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A Dealer's Ideas
on the Problem of the Player
N. B. Price, Baldwin Music Shop, Shreveport, La., Sees a
Solution in the Development of the Popular Priced Reproducing
Piano, Electrically Driven—Obstacles Confronting That Idea
T
H E REVIEW is always glad to get letters
from its readers bearing on the subjects
which are discussed in these columns. Un-
happily, there are never enough of these letters.
When readers take the trouble to criticize what
is said here, one knows that the paper is being
read and its pronouncements made a matter for
thought and consideration by men who are
acttfally on the firing line in the thick of the
sales fight. Wherefore we are very glad to
give space to certain observations t>y N. B.
Price, who is connected with the Baldwin Mu-
sic Shop of Shreveport, La., and who has some
pertinent remarks to make about the present
situation in the player-piano field.
Says Mr. Price
"I have read with interest the different ex-
planations or attempted explanations of the
trouble with the player-piano.
"Frankly, it seems to me that all of this ma-
terial has missed the mark, while I believe that
mine will hit the bull's eye. Not that I am any
wiser than the learned gentleman who has con-
tributed such interesting and helpful articles, but
I believe that I see the matter from a different
angle. My experience is not theoretical, but
obtained from the firing line; in fact, first-hand
information, if you please.
"The player-piano was well born into the mu-
sic industry. It looked like the long-looked-for
Messiah. It promised and did big things, but
it was killed in its youth by the very people who
.profited most by its growth.
"Looking to the phonograph industries, turn-
ing back into the year of the cylinder machine,
you distinctly remember that the phonograph
was about dead. It had become a commonplace
thing and the cultured people had turned up
their noses at it. You surely remember when
the Victor people began to link great artists
with the phonograph, and you surely know that
this was the beginning of its profitable market-
ing.
"Now how does this apply to the player
piano, and so easily that a child might under-
stand? 1
Low-Priced Reproducers Wanted
"This is an electrical age and folks don't want
to work. Simply cut out the cheap rolls with
their fancy worthless embellishments, link up
the great artists with a sensible roll to be play-
ed on a medium-priced motor-driven reproduc-
ing piano.
"It must be motor-driven. It must be sold
only as a fine musical instrument that will re-
create the work of the finest artists. Sell such
an instrument to people of culture and musical
education. Cut out the cheap player-piano ad-
vertising. Ignore that class of business, and
by linking the names of great artists with the
rolls command the respect and the patronage of
people able t<> buy and pay for what they want.
"Tt is cheap rolls and cheap promotion that
have caused the cultured people to become dis-
gusted with the player-piano.
"The instrument of which I speak should sell
for no more than $750 if it is an upright. If
it sells for more it will miss the biggest market
we can capture, or will cause the purchaser to
turn to considering a grand piano.
"In a crude way, and speaking hurriedly, I
know that I have touched the heart of the
situation. This is gathered from many years of
experience and if it will shed any light and be
of any help in bringing back to life the goose
that laid the golden eggs, I say, by all means
use it. The piano trade surely needs something
that will sweeten the pocketbooks of the piano
merchant and create real interest and enthusiasm
among people who can back up their interest
and enthusiasm with real money.
"Presuming that you wish to make your
magazine as helpful as possible to the music
trade, and sure that you will welcome anything
promising better conditions, I submit the above,
believing that it points the way.—N. B. Price,
Shreveport, La."
Comment
Of course we are glad to hear what Mr.
Price has to say. And, of course, glad to have
the opportunity both to publish his letter and
lo comment upon it.
We are certainly not learned and have at
times distressing doubts as to our possession
of the qualities which should distinguish a gen-
tleman; but we say what we say from experi-
ence. An experience can hardly be theoretical,
can it? Of course one may have an experience
in theoretically ideal conditions; but we certain-
ly have never been so fortunate.
What we have said therefore about the player-
piano business is founded upon direct observa-
tion and on much mingling with merchants and
salesmen as well as with the owners of these
instruments.
Who's to Blame?
Now, Mr. Price is perfectly right when he
speaks of the absurdity of the over-jazzed roll
and its compeers. But for this Mr. Price's fel-
lows in the retail trade are wholly to blame.
They demanded, they and none others, that
the player-piano be made wholly mechanical, so
that the dear public should not have any work
lo do save pump mechanically. And now it
comes with bad grace from any retail man to
>ay that "folks do not want to work." Well,
we for one would ask, "how then explain the
mania for driving and tinkering with motor
cars? How explain golf? How explain the hun-
dreds of thousands who nightly mess for hours
with radio sets?
Mr. Price wants a low-priced motor-driven
reproducing piano. Now to this want there are
two objections. One is that these things cost
a lot of money to build and cannot be marketed
with any profit to the manufacturer for any
price much lower than is now the lowest. Not
at least if it is to be any good at all, either
pneumatically or tonally.
And the second is that even if the manufac-
turers could and would supply the retailers with
a low-priced reproducing piano, this move alone
would not bring in a grist of sales. The people
of culture are the only people who care a rap
for the names of the great pianists, much less
want to hear their music; and in general one
may accurately say that these are the same
people who have the money. A cheap repro-
ducing piano is, to our way of thinking, not
;it all the solution.
What then about the straight pedal player-
piano? We say that if this were universally
being built on high-grade lines and a campaign
launched to sell to the cultured people the idea
of personally producing music, such a campaign
would have at least as good chances of suc-
cess as any other.
For what is needed in both cases, and in
every imaginable case, is not price but desire.
What we need to do is to promote music, the
love for it and the desire to produce and hear
it. Then we shall not need to care a rap about
fifty dollars of price one way or the other.
And for the opportunity of airing our views
in opposition to those of a sincere thoughtful
retail man, we thank Mr. Price very sincerely
and hope he will come again. For if we are
wrong, we want to have our error demonstrated.
Mason & Hamlin Piano in Station KYA
Instrument
in Broadcasting
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Fifth in
Cliff Hotel,
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