Music Trade Review

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The Jfusk jf/iade
Established 1879
VOL. 110-No. 5
THE
PIONEER
REVIEW
PUBLICATION
May, 1951
2,854th Issue
O F T H E MUSIC
I N D U S T R Y
Music Merchants Offer a Variety
Of Opinions on Piano Business
T
HE REVIEW recently made a sur-
vey on the state of the piano busi-
ness throughout the nation for the
first three months of this year, and from
the information received, there seems to
be no staple pattern surrounding the
business which was done in various sec-
tions of the country. Although some
spots in New England held their own,
on the whole the piano business in that
section of the country did not seem to
average up to what it was in some other
sections.
A well-known dealer in a city where
money is usually plentiful and the piano
business is usually on a par if not a
little better than some other sections of
the country, put it this way: "I am sorry
to advise that the first three months of
1951 fell far short of the first three
months of 1950. We attribute the let-
down in sales to several factors—people
are confused and hesitate to buy be-
cause our national leadership is con-
stantly fumbling and bungling in na-
tional affairs which affects the man on
the street. Wage and price laws are con-
fusing, and are not working; high prices
all holding up sales; cost of living cuts
too deeply into the pay envelope; too
much scare news out of Washington;
confusion causes hesitation and hinders
sales; Korean war bungling by the ad-
ministration ; listening too much to Eng-
land's aches and pains through Acheson,
Marshall and Truman appeasements;
complete distrust by the people on the
street of where the brass in Washington
are leading the U. S. A.*'
Public Not Shortage Concious
Another thought has been injected
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MAY, 1951
into this belief, such as, "People do not
believe there will be a shortage in what
they may want to buy for the next four
to six months. Distress sales are appear-
ing and Mr. Public is awaiting cut prices.
I am of the opinion, however, that the
piano business will be better in the late
summer and fall. Sales should be better
than average when people realize they
are really facing a shortage."
This dealer, similar to dealers in other
sections of the country, had a stock of
instruments 25 per cent in excess of what
he had last year. Many dealers report
that their stock is even greater in ex-
cess than that, and there is no doubt that
the large dealers throughout the country
are well-stocked with pianos, especially
those who have warehouse facilities
where they can keep an adequate stock
for some time to come.
New York
Coming out of New England and down
the coast into New York State, New Jer-
sey and down the east coast, the survey
shows that the piano business also was
spotty. New York seems to have been
favored with much better business than
some of the other locations, and New
York City had a very successful first
three months. The business in April has
been perhaps more of an ordinary char-
acter with one exception, and that is
that all the dealers in New York City-
have been experiencing sales of the
higher priced instruments, mostly grands
which run anywhere from SI 100 up. This
has been the character of business which
has been manifested since the first three
months; whereas the first three months'
business showed an increase and was of
more or less the usual character showing
that the masses were purchasing mer-
chandise at that time, which they do
not seem to be doing at present.
New Jersey
Down in New Jersey, the REVIEW
got the following from a well-known
dealer: "We have had a barely percep-
tible decline over the past several
months, but a steady one, nevertheless.
We increased our efforts to offset it, but
the decline continued; then last March
the drop in volume from the previous
March, 1950 was so large that we
thought we were back in the depression,
and all this in spite of our increased
efforts to stem the steady decline. We are
optimistic and believe that it will level
off and, in fact, should get very much
better again. I could give you a long
story about the time involved in pro-
tecting ourselves from the inroads of
taxes, government regulations, etc., time
that we used to give solely for the
achievement and development of our
business."
Pennsylvania
From Pennsylvania came the report
from a well-known music merchant that,
"In spite of the fact that there has been
a slump for about three weeks, we are
about 20 per cent ahead of last year.
This week has shown considerable ac-
tivity and we predict normal business
for the next three months, and we believe
it may continue through the summer as