Music Trade Review

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Che Musiclrade Review
Published Monthly
FEDERATED BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS, INC.
420 Lexington Ave.
New York
Serving
the Entire
Vol. 88
Music
Industry
July, 1929
No. 24
Single Copies
Twenty Cents
Annual Subscription
Two Dollars
COOPERATION
Means More Than
LIP SERVICE
T the Chicago conventions last month the newly elected
hief executives of the several national associations of the
music trade and particularly President Mark P. Campbell,
of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, and
President Parham Werlein, of the National Association of Music
Merchants, joined in an earnest plea for a greater degree of real
co-operation between the various divisions of the industry to the
common end of making and keeping the public of the country
"music conscious."
These pleas for co-operation are not in any sense new, but un-
fortunately they have not so far achieved any marked results—in
short, there has been too much conversation and too little action on
the part of the majority of trade members. Where there had been
action it had been concerned chiefly with telling the public of the
musical merits of this or that particular type of instrument rather
than with the preaching of the doctrine that playing instruments of
any sort is something to be desired and that the medium can best
be selected by the individual.
Within the past few years there have been raised by the vari-
ous divisions of the trade substantial sums for promotion work. In
the aggregate the amount has been impressive. But unfortunately
it has been divided into several funds each devoted to the promo-
tion of some particular instrument or group of instruments. If
some means can be devised for combining all this promotion work,
in principle at least, it will undoubtedly be extensive enough to have
the effect on the mind of the public at large that is so generally
hoped for and desired.
The florists have their slogan "Say It With Flowers" and those
who specialize in roses and orchids and gladiolas and various other
accepted types of flowers all contribute to the promotion work in
the belief that they will profit in fair proportion from any increased
demand. They do not advertise "Say It With Roses" or "Say It
With Carnations," but stick to the effective and comprehensive
phrase "Say It With Flowers." The paint manufacturers say
"Save the Surface and You Save All." Although the individual
manufacturers, in their own advertising, stress the advantages of
zinc or white lead paints and of lacquers and stains the promotion
work is centered on the saving qualities of the paint itself, the
A
choice of the particular type of paint being left to the individual.
Here is something for the music industry to think about. Com-
petition is not from within the trade but from without. The indus-
try is suffering not from lack of music interest on the part of the
public but from the increasing number of competitive products that
bid for the consumer's dollar. The work that is devoted to stress-
ing the merits of this or that particular type of instrument can just
as effectively be devoted to a campaign for encouraging the playing
of musical instruments generally, for in the last analysis the buyer
is going to select that particular instrument that suits his or her own
desire and idea.
In one way or another the music industry probably spends at
least a half a million dollars annually in promotion; work, taking
into consideration the amounts raised by the several associations
and various groups of manufacturers for such work and the sums
paid for association dues and for other similar purposes. Here is
an amount of money to conjure with. Spent so that duplication of
effort is reduced to a minimum and with the work so organized
that it is directed effectively toward a common goal, there should be
definite results of a satisfactory character.
It is not a manufacturers' problem nor does the burden rest
entirely upon the dealers, for both factors of the trade are vitally
interested in any movement that is calculated to prove mutually
beneficial. It is not a question of contributing a few dollars, let
the other fellow do the work and then wait for something to hap-
pen. It is a matter that calls for personal effort as well as money
and talk. This industry, or any other industry, for that matter, can
well spend several million dollars each year in promotion work and
still find results lacking unless the retailers of the country who
represent the points of contact with the public really co-operate in
their own particular territories. The printed word is well enough
to stimulate interest at the outset, but it requires the local follow-
up and the personal contact to crystallize that interest into the buy-
ing urge. This local interest in (itself calls for co-operation between
the distributor of musical instruments in each community, for if
the piano man is pulling one way, the radio man another, and the
band and orchestra man doing his own tugging, a spirit of competi-
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