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IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC PUBLISHING
Conducted By V. D. Walsh
The Sheet Music Publisher and Dealer
and the National Piano Promotion Drive
All Units in the Sheet Music Industry Should Give Full Co-opsration to the National
Piano Manufacturers' Campaign lor Their Interest Is Mutual
n p H E recently created advertising slogan of
-"• the piano manufacturers to the effect that
"The piano is the basic musical instrument"
may not be agreed to offhand by certain of
our citizens, but to the publisher of and dealer
in sheet music the slogan has a peculiar sig-
nificance because upon the popularity of the
piano and the volume of its distribution in a
chief measure depends the success of his busi-
ness. It is quite all right to point out the
profits that a lucky publisher may realize
through recording his numbers on music rolls
and talking machine records and from the sale of
orchestrations, but without the piano the sale
of sheet music itself, whether classic, popular
or of the type known as teaching material,
would be nil.
In view of this situation it would be well
for music publishers generally, individually and
collectively to acquaint themselves with what
the National Piano Manufacturers' Association
is doing through its sales promotion commit-
tee in an effort to increase public interest in
and demand for the piano in its various forms.
For its promotion work the Association is rais-
ing, and will raise, a special fund of approxi-
mately $200,(X)() annually for a period of three
years. Part of this money will be devoted, and in
fact for several months past has been devoted, to
display advertising in a number of magazines,
including the "Quality Group," with an aggre-
gate circulation of several million copies going
into the better homes of the country. These
publications include Good Housekeeping, World's
Work, Atlantic Monthly, Review of Reviews,
Better Homes and Gardens, Scribner's, Har-
per's, The Golden Book, The Etude, etc. Full-
page space is used in each magazine monthly.
This advertising of the piano as the basic
musical instrument is expected to have a good
influence, for a special series of mats has been
prepared for the use of music dealers in tying
up with the national campaign through the
medium of their national newspapers. Already
several hundred dealers and almost an equal
number of newspapers have arranged to use
this mat service and in dailies throughout the
country is to be seen this piano advertising
bearing the imprint of an individual dealer or
a group of dealers who have co-operated in
order to take large space at a minimum cost
to each participant. Already a partial check-
up indicates that over $30,000 worth of space
in local newspapers has been used by dealers
in promotion advertising, and that there still
remains a considerable quantity that has not
been checked.
In addition to the national advertising the
sales promotion committee is also fostering the
movement for group instruction in piano play-
ing in the elementary schools of the country,
public, parochial and private. That this group
instruction plan arouses interest is evident
from the number of people who have clipped
advertising coupons and sent them in with the
request for complete information. Among the
group instruction methods which have the en-
dorsement of the committee are the Miessner
and Curtis plans, both of which are in wide
use and familiar to the trade. The committee
has also interested itself in the promotion of
piano-playing contests, or rather, in lending
assistance to the dealers and others in various
cities who have such contests in mind. The
success of the contests, which have been held
MI various cities, particularly in Detroit last year,
with a second contest now under way there,
and in Chicago right now with over" 14,000
entries, is responsible for the interest in this
plan for attracting public attention to the piano
and its possibilities.
The committee has secured and published en-
dorsements of the piano and of the value of
piano playing by Walter Damrosch and other
musical authorities of like standing, and has
organized a committee for the advancement
of piano study, which includes some thirty of
the leading musicians of the country, among
them Schutnann-Heink, Gabrilovvitsch, Rach-
maninoff, Harold Bauer, Yolando Mero, Frank
LaForge, Mrs. Edgar Stillman-Kelley, president
of the National Federation of Music Clubs;
Oscar Saenger, Olga Samaroff, Walter Dam-
rosch, Alfred Hertz, James Francis Cooke, of
the Presser Foundation, Frederick Stock, Joset
Hofmann and others of like calibre. It is be-
lieved, and logically, that these names will prove
a powerful media for getting desirable pub-
licity for the piano in daily papers and else-
where.
This rather sketchy outline of what the sales
promotion committee is doing and is planning
lo do will give some general idea of the scope
'•f the work. If it is successful it is going to
mean a substantial increase in piano sales and
?ach piano that is sold means a new customer
for sheet music if the publishers and dealers
arc alive to the opportunity. It would sec •
logical for both the producers and distributors
of sheet music to watch this piano promotion
campaign closely and to tie up with the move-
ment, either directly or indirectly, for it rep-
resents an effort to enlarge their own market.
Full information regarding the campaign,
what is being done and what is being planned
may be obtained from the executive secretary
of the sales promotion committee of the Na-
tional Piano Manufacturers' Association, 247
1'ark avenue, New York. The information
should be of direct interest to members of the
sheet music trade regardless of whether or not
they have planned to co-operate in any way.
Feist Composers' Night
at WRNY, New York
Many Leading Songwriters of This Company to
Broadcast in Special Program on May 4
On May 4 station WRNY, New York, will
program "A Leo Feist Composers' Night" from
9 to 10.45 p. m. This musical presentation is
made under the direction of Stephen Czukor, an
associate musical director of the above radio
station. Among the well-known composers who
will make their appearance are Abel Baer, who
wrote "June Night"; Joe Burke, writer of
"Sailor's Sweetheart"; Walter Donaldson, writer
of many songs, including "Sam, the Old Ac-
cordion Man"; L. Wolfe Gilbert, of "Robert E.
Lee" and "O Katrika" fame; Dolly Morse, re-
sponsible for the American version of "Three
O'Clock in the Morning"; Joe Shuster, writer of
"Take Your Finger Out of Your Mouth";
Henry Tobias, writer of "Katinka," and Ira
Shuster, responsible for "O Isabella."
One of the features will be Prince. Piotti. a
43
Songs (hat Sell
Blue Skies
Irving Berlin
Here or There (As Long as I'm
With You)
Carolina Mine
Swanee River Trail
Rags
What Does It Matter
Irving Berlin
I Never See Maggie Alone
That's My Hap-Hap-Happiness
My Sunday Girl
Mv Baby Knows How
Yankee Rose
C'est Vous
Some Day
Just a Little Longer—Irving Berlin
When the Red, Red Robin Comes
Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along
Put Your Arms Where
They Belong
Always
Remember
I'm on My Way Home—
Irving Berlin
That's a Good Girl—Irving Berlin
I'm Tellin' the Birds-
Tellin' the Bees
(How 1 Love You)
I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (If
I Knew I d Find You)
That's What I Call a Pal
So Will 1
In the Middle of the Night
Because I Love You
Irving Berlin
At Peace With the World
l'rving Berlin
How Many Times—Irving Berlin
I Never Knew What the Moonlight
Could Do
BOOKS THAT SELL
New Universal Dance Folio No. 12
Peterson's Ukulele Method
World's Favorite Songs
Tiddle De Ukes
Strum It With Crumit (Comic Uku-
lele Song Book)
IRVING BERLIN In,
1607 Broadway New York City
popular radio artist, who will be accompanied
at the piano by Miss Madeline Hardy, known as
the original California Radio Girl. Wessley
Ossman will play "Precious" as a solo on
musical glasses and the balance of the pro-
gram will be contributed by Harry Scheiner
and his Cozy Club Orchestra.
All told, it will be one of the year's best
programs.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.