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The Music Trade Review
REVIEW
(Registered in the U. S. Patent Office)
Published on the First of the Month by
Federated Business Publications, Inc.
;
at 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
Publishers of Antiquarian, Automotive Electricity, India Rubber World, Materials
Handling & Distribution, Music Trade Review, Novelty News, Rug Profits, Sales Man-
agement, Soda Fountain, Talking Machine World & Radio-Music Merchant, Tires; and
operates in association with Building Investment, Draperies and Tire Rate-Book.
President, Raymond Bill; Vice-Presidents, J. B. Spillane, Randolph Brown; Secretary
and Treasurer, Edward Lyman Bill; Comptroller, T. J. Kelly; Assistant Treasurer,
Win. A. Low.
B. BRITTAIN
WILSON,
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
Editor
F. L. AVERY, Circulation Manager
RAY BILL, W M . J. DOUGHERTY and E. J. NEALY, Associate
E. B. MUNCH, Eastern
Editors
Representative
WESTERN DIVISION: FRANK W. KIRK, Manager
333 No. Michigan Ave., Chicago. Telephone: State 1266
Telephone:
Lexington 1760-71
Cable:
Elbill New York
In order to insure proper attention all communications should
be addressed to the publication and not to individuals.
Vol. 88
I
November, 1929
No. 28
Another National Piano Campaign
N launching its comprehensive national advertising campaign
in a number of leading magazines of wide circulation, includ-
ing the Saturday Evening Post wherein five double-page
advertisements in four colors will be presented between now and
March 1, the American Piano Co. is doing something more than
simply calling attention to its own products. A campaign such as
this benefits the entire industry because it brings the piano prom-
inently to the fore and it is unfortunate that only a comparatively
few concerns, less than a half dozen as a matter of fact, have the
inclination or the production to warrant such a move. The
American Co. campaign is designed, of course, to promote the sale
of the company's instruments throughout the country and will fea-
ture the Ampico and the several makes produced under the Amer-
ican auspices, but will also help to make the public piano-conscious
by placing that instrument before them in a striking manner, and
with strength comparable with that with which other prominent
products are presented in national magazines. It is a movement
that should be commended and encouraged.
I
What Is Your Association Worth?
N all too many industries, including the music trade, the
average association member seems to feel that when he has
paid annual dues of $5, $10 or $15 he has done his full share
in providing support for the association activities, and then waits
for the elected and appointed officers to step out and produce some
real results for himself and his fellow tradesmen. Such dues, how- 1
ever, do not in any sense meet association expenses, according to
a report made recently by the Trade Association Department of
the Chamber of Commerce of the United States based upon infor-
mation furnished by 300 trade organizations. The mortality among
the trade associations of the country, the report states, has been
found to be due chiefly to lack of sound financing or financial
starvation. Too many attempts have been made to run a trade
association on a shoestring, declares the report. The successful
method of financing is one by which dues are assessed according
to unit of production, volume of business, number of employes,
payroll, etc., and with annual charges running as high as $750.
One of the representative associations in the music trade was
recently declared to be in difficulty because dues of $5 a year for
members could by no means meet the cost of financing the asso-
NOVEMBER, 192$
ciation work, and outside income secured chiefly through the efforts
of the secretary had shown a marked decline. Out on the Pacific
Coast the average small dealer pays more association dues in one
month than are paid annually by members of the National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants and the dues are based on volume of
sales and are in proportion to the benefits that the contributing
dealers can realize. The National Association gets much of its
income from the sale of stamps to be placed on pianos. If the
dealer is really interested in making the organization effective,
he will do his share in using and paying for these stamps.
Let the dealer who feels that when he spends $10 for associa-
tion dues he is clear on the books consider what he is paying
locally for membership in various bodies. He will find that it costs
him much more than $10 a year to be a member of his Chamber of
Commerce, his Rotary or Kiwanis Club or even his fraternal lodge.
Considering these facts he must weigh the value of the National
Association to his bus : ness personally and pay accordingly.
D
Phonograph Music Still Has Appeal
A
The Saturation Point in Radio
ESPITE the radio, or the "wireless," as they call it
in Merrie England, the gramophone and its records
still maintain a high place in the estimation of the
music lovers of the country as is evidenced by the fact that gramo-
phone recitals instituted some years ago still prove worth-while
attractions. Frequent reference is made in British newspapers and
trade publications to the holding of such recitals, which proves
that music of the phonograph type still has an attraction.
Here is food for thought for those in the United States to handle
talking machines and records seriously. There are in this country
thousands of people who take great pride in their libraries of the
classics and semi-classics in record form as presented by great artists
of the past and present, and these same people are continually
adding to those libraries. We have in mind at least one dealer
in blase New York, 90 per cent of whose business is done in
record albums of the symphonies and the operas and single records
of the same type. It is a profitable business for it keeps coming
steadily when once started and the unit of sales is large.
CCORDING to the Electrical Equipment Division of
the Department of Commerce, there are now in use
throughout the world some 21,629,107 radio receiving
sets, of which 10,250,000 are in the United States and over
9,000,000 in Europe, aside from Russia and Turkey. The figures
indicate that there is one receiving set for every twelve and one-half
persons in the United States, one for every fifty-three in Europe,
and one for every eighty-eight in the world. In view of the fact
that in many of the states there is one automobile for every five
or seven inhabitants, it would seem that the number of radio sets
in homes can be doubled before they get in competition with motor
vehicles averaging in price $1,000 or more. Here are some figures
for the consideration of those who are inclined to talk about radio
reaching the point of saturation.
W
Waving the Hands to Make Music
HEN the player-piano was introduced—the instru-
ment that was designed to use foot power to replace
manual playing—many in the trade held up their
hands and hollered. Then came the reproducing piano and the
electric player-piano which required no more effort than the press-
ing of a button to produce piano music. Following this came the
radio with the flood of music of all types controlled by a dial, and
finally we have the Theremin, a mysterious instrument that pro-
duces music electrically through the waving of the hands. The
housewife washes electrically, irons electrically and sweeps elec-
trically and now electricity produces her music, not merely a repro-
duction but the music that she herself desires to create. Certainly,
the world does move musically as well as in every other way.