its
true function is to take action on the things
which have already been threshed out by the
local association, through a meeting of dele-
gates from those associations where they exist,
and representative dealers from sections where
such associations have not yet been formed.
And another of its functions is to organize such
associations, for the growth of the latter con-
tribute an element of strength to it which can
be obtained in no other way.
There is nothing new in all this. The facts
have been known for years in the trade. But
the association itself, while recognizing them,
has officially taken no real action to develop
T
them. Its membership campaigns in the past
have largely been designed to increase individ-
ual memberships; and they have been failures.
Not an average of one music merchant in five is
to-day a member of the national association.
Thus it can be seen how important it is that
a change of policy be adopted.
The executive activities of the national asso-
ciation now center in the offices of the Music
r
HE program recently adopted at the
meeting of the executives of the Na-
tional Association of Music Merchants in
New York for closer affiliation with the local
trade organizations confronts those charged
with the development of National Associa-
tion by a task of no small magnitude. Energy
and work are needed if this program is to
'take tangible shape and make the National
Association truly representative of the trade,
and a factor for its benefit. It is to be hoped
the Association's executives will meet this
task with energy and
promptitude—Editor.
Industries Chamber of Commerce, along with
those of the other associations of the industry.
This action is a step in the right direction.
The Chamber has, or should have, the facilities
to carry out this important task of reorganiza-
tion. To-day it is probably the most impor-
tant work which confronts the executives of
that organization. What is needed is less talk
and more action; less theorizing and more work;
less praise of the association idea and more
accomplishment.
This condition is shown in the trade itself.
The resolutions passed at the recent Ohio and
Illinois meetings are a true reflection of
what the local associations feel. They want re-
sults and they are entitled to results from their
affiliation. The national can speak with more
power than any State or sectional body to pro-
tect the merchants' interests; if it refuses to
speak it is the weakest element in the entire
trade situation, a detriment rather than an aid.
Then it defeats its own purpose.
At the recent meeting of the executive board
in New York all these facts were given con-
sideration and a program outlined to place the
association on a new basis. But it will require
more than outlining a program to waken the
enthusiasm of the trade. A good many of them
remember the program of the past which called
for the services of a paid organizer to develop
local association work and which never got any
further than the paper upon which it was
written. The case has gone so far now that
tangible action is the only thing which can
mean a real development of value of the entire
association idea.
All that has been said here is a true reflec-
tion of how the average merchant feels on this
subject. The retail music trade at the present
time needs organization and a majority of the
retail music merchants recognize it. The work
which the music merchants must do can only be
done along that line. It is idle to talk of exten-
sive programs for the development of music
work among the children of the country, for in-
stance, unless the trade itself is nationally or-
ganized so that its full power may be brought
behind the move. Without that something may
be accomplished, it is true, but at best it can
only be partial in its scope, and will require an
expense and energy which the trade does not
possess.
The value of co-ordination lias been proven
by the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce
which gave the wide and varied interests of the
different branches of the music industries a
solidity of purpose and an efficiency of action,
which have proven their value in the series of
crises which the music industries have had to
meet in the past ten years. The National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants itself should be a
similar co-ordinating body, representing not less
than one-fifth of the music merchants of the
country, but at least a majority of them. Its
office should be a clearing house for the activ-
ities of the local associations. Its annual meet-
ings should be a gathering of music merchants
who each is not present on his own indi-
vidual responsibility, but who is a delegate rep-
resenting his fellow merchants and thus, as a
duty, must be present at every session protect-
ing and developing the interests of, to use a
political term, his constituents. Only by that
method will the scandal of sessions of the Na-
tional Association of Music Merchants consist-
(Continucd on page 13)