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NOVEMBER 13, 1926
The Music Trade Review
1925 Federal Talking Machine Census
Shows Period of Transition in Industry
Decrease Reported by Federal Authorities Largely Due to Liquidation of Old Stocks While
Waiting for the Advent of New Types Which Came on the Market This Year
ASHINGTON, D. C, November 8.—Ac-
cording to the report just issued by the
Bureau of the Census regarding the phonograph
industry as a part of the census of manufac-
tures for 1925, there was a decrease of 35.6 per
cent in the number of phonographs and 16.3
per cent in the number of records produced
last year as compared with 1923. Indicative of
price adjustments which may also be accepted
as reflecting the moves on the part of manufac-
turers to close out stocks of old style machines,
it is reported that the 1925 output of phono-
graphs was 60.4 per cent less in value than for
1923 and the value of records 26.3 per cent less.
The total value of the production of the
phonograph industry in 1925 was $61,057,147,
a decrease of 43.1 per cent from the 1923 total
of $107,311,265.
Only sixty-eight establishments were reported
in 1925, as compared with 111 in 1923. Four new
establishments were listed last year, but seven-
teen had gone out of business prior to 1925,
seventeen had switched from the phonograph
industry to other lines, six were idle during
the entire year and seven had an output of
less than $5,000, the biennial census including
only plants with a production in excess of that
sum. Of the sixty-eight establishments report-
ing last year, fifteen were located in Illinois,
seven each in New Jersey and New York, five
each in Indiana, Connecticut, Michigan and
Ohio, and the rest in seven other States of the
country.
The average number of wage earners em-
ployed in the industry declined from 20,491 in
1923 to 11,267 last year, and wage payments
declined from $24,969,685 to $14,144,955, a drop
of 45 per cent in employment and 43.4 per cent
in wages.
The cost of materials, including fuel, electric
power and containers, was $14,144,955 last year,
agajnst $24,969,685 in 1923, a drop of 45.1 per
cent. The value added by manufacture, the
value of products less cost of materials, was
$36,210,053, as compared with $62,060,938, a
decrease of 41.7 per cent.
A total of 642,015 phonographs, including dic-
tating machines, were produced last year, with
a total value of $22,613,009, as compared with
997,459, valued at $57,037,060, produced in 1923.
The number of records produced in 1925 was
82 ; 125,060, and their value $26,790,847, as com-
pared with 98,104,279, valued at $36,372,410, in
1923. The production of needles was valued at
$960,831, as compared with $1,464,064 in 1923,
a decrease of 34.4 per cent.
The value of cabinets produced increased 10.7
per cent, from $2,544,208 in 1923 to $2,816,718
last year. This does not include phonograph
cabinets made as secondary products by estab-
lishments classified in the furniture industry.
The production of other parts, however,
dropped 68.6 per cent, from $8,092,682' in 1923
to $2,543,384 last year.
Custom work and repairing to the value of
$295,583 was reported for 1925, a decrease of
27.6 per cent from 1923, when it totaled $407,-
998. The value of all other products reported
by the establishments in the industry, chiefly
radio sets, cabinets and parts, was $5,035,875,
an increase of 261.8 per cent over the $1,391,943
total of 1923.
St. Louis Better Business Bureau
Resumes Campaign on Piano Advertising
Organization in That City Charges Resumption of "Bait" Advertising in Advertisements Appear-
ing in Local Press—Knabe Ampico Featured in Concert With Artist
OT. LOUIS, MO., November 8.—Business was
^ not as good last week as it should have been
at most of the piano stores. It was a little
droopy, with no reason in the world for it. All
the omens were favorable. Wonderful Autumn
weather, but cool enough to stay home nights.
It seemed like just the right time for everybody
who ever expected to buy pianos to buy them,
but there were a good many who didn't. Well,
there's one good' thing about it, those who
didn't buy are still good prospects. Perhaps,
after all, it is just as well that they didn't all
buy last week. It would have made things bad
for this week.
They're at it again. Some of them. Advertis-
ing in a way that doesn't meet the approval of
the Better Business Bureau. It says so in an
advertisement of its own. "A year ago," it
reminds, "we found it necessary to publish a
number of advertisements to warn the public,
because of the persistence of a few piano mer-
chants in using questionable advertising and
sales tactics. Following our campaign certain
types of advertising disappeared for a consider-
able period. As the holidays approach we note
that some of the questionable copy is beginning
to appear again.
"When you read advertisements offering
player-pianos at $265, $295, and other surpris-
ingly low figures, and grand pianos at $345,
$385, etc., do not assume that all the advertisers
are anxious to sell you pianos at these prices.
If good pianos could be purchased at these
prices, many people would own them. Chal-
lenge the advertiser to produce a list of, say,
twelve pianos sold at the advertised price during
the past year. You would almost be safe in
making it five years. Surely anyone spending
thousands of dollars advertising some definite
article could be expected to sell that many.
Bring the list to this office to be verified.
"A former manager of a local store which
indulges in low-price advertising, and the
owners of which are generally blamed for its
prevalence in all cities where branches are
maintained, made a statement to this bureau
that during one year of his regime approx-
imately $48,000 was spent for advertising and
only one of the advertised pianos delivered.
Other former employes of this company have
also made statements tending to show that it
has been decidedly unpopular in that store to
sell the advertised article.
"It is not because the advertised article is not
always actually worth the price advertised that
we warn you—it is because it is apt to be so
hard to purchase it at the advertised price. It
may be worth much more, but the store depends
upon super salesmanship to 'switch' the buyer's
interest to a piano properly priced to allow the
desired profit. Perhaps the salesman demon-
strates the player with an undesirable roll of
music, or he jams the lever over to high speed
immediately so that the piano will hesitate and
appear faulty, or uses other tricks. Perhaps it
will be represented as a piano which the manu-
facturer will not guarantee.
"Don't be misled merely because the sales-
man lets you sign a contract. Insist upon deliv-
ery—getting it is sometimes a problem. We
have known of cases where the purchasers were
called and told that it had been discovered that
the sounding boards were cracked. We have
evidence of the* following: After being shown
the advertised piano customers were sold pianos
under different names at higher prices—these
pianos were identically the same as the adver-
tised piano with the exception of the names.
One firm, advertising as a manufacturer, handled
some instruments made by other concerns with
the advertiser's name stenciled on them in a
way to indicate 'that they were of their own
manufacture.
"Buy from the many dealers who advertise
prices which permit them to sell with good
grace. Look for the name of the manufacturer
cast in the plate. No matter from whom you
buy insist that the name of the manufacturer be
written into the contract, or on the bill of sale,
if you pay cash. Report all questionable inci-
dents to this bureau."
The Conroy Piano Co., finding itself crowded
for more room and no place to put additional
carloads of pianos that are on the way, is offer-
ing pianos at rock bottom prices rather than pay
temporary storage charges.
The Lehman Piano Co. is issuing a monthly
publication, Music in the Home, filled with orig-
inal special articles of an informative and edu-
cational nature. It carries no advertising except
a tasty Knabe announcement on the back cover.
Miss Ruth Lloyd Kinney, contralto soloist,
is in St. Louis this week giving concerts with
Knabe Ampico accompaniment in connection
with the Lehman Piano Co. She will appear
before the Advertising Club, at Loretta Acad-
emy, before the Monday Club of Webster
Groves and the Wednesday Club of East St.
Louis and before other organizations. She will
also give afternoon recitals at the Lehman
store.
A. L. Davis, who returned last week to the
Lehman Piano Co. organization after an ab-
sence, during which he was with the McLaugh-
lin Music Co., at Paducah, Ky., spent several
weeks visiting in Illinois before resuming work.
A. G. Bolts, assistant manager of the Colum-
bia Phonograph Co., has returned from a vaca-
tion hunting trip to Kansas.
Stuart Barrie, organist at the Ambassador
Theatre, visited the Wurlitzer store the other
day and played on the Wurlitzer grand. In it
he found "the same marvelous tonal qualities
and perfection in workmanship which is so
prevalent in the Wurlitzer organ."
Death of F. W. Michaelis
Fred W. Michaelis, prominent music dealer
of Hoboken, N. J., died recently at his home
at 225 Wegman Parkway. Mr. Michaelis has
conducted a successful music business at 281
Jackson avenue, in the Greenville section of the
city, for the past twelve years.
Lacey Music Co. Chartered
PEORIA, III., November 8.—The Lacey Music Co.,
424 Main street, this city, has been granted a
charter recently with a capital stock of $12,000.
The company will deal in musical instruments
and radio. The incorporators are Ethel Olander,
John M. Niehaus, Jr., and Martha Meyer.
Not With Chase-Hackley
The Chase-Hackley Piano Co., Muskegon,
Mich., advises the trade that W. C. Morgan is
not in the employ of the company and that it
will not be responsible for any of his actions.
Visits Columbia Offices
W. H. Lawton, manager of the Seattle,
Wash., branch of the Columbia Phonograph
Co., is in New York for a few days on a visit to
the executive offices of the company.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review.