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The Music Trade Review
40
YOU
CAN'T
GO
JVHONG
WITH
DECEMBER 25, 1926
ANY
FEIST'
SONG/
I YE GOT
THE GIRL
WALTER DONALDSONS
New Fox T r o t Son
and "flowers," including probably several hun-
dred "rose" soygs. The average writer gets
his inspiration from such themes, so naturally
the duplication of thoughts is fairly frequent.
There have been some popular offerings that
Federal Body Said to Be Quietly Digging Into Similarity or Duplication of Titles in the Music were close enough in title and musical charac-
Publishing Field—The Work of tie Publishers Along These Lines
ter to create confusion. The publishers, how-
ever, are the sufferers because the life of
TT is understood the Federal Trade Commis- both the trade and the purchasing public, which popular songs is so short that profits must be
•'• sion has been quietly carrying on an inquiry follow all their orders for titles with the name taken almost immediately. If there is duplica-
concerning the similarity or duplication of of the composer. In the standard field there tion the time is too short to make proper
popular song titles. Songs with title of too are as many as forty and fifty titles in various d stinctions. Therefore, the loss in profits.
great a similarity generally kill off themselves catalogs that always must be designated by the
The Music Publishers' Protective Association
and no matter how good the melodies, only composer in order to make clear just which Bureau of Registry, which tends to eliminate
have a limited sale. Therefore, there is already title the purchaser has in mind. This is not a duplicate titles, has done some fine work. It
a penalty attached to numbers of this charac- hardship because the. business has been operated may not be perfect, but it is unlikely that any
ter.
along these lines for many years and the whole other method can be devised that would answer
Several years ago the Music Publishers' Pro- title situation in the standard field is generally so well. The present inquiry, if it does any-
thing at all, might again impress every one
tective Association organized a registry bureau, understood.
making possible the recording of titles and
There are said to be 20,000 compositions with the importance of titles and the inadvis-
proposed titles. To a great extent this bureau copyrighted each year. Doubtless the most of ability of offering similar titles to the purchas-
of the Association has been successful in ihese carry titles "of mother," "home," "love" ing public.
eliminating duplicate or closely similar titles, so
there are already two channels which discourage
the publishing of popular songs that closely
resemble each other in titles.
Titles themselves cannot be copyrighted, al-
though words and melodies, of course, can and
are protected by the copyright office. There Popular Publishing Perhaps Suffering from the Release of Too Many Titles to a Certain Extent
is such a thing, however, as unfair competition
—The Group Sale Plan in the Popular Field
and doubtless where a number has achieved
wide success and was imposed • upon by TPHE year as a whole has been a very active situation in like manner tends to bring about a
a similar title by a competitive publisher legal
•*• one for both the popular and standard surplus of goods, more than the public can
action could be taken. There is no record of branches of the sheet music industry. During assimilate in one season.
any recent necessity of such action being felt the late weeks of November and the holiday
Popular publishers have tried somewhat to
by opposition publishers.
pe.iod that followed popular sales, however, offset present-day conditions by encouraging re-
The Music Publishers' Protective Association have been a little below normal. There is tailers to sell songs in groups of three for $1.
Title Registry Bureau goes somewhat further nothing, however, of a permanent character This is a measure which, when carried out on a
than the mere registering of titles. When titles about this and it is really only the record of the national scale, should send up sales totals to a
have served their usefulness for one publisher popular industry which has for the past several higher than present volume. The industry,
it makes possible the reviving of such titles years had frequent ascending and descending however, has not had 100 per cent co-operation
for future use. Of course, if such titles receive demand. .
in carrying out this idea. The sales measure
wide distinction and become indelibly impressed
It probably will be a long period before the of this character, together with the intensive ex-
• m the purchasing public's mind, protection popular sheet music industry attains a more ploitation of worth-while songs, would do much
would still be accorded the original copyright balanced yearly business, first, because the merit to lure customers into music stores and limit
owner. This bureau has other advantages, such and appeal of the songs issued each season are sales resistance.
as that of arbitrating differences that arise the criterion and, second, because there are
One thing is certain when sales are slow, and
among competing publishers on the use of titles. numerous other factors which affect popular that is, the issuance of more songs does not im-
There are numerous cases where release to sales. When songs sold at ten cents per copy prove the problem. In such an event it is no
title rights is given. Working fairly closely the syndicate stores that did most of the busi- time for retrenching as far as exploitation
together, the members of the organization can ness were handling so much merchandise. Nor methods are concerned, but it would be worth
easily come to a fair and amicable agreement. at that time were there so many outside factors while to see the effect of more intensive ex-
No wise publisher cares to put his money that tended to limit popular sales. To-day ploitation on fewer offerings. In an abnormal
in song titles that are likely to be closely the popular music business is evidently looked period where the publisher continues 100 per
duplicated elsewhere. It costs real money to upon as a luxury. As such it will receive treat- cent activities on a restricted number of songs
exploit popular songs and create widespread ment accordingly. It has, however, so many it should, at least, result in keeping his organ-
interest in sales. Therefore, there is too much things in its favor that it is often able to break ization intact and still make profits. This would
of a gamble in issuing songs that have not a down all sales resistance and this accounts for allow a "breathing spell" and the retention of
free road to public acceptance.
the rise and fall in the scale of sales.
the full organization, which would be in a posi-
From time immemorial there has been
In these days of specialization and concen- tion to extend itself further when sales were
duplication of song titles. This is a situation that tration the sales resistance in presenting this again ascending.
has long been recognized, and particularly in luxury would be far less if there were a more
the standard field, where numbers live for many, restricted output. This may not be brought
The Leiter Music Co., of Syracuse, N. Y.,
many years, the situation could hardly be other- about because each publisher feels that his cata- has opened a branch in the Weber Building,
wise. In the case of standard numbers, log is of worthy caliber and should produce Carthage, N. Y., with Carlton Miller, of Syra-
however, this situation has been simplified by its quota of sales. All publishers viewing the cuse, as manager.
Federal Trade Commission Reported
to Be Investigating the Title Situation
Year as a Whole an Active One in
Both the Popular and Standard Fields