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EDITORIALLY
CONVENTION PLANS FOLLOW
LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE
T
HE decision arrived at this month to hold the annual
conventions of the Music Industries Chamber of Com-
merce, the National Association of Music Merchants
and other affiliated music trade organizations in Chi-
cago during the same week that the Radio Trade Show and
the conventions of the radio trade associations will be held
in that city is regarded with favor generally.
It was realized by those in charge of the convention
arrangements that it would not be good policy to expect those
many music merchants who plan to attend the radio show
and meetings to remain in Chicago and away from their
businesses for nearly an extra week in order to meet with the
music trade bodies and that, therefore, the music convention
attendance would suffer accordingly. Those who have
considered exhibiting, too, appear to welcome a chance to
make their displays while the radio men are in the city on
the chance of thus increasing their number of outlets.
The selection of the Palmer House as convention head L
quarters for the music men is also an excellent one, for the
hostelry is centrally located, not too far from the other con-
ventions but sufficiently removed to enable the music men to
meet without interference. The problem of making conven-
tion plans on a basis likely to prove successful under existing
conditions has been a serious one and the solution offered
promises to prove thoroughly satisfactory.
ENCOURAGING SUPPORT FOR
PIANO BROADCAST PROGRAMS
A
CCORDING to the officials of the piano- manu-
facturers' and music merchants' associations the
response to the appeal for support for the piano
promotion campaign being carried on over the
radio by the National Broadcasting Co. is most encouraging.
That this is so reflects great credit on those who have in-
terested themselves in bringing the trade into line in back of
the movement, for they have had many problems to solve,
some of them, particularly financial, aggravated by existing
conditions.
Through painstaking study and careful adjustment the
assessment arrived at for each community of 25,000 population
or more within the great area covered by the broadcasting
programs is so modest that it represents only a few dollars
per dealer, a sum ridiculously small in view of the anticipated
and entirely possible results. Much ingenuity has been exer-
cised in the preparation of the lesson charts reproduced in
miniature elsewhere in this issue, and the cost of their prepara-
tion reduced so materially that the distribution of hundreds
of thousands will not prove a very heavy financial burden.
It is significant that although the broadcast programs are
confined to the piano, manufacturers and dealers in other
lines of musical instruments are thoroughly cognizant of the
importance of the movement and have arranged in various
ways to.tie-up with it, in the firm belief that they can profit
directly by the widespread interest thus aroused.
8
There is still considerable work to be done in various sec-
tions before a hundred per cent response by the trade can
be reported, and those dealers who have held back for one
reason or another from making their contributions must
realize that they are depended upon to make the great experi-
ment entirely successful. It is a great opportunity that must
not be neglected.
CREDIT INFORMATION
NOW MOST ESSENTIAL
U
NDER existing conditions the question of credits be-
comes of paramount importance, whether it has to
do with open book or instalment accounts, for it has
been found by experience that both wholesalers and
retailers, in an endeavor to build a volume of sales comparable
with the records of good years, are inclined to ignore sound
credit practices or at least to let down the bars, in an effort
to encourage more general buying.
The music trade has had some unpleasant experiences dur-
ing the past year or more and will undoubtedly have more,
a majority being due primarily to lack of accurate credit
information, carelessness in checking that information, or
mistaken leniency in the matter of extending credit, generally
through ignorance of actual conditions.
The move of the Musical Merchandise Manufacturers'
Association in establishing an interchange of credit informa-
tion and the success that has already attended that work
should therefore prove of great interest to all branches of the
industry. It is practically impossible for one concern alone
to judge the credit and financial standing of a customer, but
in comparing experiences with others in the same line facts
are brought to light that often put a very surprising com-
plexion on the situation. It has been found, for instance, that
wholesalers and retailers who have had only a few hundred
dollars in past due accounts with one or two manufacturers
will be found to be deeply in debt when the records of all
the manufacturers are combined as one item, while on the
other hand, a wholesaler or retailer, carried by one concern
because of the size of his account, may be found to have few
liabilities because most of the purchases were from that one
house.
All this shows up in the credit report and it is as important
to those whose credit standing is under inspection as it is to
those to whom they are indebted. Every failure of a whole-
saler or retailer places some financial burden on the balance
of the trade. The losses must be covered, and it is the dis-
tributors who remain in business on a sound basis who ulti-
mately pay the score.
HE'S PREPARING FOR THE
COMEBACK OF THE PIANO
A
P R O M I N E N T piano merchant of the West, who
during the past couple of years has side-tracked his
piano business to a certain degree in order to
feature radio and other products with a more rapid
turnover, has found a sufficient revival in piano interest in
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
A p r i l , 1931