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SHEET MUSIC and BOOKS
CROUP OF POPULAR PUBLISHERS
ORGANIZE NEW DISTRIBUTING CENTER
A
DOZEN or so of the leading pub-
lishers of popular music in New
York have organized the Music
Dealers Service, Inc., for the purpose of
combining the shipping, bookkeeping and
credit departments of the several publishers
with a view to eliminating waste motion and
increasing efficiency. The new organization
has been in process of formation for some
time past and actually began to function on
Sept. 6 with headquarters at 619 West 54th
street, New York City.
A feature of the new arrangement that
will prove most interesting to both dealers
and jobbers is the fact that the same whole-
sale price will apply to individual dealers,
distributors and syndicate buyers. This price
is fixed by the publisher, as has been the
practice in the past, and will be subject to
absolutely no discount, the small dealer pay-
ing the same price as the largest buyer.
The firms which organized Music Dealers
Service, Inc., are: Ager, Yellen & Bornstein;
Irving Berlin, Inc.; Shapiro, Bernstein &
Co.; Leo Feist, Inc.; Donaldson, Douglas &
Gumble; DeSylva, Brown & Henderson;
Witmark; Remick; Harms, Inc.; Famous
Music Corp.; Santley Brothers, and Mills
Music, Inc.
The officers are as follows: E. F. Bitner,
president; E. H. Morris, vice-president; Rob-
ert Crawford, secretary; Louis Bernstein,
treasurer, and Saul Bornstein, assistant treas-
urer. The executive committee is: Saul
Bornstein as chairman; Robert Crawford and
Walter Douglas as additional members. Mor-
ris Richmond as general manager.
Just what effect the new organization will
have upon music jobbers generally is a mat-
ter of speculation. Whether they will or can
afford to handle the publications of those
publishers in the new group remains to be
seen, though undoubtedly they will continue
to handle the releases of the numerous pub-
lishers outside of the organization. It is
maintained that the Music Dealers Service,
Inc., will prove a direct advantage to the
dealer by providing a central distributing
bureau to supply his needs and perhaps
eventually bring other benefits in the matter
of reduced costs. Although only a dozen
companies are among the charter members
of the new organization, it is said that any
music publisher can arrange to have his
publication handled by the service on exactly
the same basis as the charter member.
The views of dealers regarding the new
service vary considerably. The smaller
dealer as a rule favors the new arrange-
ment as simplifying his ordering problem
and giving him an even break in the matter
of wholesale prices, while the larger buyers,
and particularly the syndicates, while not
waxing enthusiastic over the plan, are in-
clined to withhold comment until it is tested
in actual operation.
The men who are active in the new service
all enjoy reputations for outstanding ability
in music publishing circles and this factor,
of course, is calculated to promote confidence
in the soundness and stability of the plan.
It is quite evident that several other pub-
lishers will join in the movement as soon
as it is in full operation.
COMPOSERS-BROADCASTERS
AGREE ON COPYRIGHT FEES
collect that revenue as a "sustaining" charge
in addition to increasing it with the new per-
centage tax. The total time sold to clients
on the air last year brought to the broadcast-
ing stations between $50,000,000 and $60,-
000,000, according to Mr. Mills. Based on
the $50,000,000 figure, the society would de-
rive $1,500,000 in the first year under the
new tax, $2,000,000 the second year and $2,-
500,000 the third year, in addition to the
"sustaining" charge.
The long-waged battle between composers
and broadcasters over payment for the use
of copyrighted music on the radio, which
reached a deadlock in July, resulted in an
amicable agreement last month when the
National Association of Broadcasters con-
sented to pay the American Society of Com-
posers, Authors and Publishers a substantially
increased annual fee.
The terms of the new three-year license,
effective on September 1, require the broad-
casters to pay a 3 per cent tax for the first
year on the net receipts from the sale of
time on the air, a 4 per cent fee for the sec-
ond year and a 5 per cent toll for the third
year. In addition, a "sustaining" license
fee, equivalent to the toll exacted under the
present system of flat assessment, is required.
The terms of the new contract were an-
nounced by E. C. Mills, general manager of
the society-
The society derived about $933,000 from
its present system of flat assessments on
broadcasting stations during 1931, and will
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
Crawford Now in Control
.Robert Crawford, generally recognized as
one of the most active figures in the pop-
ular music publishing field, has purchased
the interest of his remaining partners, Lew
Brown and Ray Henderson, in the publish-
ing house of DeSylva, Brown & Henderson,
Inc., and now owns the company outright.
B. G. DeSylva disposed of his interests in
the company some time ago.
TO COMPOSE MUSIC FOR
PROGRESS EXPOSITION
Two leading contemporary American com-
posers have accepted invitations extended to
them by Rufus C. Dawes to prepare special
works for presentation in the Music program
of A Century of Progress Exposition—
Chicago's 1933 World's Fair. They are John
Alden Carpenter of Chicago and Howard
Hanson of Rochester.
Mr. Carpenter has been commissioned to
write an ode for soloists, chorus and grand
orchestra to celebrate the opening of the
Exposition, June 1, 1933. Dr. Hanson has
been commissioned to write a work in what-
ever form he wishes to be performed later
in the Summer.
Mr. Carpenter is a native of Chicago and
holds an enviable place among American
musicians and composers. He has to his
credit a list of compositions in the larger
form, all of which have been heard fre-
quently in Europe.
THE 1932 REVENUE ACT
AND THE MUSIC TRADE
(Continued from page 8)
required to pay them nor entitled to charge
them to your account. This procedure would
be useful where numerous payroll checks are
drawn. The New York Clearing House has
suggested this method and has drawn forms
of agreement which are very interesting.
If you use electrical energy you are taxed
3 per cent provided the energy is not used
for industrial consumption. By industrial
consumption is meant, among other things,
manufacturing or processing.
There is a tax of 2 x /\ cents a pound on
tires and 4 cents a pound on tubes; auto-
mobile trucks carry a 2 per cent tax, pas-
senger cars a tax of 3 per cent; automobile
accessories, such as spark plugs, coils, etc.,
are taxed 2 per cent; there is a 5 per cent
tax on mechanical refrigerators and a 10
per cent tax on sporting goods and cameras.
All the foregoing taxes are based on the
manufacturer's sale price.
Only a few of the excise taxes have been
mentioned, but I believe they are sufficient
to give you an idea of the varying rates
and the taxes which arbitrarily affect some
businesses to the exclusion of others, of
which condition the music trade is undoubt-
edly one of the victims. I am sure the
readers will agree that a general Sales Tax
would have been economically better for the
country and less objectionable to the tax-
payers than the income and excise taxes
decreed under the new law.
Robert Teller Sons & Dorner
Music Engravers and Printers
W. C. Handy, whose "St. Louis Blues"
comes close to being a classic, has just writ-
ten a new number of much promise, entitled,
"Way Down South Where the Blues Began."
REVIEW,
August-September,
1932
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