Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Give Music Rolls a Chance So Buyers
Know that You Have Them
Sales of This Product Do Not Grow in Dark Cellars Like Mushroom s—They Require Light, Air and
Attention in Order to Produce Volume—A Striking Window Display Prepared by the
Music Department of the Ampico Corp., Which Shows What Can Be Done With Them
Jk MUSIC ROLL salesman really said some-
r\
thing recently when he remarked that if
^ ••*• music rolls were like mushrooms and
could be made to prove profitable when handled
in dark, damp cellars there are some retail music
merchants who would long ago have become
millionaires.
• It sounded somewhat facetious at the moment,
but, as a matter of fact, the remark had the
backing of common sense and a knowledge of
conditions as they exist, all too frequently, in
many retail music establishments. In short, the
music roll department is relegated to the rear of
the store OF to the basement where it will be
out of the way and out of sight. It is too often
the stepchild of the business, and gets the
same amount of consideration as that position
usually rates.
Frequently, however, there is found a retailer
who is really making money on his music rolls
not because he is a wizard, but because he gives
those rolls an opportunity to do a little selling
themselves by acquainting the public with the
fact that there is new music, and good music,
available for the player-piano or reproducing
piano.
It cannot be repeated too often or emphati-
cally that the player or the reproducer is only
as valuable in the eyes of the owner as is the
music that it is capable of producing or repro-
ducing for him. When the buying of music
rolls stops for one reason or another, and most
often through lack of follow-up on the part of
the dealer who considers the sale closed when
the instrument is delivered and paid for, the
interest of the owner immediately begins to
lag. This means that he stops using the instru-
ment, it ceases to be an advertisement for it-
self and for the dealer who sold it, and in its
silent state has no appeal for the non-owner
who might be considered in the role of prospect.
In the case of the reproducing piano particu-
larly, it is most desirable that the interest of
the owner be kept up to high pitch by having his
roll library maintained on an up-to-date basis.
According to the figures by one prominent ex-
ecutive, 85 per cent of reproducer sales in one
year were made to prospects who had been
brought in by owners or who had become in-
terested in the instrument by hearing it in
homes of friends. If the music roll is going to
keep the instrument going and this interest
alive, then this fact alone warrants any amount
of trouble devoted to its exploitation.
Tn the face of this condition we frequently
hear of dealers whose stocks of reproducing
records are lamentably inadequate, who must
actually be sold each month's assortment of new
records as it comes out, and who would, if they
were not constantly hounded, be content with
a half-dozen rolls for demonstration purposes.
The man who has the tough job of calling on
these dealers regularly can tell many heart-rend-
ing tales of indifference to the music roll depart-
ment, either on its own merits or as a means
for keeping interest alive in the reproducers
that are sold.
The story has already been told in The
Review of the salesman who called on a South-
ern dealer and found that he had on hand only
about 300 records for the prominent make of
reproducer he sold. The assortment was made
up largely of odds and ends. The dealer told
the salesman there was no money in the rolls
and that he didn't want any more. But that
same salesman, getting a list of customers from
placed at the service of the dealer the benefit
of their experience and the experiences of
other successful merchants in the handling
of rolls. They have also supplied and are
supplying a great mass of circular matter
for mailing, window and store display material
and valuable suggestions for the arrangement of
the department and of the window. An example
Window Display of
the dealer, spent two days canvassing and got
orders for over 300 records from the newer
lists. Even although these orders meant a cash
profit of over $200 for the dealer, a profit not
realized on a good many of the pianos he sold,
the salesman, after his two days of canvassing,
had to spend more time selling the retailer the
idea of ordering these rolls to take care of the
actual demand of his customers.
This may be an extreme instance, but there are,
few retailers who handle rolls seriously.
The music roll manufacturers have themselves
Ampico Recordings
of what may be done to the music roll window
is found in the accompanying illustration of a
special display arranged by the music depart-
ment of the Ampico Corp. for the use of its
dealers. The basis of the display is the poster
sent recently to its dealers by the department
and which bore portraits of 240 noted pianists
who record exclusively for the Ampico. In
the window the material surrounding the poster
serves to add impressiveness, and the display is
only one of the series of suggestions offered to
its dealers by the Ampico Corp.
S C A R F S "*»<>
osco
COVERS and BENCH-CUSHIONS
0. SIMMS NFS. CO.. 113-5 Wait MHi St.