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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,
Wm. A. Low.
B. BRITTAIN WILSON, Editor
CAHLETON CHACE, Business Manager
F. L. AVERY, Circulation Manager
RAY BILL, Associate Editor
E. B. MUNCH, Eastern 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.
MARCH, 1930
Vol. 89
1
i
Not for Jack of All Trades
HE general music store idea is logical and has been
proven so, for the dealer who gets most out of his
territory is the one who can supply practically every
musical need of his community and who makes his store the recog-
nized headquarters for musical instruments and accessories. How-
ever, the general music store must be operated on a sound basis and
it cannot be expected to prove successful if one or two men en-
deavor to divide their efforts among pianos, band and orchestra
instruments, radios and sheet music. As a rule there is nothing
more painful than to hear an experienced piano salesman trying
to sell a trap drummer's outfit intelligently, or expound upon the
mechanical details of radio, and it is quite as funny to hear the
average band instrument man put forth the selling arguments for
the piano.
The general music store problem is not one for the jack of
all trades, and dealers who have attempted to make it so have
come to grief. Generally they refuse to admit their part, but blame
their troubles upon declining interest in the piano, the orchestra
instrument or what not. We have heard dealers report loss of
piano sales which when analyzed proved to be due not to a lack
of a market, but rather to the fact that the salesman's time had
been divided and he could put only half his effort into piano selling.
Naturally the results were halved.
We find these same men declaring that their businesses are of
a size that does not permit of the hiring of specialists for each
department, yet the very hiring of those specialists would in most
cases produce a volume of departmental business that would show
a distinct profit on the investment. In fact, where the course is
followed out, it has shown a profit.
When a man sells pianos he must be able to talk pianos.
When he sells band instruments he must be able to understand
that line and its ramifications. When he sells radio he must know
something besides the fact that the instrument has seven tubes and
a pretty cabinet. The individual who is able to talk intelligently
and enthusiastically in all of those lines is indeed a rarity.
The general music business is not a one-man business, nor is
it a business wherein a salesman in one department can pinch-hit
in another. If the community warrants a general music store,
then that community should be able to support the necessary num-
ber of specialists to operate such a store properly. It is not a
business for a jack of all trades. If the dealer is piano-minded
MARCH, 1930
let him concentrate on pianos and get results in that direction, for
when he divides his efforts he simply loses out. The same holds
good for those who are particularly experienced in other lines. It
is the department that receives the undivided and best attention
that produces the best results.
Yes! Pianos Can Be Sold
OR Lincoln's Birthday, Hardman, Peck & Co., in New
York, spent $800 in advertising a special offering of
pianos, with the result that on February 12 and the fol-
lowing day sixty-two pianos were disposed of at retail at an average
price of $450 each. This is just another example to prove the
oft-repeated statement that, properly approached, the public will
buy pianos, and in this case the approach was strong enough to
persuade sixty-two customers to sign on the dotted line. On an-
other day small advertisements were carried in some foreign-lan-
guage newspapers, with the result that five player-pianos were sold
in addition to other instruments. It is little things like these that
answer the plaints of those of the trade who declare that piano
business is incurably sick and the player business is dead.
A -prominent New York department store last year enjoyed an
increase of over 100 per cent in piano business as compared with
the year before, and under none too favorable conditions, for the
piano department was then in immediate proximity to the radio
section, which handles about as much radio business as any single
retail outlet in the metropolitan district. This would seem to prove
that interest in the piano in blase New York is not entirely dead,
providing the experiences of several other piano houses during the
year did not convince the skeptic of this fact. Why, therefore,
should there not be piano business of considerable volume outside
the metropolitan districts where even today there still exists the
spirit of home life.
A „
/
$8,000,000 in Time Sales
„ „,„„,
^
Bureau instalment sales in the United States reached
a high peak of $8,000,000 during 1929, which seemed
to indicate that the public went into 1930 with between four and
five million dollars of instalment obligations to be met. To the
piano man these figures should be significant, for they indicate
most clearly the present-day competition for the American dollar.
It is generally admitted that the piano man was one of the first,
if not the first, to introduce the practice of buying on the instal-
ment and could arrange his selling methods accordingly. Now
he is facing the instalment competition of scores of other industries.
It means that the race for the instalment dollar is getting hotter
each year and the merchant or his representative who first gets
into the home and gets a hold on that dollar is the one who will
build up business volume. If the piano trade in 1930 can capture
only one per cent of this instalment money it would mean highly
prosperous business. This means only one cent out of each dollar.
Simple, isn't it?
W
There's Still Interest in Music
ITHIN the past six weeks there have come to our
attention seven offers of prizes for musical com-
positions, the offers being made by newspapers
national organizations and individual concerns. It is not beyond
the realms of possibility that pianos will be used to some extent
for the original demonstration if not the future playing of the com-
positions that are entered in the contests, and those who carry off
the awards. It emphasizes the fact that there remains enough in-
ierest in music to produce prizes running into thousands of dollars.