Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
AUGUST 29, 1925
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Bridging the Big Gap in Present Day
Player-Piano Merchandising
A Simple and Direct Method by Which a Proper Appreciation of the Musical Capabilities of This In-
strument May Be Brought Directly Into the Homes of the People Who Already Own It—A New
Form of Co-operation Which, If Worked Out, Will Bring Dividends in Greater Sales
O dealer or manufacturer has yet been
found to argue against the sales value
of the foot-power player-piano upon
any ground other than the alleged difficulty of
playing it properly. Nor has any such person,
upon further examination, been found to main-
tain seriously that it is beyond the ability of
the retail trade to sell by demonstrating, that
is to say by showing the prospective owner the
simple trick of pedal control.
Nor has the
present writer even been able to discover a
man willing seriously to maintain that the best
way to sell player-pianos is any other way than
this.
In fact the argument is so obviously practical
that it is virtually impossible to find a flaw in
it. Every dealer will cheerfully admit that the
right way to sell a player-piano is to sell the
idea of what it will do; yet one finds dealers
complaining that they cannot do this practically,
that they cannot reduce to practice the prin-
ciples which they know to be correct. Dealers
admit sorrowfully that the public has not yet,
after twenty-five' years, any clear idea of what
a player-piano can give in the way of entertain-
ment, musical pleasures, music appreciation and
music education, to the man or woman for-
tunate enough to own one. The more acute
thinkers among the dealers bewail frequently
the gap between the capacities of the player
and the knowledge the public has of these.
Still one finds dealers unable to bridge this
gap successfully.
Conditions and Remedies
Now it usually happens that when a sufficient-
ly acute crisis looms up, ideas which in quieter
times are impatiently put aside as impracticable
are treated with more patient consideration, and
their possible merits more carefully investi-
gated.. Considering then that there is to-day
a general complaint about the selling qualities
of the foot-power player-piano, one may ven-
ture to make a suggestion which has perhaps
not yet had the attention it seems to merit.
It will be admitted without argument that
the worst feature of the player situation is the
state of public feeling. Hundreds of thousands
of player-pianos have been sold and supposedly
are in use. Apparently, however, owners in
general are the least enthusiastic of mortals.
They buy very little music after their initial
purchase; or if they have obtained an initial
"throw-in" in the shape of a box of rolls as
lagniappe with the purchase of the instrument,
they appear frequently to display a most regret-
table lack of any later desire to purchase fox-
trots, ballads or anything else. They say, when
any one takes the trouble to ask them, either
that the piano does not interest them any more,
or else that they cannot make it sound right.
In a word, they are decidedly short on enthusi-
asm; and often wonder if they can perchance
make an advantageous trade on a Ford car, a
radio set or something live of the kind.
The fact that these same people will undoubt-
edly be just as tired of the radio or of anything
else after they have possessed it for a few
months, has of course nothing to do with our
immediate case, save that it throws some light
upon the condition of our national culture.
The Player and National Culture
What, however, is important, in fact very im-
portant, is the fact of the player-piano's hav-
ing apparently failed to make a mark upon our
national culture. No one who knows what the
N
instrument will do, how easy it is to play, and
what an immense amount of sheer delight there
is in roaming through all musical literature by
its aid, will be willing to admit that this lack
of public interest is either natural or was rea-
sonably to have been expected. Rather will one
be inclined to the belief that every other avail-
able indication points to a constantly growing
interest in music throughout the land. It is
true that one can easily overestimate the value
of such indications; but at least they do not
point in the wrong direction. When therefore
we find that along with a growth in the right
direction there is an opposite tendency, in this
case away from interest in a means to music
which every one who understands it knows to
be unequaled in charm and interest as well as
in efficiency, it is evident that there is a serious
gap somewhere.
The Wide Gap
And so there is: a gap which we have our-
selves left by refusing to take the thing serious-
ly and by selling the player-piano as if it were
so much furniture, instead of selling it as every-
man's key to music. It is as if we advertised
and tried to sell membership in a golf club
without explaining what golf is, or automobiles
without a word about driving.
To preach to dealers is pretty much a waste
of time. They cannot or will not change their
tactics, at least so long as there is any chance
of getting along in the old bad ways. There
remain, however, two other interests to be con-
sidered, and it appears that these two may yet
save the situation. In a word, it is time to con-
sider what the manufacturers may do in co-op-
eration with the outside tuners and repairmen
to restore public interest in the player-piano,
and thereby build up, out of the existing body
of owners, new interest in music, new interest
in playing and new buying of music rolls; all
of which will inevitably and rapidly lead to new
sales of new player-pianos.
A New Co-operation
The manufacturers and the tuners are to-day
getting together on the whole question of tech-
nical service in the home. Is it not possible to
carry that co-operation a little further?
Let us just suppose that every tuner from
now onwards, whenever he has tuned and ad-
justed a player-piano, should make it his busi-
ness to play upon it, for the benefit and in the
presence of the owner, one or two pieces of
good (not "heavy") music. If such a practice
were inaugurated and a record kept of the facts
in each case thus treated during a year there
would come to light without doubt an immense
mass of information showing that the great
majority of the owners had never heard their
instrument sounding as a player-piano well
played can sound, before the tuner had thus
demonstrated it. And if, furthermore, every
such tuner should spend a few minutes in telling
his customers how to handle the levers and how
to work the pedals, so as to produce touch ef-
fects, what a world of new interest would be
worked up all over the country in a short time!
For it is not that the player-piano is at fault.
It is not that the player-piano is not what it is
claimed to be. It is not that the 'player-piano
is not fascinating, not alluring, not interesting
to the masses. The player-piano, in fact, is in-
teresting, is fascinating, is alluring, is all that
is claimed for it; but it is not able to get up
and tell the owners what to do with it, nor,
apparently, are the dealers willing to do that
necessary job. Hence the suggestion that it be
turned over to the men who know most about
the attitude of owners, who meet the family at
home, and who hear all the home scandal about
the player-piano frankly expressed.
Details to Be Worked Out
Here is an idea worth investigation. It is
obvious enough, and probably not new; but
it has never been worked out, never considered
in detail, never perhaps considered at all seri-
ously. Yet, with manufacturers and tuners co-
operating, and with the former running tech-
nical schools which the latter attend, is there
any great difficulty in figuring out an extension
of that work to include what might be called
aesthetics service?
Surely manufacturers of music rolls and of
player-pianos would be only too happy to co-
operate, to mutual material advantage.
Is this not worth looking into?
Gar Loadings Show Increase
Edwards Buys an Island
WASHINGTON, D. C, August 22.—Considerable
optimism in general business circles was caused
here this week with the announcement by the
American Railway Association that the week
ending August 8 was the largest so far in 1925
in the matter of car-loadings of revenue freight,
the total being 1,051,611 cars. It was also the
fourth consecutive week that loadings have ex-
ceeded the million-car mark. Trade analysts are
inclined to the view that this unprecedented
freight activity is one of the best barometers of
a business boom early in the Fall.
BUFFALO, N. Y., August 24.—Daniel M. Edwards,
head of E. W. Edwards & Sons, department
store in Buffalo, which has a large Victor and
Brunswick department, has purchased Dewey
Island, one of the beauty spots in the St. Law-
rence River. On the island he will build a Sum-
mer home. When it is completed, it is said it
will be one of the finest estates in the Alex-
andria Bay section according to the plans al-
ready drawn.
Take Part in Dollar Day
Although there is a noticeable improvement
in demand for the complete Haddorff line, the
Chicago office of the Haddorff Piano Co. re-
ports that the new style five foot four inch grand
is meeting with a wonderful reception on the
part of the trade. The approval for this type
of instrument is emphasized by the large num-
ber of orders that are being received, as well
as a number of testimonial letters praising the
instrument.
YOUNGSTOWN, O., August 24.—Seven Youngs-
town music stores co-operated with more than
a hundred other retail merchants of Youngs-
town in the staging of a Dollar Day Sales
event recently. All music stores listed a num-
ber of offerings at one dollar, mostly records,
player rolls and cheaper musical merchandise.
Dealers report good volume of sales.
New Style Haddorff Grand