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Music Trade Review

Issue: 1945 Vol. 104 N. 4

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com --
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Betty B. Borin
Circulation Manager
HE statement that exclusive piano dealer franchises
are practically extinct is so far from the truth that
it is pathetic. Pathetic because hundreds of dealers
throughout the country who have been operating under
the exclusive franchises of various manufacturers for
years are patiently waiting for the day that they will receive
•relief again by getting instruments from these manufac-
turers. We know very few, if any, manufacturers who do
not operate with dealers direct, under an exclusive fran-
chise. Once a manufacturer establishes a good dealer in
a territory, that dealer is protected and if he does the right
kind of a business and builds the right kind of prestige
in his territory for the piano he sells, as well as for him-
s If, the manufacturer will stick to him until the cows
come home. If, as Mr. Glasser says, he knows the piano
business he has either been ill advised or should know
better than make that statement.
Published monthly at 510 RKO Building, Radio
City, 1270 Sixth Avenue, New York 20, N. Y.
War Retarded Piano Progress
The
REVIEW
Established 1879
CARLETON CHACE, Editor
Alexander Hart
N. R. Rapp
Technical Editor
Associate Editor
Telephones: Cl rcle 7 - 5842 - 5843 - 5844
Vol. IC4
APRIL, 1945
No. 4
Business —As We See It
W
E have waited until this issue to answer the
article entitled "The Piano Industry—Has It a
Future or Only a Past" written by Harry A.
Glasser, vice president of the Colin-Gruhn Co., New York,
which was published in our February issue. We thought it
better to wait until we also had other answers, for which
we have offered a prize and which
appear on other pages of this issue.
So here goes! When Mr. Glasser
says that "in the average home the
piano is no longer exclusively a
musical instrument at all" he is just
about 10% right. No better proof
of this has been the sales of used
pianos which have taken place dur-
ing the time that new pianos have
not been manufactured, i.e., since
Carieton c/ioee
July 31, 1942. It may interest him
to know that in that period nearly a million pianos have
been sold and that over 90% of them have been sold
pianos, and well over three-quarters of this 90% have been
old uprights sold, as is, or remodeled. If people had not
wanted them for musical instruments they would not have
bought them. These figures are based on a survey which
we made last year in May at which time it was revealed
that in the 20 months since pianos had ceased to be
manufactured 570,000 pianos had been sold, 53% of which
were old pianos. Since that time another year has rolled
around, new pianos have become a rarity and the sales
of old pianos have predominated. To us there can be no
better proof that first of all people who buy pianos want
a musical instrument.
10
HIS brings us to his next statement that "the piano
industry will have to undergo a drastic overhauling,
and sell through entirely new channels, if it is to
stop shriveling up. get back on its feet, etc." We might
remind Mr. Glasser that if it had not been for the war the
piano industry would be very much on its feet. It had not
been found necessary either, to sell through Tom, Dick and
Harry as he suggests. From 1932 when the depression
hit the business and production fell off to 27,000 instru-
ments the sale of pianos steadily increased until it had
reached 160,000 in 1941. When piano manufacturing was
terminated in 1942 production was headed for 200,000 that
year. We mention this because it certainly refutes Mr.
G'asser's argument that pianos must be sold through addi-
tional outlets. Furthermore, although, new styling played
some part in bringing back the piano consciousness of the
public, the primary promotion which gave it a tremendous
start, was piano lessons to children in the public schools
which was started way back in 1926. That is where the
ground work was laid. By 1935 when the new styling
came along the children who had started taking piano
lessons in 1926 had become of an age that they required
a modern instrument, their parents were pleased with the
new styling and the demand commenced to increase. So
again musical appreciation became the foundation for a
better appreciation of the basic of all musical instruments
and it again became a distinction to have a piano in the
home.
Pianos Are 80% Made by Hand
A CCORDING to Mr. Glasser, piano manufacturers will
y===\ be producing pianos from an assembly line after
-**- - ^ - the war. This takes us back to many years ago
when a new manager of a certain piano manufacturing
plant installed a machine to turn out pilasters and trusses
pronto. It was such a good idea that this machine, which
cost several thousand dollars, turned out enough trusses
and pilasters in four weeks for the entire output for the
year. For the next forty-eight weeks it stood idle. Nice
going. It must be remembered that the piano is a specialty
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, APRIL, 1945
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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
FftMQUS HOPPER
P1RNOS
instrument made by men who have been schooled in piano
craftsmanship for many years. Therein lies its intrinsic
worth. We have yet to learn that machines can belly a
soundboard, string a piano, tune a piano, install and
regulate an action, can chip hammers, can assemble
a piano action, or can assemble a piano case, fit in the
piano action and many other operations which must be
done by hand. There may be several improved methods
which have been discovered by manufacturers due to their
war work, but they apply chiefly to the treatment of woods
and the use of plywood plastics. However, the personal
touch in producing a piano for tone quality and musical
worth will always prevail and it will be a long time, if
ever, before pianos will be produced from an assembly
line.
*
*
•
Takes a Piano Man to Retail Pianos
UE to the prospect of mass production that Mr.
Glasser suggests, he also advises piano manufac-
turers to appoint distributors. Then he states that
through the distributors pianos should be sold to most any
kind of outlet including specialty shops, etc. If Mr. Glasser
had taken the time to look into the facts and discovered
how many establishments had tried to sell pianos when
they knew nothing about the business, and had failed, he
would not have made that suggestion. For some reason it
takes a piano man to be successful in selling pianos. De-
partment stores have found this out. Many have tried to
sell pianos without a piano manager and have made a
failure of it unless they have finally placed a piano man
in charge. Many furniture stores have had a similar ex-
perience. When he says that pianos should be sold as
furniture he should look into the results that some stores
have had when this was tried. It just doesn't work. As
statistics show, less than ten per cent of the pianos sold
are sold as furniture. For manufacturers to appoint dis-
tributors would only be inviting trouble. The business
being of a special character it is much more advisable to
conduct it direct with the dealer. Furthermore, at the
)
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, APRIL, 1945
present writing dealers will have to pay so much for new
pianos that to add another ten or fifteen per cent for a
distributor would be fatal. Secondly, to invite the same
situation which prevails in other lines sold through dis-
tributors would also be a mistake. The piano business has
at last been forced into a list price system. The retail
prices are fixed. For years piano merchants have steered
clear of the radio business because of the pathetic discount
basis on which a large amount of this business is being
done, or at least was being done before the war, by un-
scrupulous dealers. Piano dealers will only handle the
higher priced radio-phonographs on which there is a list
price and on an exclusive franchise basis. In this way they
are protected and can do the type of business they are
accustomed to which builds prestige for their house and
the product which they handle. Furthermore, at the pres-
ent time hundreds of dealers are waiting, after finding
devious methods of remaining in business during the war,
for the piano lines they have been accustomed to represent.
There is such a thing as loyalty. It is an attribute inherent
in the piano industry and until such time as loyal repre-
sentatives of piano lines have been taken care of outsiders
must wait.
*
* *
Spinets—Forty
Inches or Less?
EVERAL dealers have asked our opinion regarding
the height of spinet pianos for postwar demand. We
must admit that the smaller pianos are very attractive.
Much depends on whether a prospect is buying for tone
or style. Statistics show so far, that purchasers must be
buying pianos for their musical worth rather than looks,
otherwise so many old uprights would not have changed
hands during the war period. On the other hand the ordin-
ary purchaser knows little about tone. Tone to them is
what pleases the ear. But, we believe that those who are
musicians, or aspire to be, will choose a piano with maxi-
mum string length and soundboard area in preference to
a smaller one. We also believe that should there be no
pianos less than forty inches manufactured the piano busi-
ness will still be good. It is still a moot question.

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