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What's the Matter
With the Piano Business?
Wm. F. Merrill, Secretary of the New England Music Trades Asso-
ciation, Says There Is No Substitute for the Piano and Sees a Great
Future in Store for That Instrument When Properly Presented
Y
ES, the piano business has gone to the
dogs. That is, if our civilization has
turned red—if the home has lost its real
meaning—if parents have ceased to think about
the finer things of life in the up-bringing of
their children—if music and its influence has
gone out of the hearts of men and women.
But because these things have not and will
not happen, the piano is still with us and always
will be in spite of the fact that it has its ups and
downs like everything else. That there has been
a decided recession in the piano industry no
one will attempt to deny. Production figures
show that generally speaking the business has
suffered. Manufacturers who have continued to
increase their business have been the exception,
yet there have been such exceptions. Let it be
said here that the standards of quality in piano
manufacture have gone steadily onward and up-
ward.
The recession referred to is ascribed to dif-
ferent things by different piano men. Some be-
lieve it began with the growth of the talking
machine. Subsequently the radio has been given
the onus. Others go beyond the realm of music
altogether and declare that the real obstacle to
the piano business is the automobile—that the
country has gone automobile mad.
Are the Piano Men Themselves to Blame?
How many piano men realize that perhaps the
greatest detriment to their business may be the
piano men themselves? First of all if they say
they are defeated, then they are defeated with-
out any assistance from talking machines,
radios, automobiles or any other exaggerated
enemies. And if they are beaten and don't know
it, is it because they have been trying co sell
pianos by the methods of a generation ago
when presen* distractions did not enter into the
home life? For the sake of argument, let us
grant that the competition referred to has cast
a temporary blight on the piano business. The
automobile is the most interesting because it
is fundamental.
It would be a salutary thing for the piano
trade to emulate the methods of automobile
trade. Let us retrace its progress ever so
briefly. First the public was sold on the idea
of owning an automobile. This was done long
before the motor car reached its present stage
of perfection and reliability. By continued
progress in the engineering part of the busi-
ness, the selling, end was able to give up this
pioneering and missionary work by the time
the first forty thousand cars were on the roads.
The next appeal took the shape of argument for
) ince
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Fbremost
'Piano
this or that kind of engine, the mechanical
theory back of it, the materials used in its con-
struction, what it had done in various tests in
coast-to-coast tours, in climbs over well-known
mountain heights, etc. Then came the well-
known argument of price, which was the cor-
r
HE survey of the existing situation in
the piano trade as presented by Mr.
Merrill is particularly interesting for the
reason that the writer has had an unusual
opportunity for viewing the situation from
a number of angles and holds that the
trouble is with the piano men rather than
with the instruments or the industry.
He
offers a message well worth the reading.
ner stone of the Ford fortune and the greatest
mercantile achievement of all time. Previously
the automobile enthusiast represented a class,
generally speaking, that do not have a personal
economic problem. Overnight, Mr. Common
Peepul became the owner of his own private
car—at least he had title and a lease. We have
heard much about price since and may hear
much more in the next few years. But price
was not intended to lead the automobile public
into ways of thrift and frugality. Indeed, it has
led the unwary in quite the opposite direction.
The success of the business lay, not in selling a
man, or a family, a car at a fair price and one
that should last him for a term of years. On
the contrary, it has kept him continually in the
market for a new car. The element of style has
taken care of that. Witness the appeal to
Milady in the advertising and other selling
efforts of the motor car men. Last year's car
has become as unfavorably conspicuous as her
last year's hat. Are we due for another change
of front? We had price—then price-plus-style.
N o w we discern price-plus-style-plus-speed.
Sixty to eighty miles an hour is promised and
the mortality rate shows that some buyers at
least take the advertisers at their word.
Some day, perhaps not long distant, the motor
industry will put stabilators on selling as well
as on other jumpy habits. On one thing, how-
ever, you may well depend, namely, when new
arguments are needed to keep up the demand
for new cars, they will be found. While the
automobile men of to-dav continue to make and
sell cars, they will keep right on offering ex-
actly the incentive that will sell their product.
What Would the Automobile Man Do?
It would be mighty interesting to see what
some of them would do if by some whim of fate
they were suddenly caused to exchange places
with producers and dealers in the piano field.
One thing is downright certain. The new piano
promoters, erstwhile putters-over of automo-
biles, would not go on selling mahogany or wal-
nut or ebony cases with "steen" coats of var-
nish, 93.3 per cent of a mile of wire, handsome
hardware and purest ivory, tuning, inspection
and a hundred and one technical details which
make a piano colder and less vital than an or-
dinary piece ofr furniture. What they would do,
progressive men in the piano business can do.
Time for a New Form of Approach
So is it about time the piano trade started
all over again? Should we not go back to first
principles and begin selling the piano idea?
Why not approach the American public with the
proposition that there is no substitute for a
piano—yes, if you please, a good piano? As the
pace of life grows swifter, the importance of
knowing music and the joy of personally play-
ing music becomes vastly more important than
ever before. Intelligent parents appreciate the
truth of this statement. Generally they are glad
to discuss this question with the piano sales-
man. As a rule they are watchful of the class
of literature that comes into their children's
hands. They are anxious about the development
of noble hearts as well as alert minds and
sound bodies. They recognize the necessity of
a balance between artistic and spiritual ideals
on one hand and material sense on the other.
It is the experience of successful piano sales-
men that parents like to talk with them about
these problems, because piano men who think
about the welfare of the rising generation have
the support of all progressive educators and
representatives of religion in all its divisions.
A still larger field exists among mothers and
fathers who may have thought less about musi-
cal interest—in the home. They do listen—do
not resent the piano salesman's discussion of
child welfare any more than they do sugges-
tions made by the sellers of dictionaries, en-
cyclopedias and standard works of literature,
which are so often sold on this basis. Such
homes represent the great unfilled field for the
piano trade—homes in which the children are
the first American generation. Some of the
leading citizens of the next generation are now
(Continued on page 11)
^ S T I E F F PIANO
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Will attract tke attention of those
who know and appreciate tone guality
CHAS.M.STIEFF Inc.
cSticff Hall **** Baltimore
One oldest
Viano-fbrte in
(America, to'day
owned and con"
trolled by the
direct decendents
of the founder