Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
12
The Music Trade Review
REVIEW
(Registered in the U. S. Patent Office)
Published by Federated Business Publications, Inc.
at 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
President, Raymond Bill; Vice-Presidents, J. B. Spillane, Randolph Brown; Secre-
tary and Treasurer, Edward Lyman Bill; Assistant Secretary, L. B. McDonald;
Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
B. BRITTAIN WILSON, Editor
RAY BILL, Associate Editor
WM. H. McCLEARY, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
FRANK L. AVERY, Circulation Manager
Executive and Reportorial Staff
E. B. MUNCH, EDWAHD VAN HARLINGEN, THOS. W. BRESNAHAN, E. J. NBALY.
FREDERICK B. DIEHL, A. J. NICKLEN
WESTERN DIVISION:
FRANK W. KIRK, Manager
BOSTON OFFICE
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Republic Bldg., 209 So. State St., Chicago
Te4ephone, Main 6950
Telephone, Wabash 5242-5243
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall, St., D. C.
NEWS SERVICE IS SUPPLIED WEEKLY BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN THE LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA
Published Every Saturday at 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
Entered as second-class matter September 10, 1892, at the post office at New York, N. Y.,
under the Act of March 3, 1879.
SUBSCRIPTION, United State and Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada, $3.50; all other
countries, $5.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, rates on request.
REMITTANCES, should be made payable to Music Trade Review.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.. Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma.. ..Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal... .St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal—Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
TELEPHONES—LEXINGTON 1780-1771
Cable Address: "Elbill, New York"
Vol. 85
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 26, 1927
No. 22
The Seligman Instalment Research
it probably cannot be heralded as the last word
A LTHOUGH
on the question of the soundness of instalment selling from
a national business angle, the report on that subject recently com-
pleted by Edwin R. A. Seligman, professor of political economy
at Columbia University, aided by a large staff of assistant
economists, after fifteen months of steady work in the field, should
go far to offset the attacks against the principle of instalment
selling which have been made within the last couple of years by
bankers and financiers.
The complete results of the survey, which comprises two large
volumes, were outlined briefly last week by Professor Seligman
before five hundred prominent financiers, business men and
economists gathered in New York. He declared, in brief, that his
investigation had convinced him that instalment selling was not
only a sound method of financing the distribution of merchandise,
but that it was a potent factor in the new prosperity of the country
by making possible increased production, stabilized output, reduced
production cost and increased purchasing power.
The danger offered by huge amounts of instalment paper in
times of business depression was minimized by Professor Seligman,
who stated that in cases of local depression it had been found that
instalment credit had an advantage over general bank credit for
the reason that it was basically sound and diminished steadily,
whereas in bad times bankers are called upon to extend credit of
doubtful soundness.
In answer to the frequent argument that instalment sales lead
to the buying of unneeded luxuries and promote extravagance,
Professor Seligman stated that the demand for luxuries is due
primarily to what is termed the "economy of high wages," coupled
with high productivity, high efficiency and high standard of life.
All these have been largely responsible for the transition of com-
modities from the category of luxuries to that of comforts and
necessities. There have, of course, been abuses, but they cannot
rightfully be charged to the ease of instalment.
Carried on at the request of the General Motors Corp. in the
desire that the corporation know definitely through unbiased re-
NOVEMBER 26, 1927
search whether it was fundamentally right or wrong in selling on
instalments, the investigation brought to light information that
should set at rest the minds of those in other industries, including
our own, where it has probably been longest in use, upon the sound-
ness of the policy of selling at retail on instalments.
X % m
Piano-Playing Contests for Small Centers
O INCE the advent of the piano-playing contest in the piano
^ industry, this method of piano promotion has largely been
regarded in the trade as one that could be only utilized by the
dealers in the larger centers of population. It has been considered
generally that the contest would not be feasible in the smaller
cities or towns, either because of the comparatively large expendi-
ture required to put it over in a proper fashion, or else because
sufficient entries could not be had in relation to that expenditure.
The experience of the Ann Arbor, Mich., Music Trade Asso-
ciation, as told on another page of this issue of The Review,
effectually disposes of this viewpoint, for the contest sponsored
by that organization has thus far proven a striking success, although
it is still but in the preliminary stages. One hundred and thirty-
five entries, of course, do not compare with the large figures which
were rolled up in such cities as Chicago and Detroit, but com-
paratively the showing is perhaps better, and when the closer
relations which exist in the smaller communities are considered, it
may be termed even superior.
With the National Association of Music Merchants on record
in favor of holding a national piano-playing contest that will be
open to prize winners from every section of the country, it would
seem advisable for dealers in every section of the country to
promote the local contest. No greater publicity for the piano can
be had than the participation of a local prize winner in a national
contest, and no greater stimulus for piano playing could be thought
of than propaganda along these lines.
Another development from the Ann Arbor event which should
be emphasized is the advantages of the local association. In Ann
Arbor but four dealers belong to the Ann Arbor dealers' asso-
ciation, yet it is just through this co-operation that the piano is
obtaining the publicity which the contest is giving it. Whether
such an association is a formal or informal organization, it brings
the dealers together and permits them to confront their real com-
petitors, dealers selling other lines of merchandise, with a solidarity
of purpose that is essential in these days of inter-industrial com-
petition. Lack of this co-operative spirit has been one of the
essential factors in lowering the number of piano sales annually,
tor unbridled competition among the dealers themselves, with all
its inherent evils, has more often than not been to the advantage
(jf no one save merchants selling other commodities.
*
r
%
X
The Foot-Power Player in the Future
HE cry that the foot-power player-piano is dead as a selling
proposition is recurrent among a certain group of piano men
at the present time, a group that is represented in both the mer-
chandising and manufacturing ends of the industry. Those who
are in this state of mind attribute the admitted falling off in the
sales of this type of instrument directly to the instrument itself.
In this the weight of evidence seems to be entirely against their
opinion, as a careful analysis of the instrument, its capabilities
i'or furnishing home entertainment, and the selling methods which
are placed around it will immediately show.
The player-piano at the present time retains all the inherent
value of home entertainment that it had in the early days of its
history, but the merchandising methods by which it is placed before
the buying public have changed radically. Instead of stressing
these inherent values, for many years they have been relegated
largely to the background and the sales emphasis placed upon the
fact that "a child can play the player," or words to that effect,
and upon the ease, either through price or terms, with which the
player could be purchased. The first of these selling arguments
is false, as everyone in the trade knows; the second is and has
been destructive of the value of the instrument in the eyes of the
public and will be so long as it is utilized
Stop and consider what the vitality of the player-piano as a
salable product is in the light of the last ten years of its mer-
chandising history.