Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Fifth Year ofAMC Will Find it Working
Toward New Highs for Music Industry
A
S it approaches its fifth year, the
American Music Conference pro-
gram to expand musical activity
finds its effectiveness increasing con-
stantly in all areas. It is in high gear
and gaining momentum that makes each
month's activity bring more results than
the previous month's.
One of the best ways of measuring
this is to observe what is happening in
the fields AMC set out to develop. One
of the basic objectives was to increase
the awareness of the public toward music
and its benefits and to motivate them
to make music a greater part of their
lives. A weather vane of public inter-
est in any subject is the amount of at-
tention it receives in the newspapers,
magazines, radio, television and other
media of expression. That music is at
a high level of such interest is seen
by the fact that several major maga-
zines now for the first time carry either
series of articles on musical participa-
tion or devote special issues to the sub-
ject. Newspapers devote more space
more often to long articles on musical
activities in their communities. Dis-
cussions of musical topics are more
frequent on the radio. Magazines like
the Saturday Evening Post have carried
a number of covers and other illustra-
tions showing youngsters in musical
activity. That excellent weather vane
of what the public is interested in—
the humorous magazine cartoon—deals
frequently today with music lessons and
practice.
Arriving at this much higher level of
ERLANDSON
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indifference or to encourage your sales
people to insult customers.
Promotion of music is fully as impor-
tant as ever before. It may be even more
important, due to the accelerating inter-
est in music in times like these, in face
of a somewhat curtailed production. Get-
ting more music to more people is any-
thing but a static operation, and this
huge and dramatic task falls to the
American Music Conference. The Top
Management Session at the Convention
will feature the "Promotion Outlook" in
equal ratio with retailing and produc-
tion.
A salesmanship session will occupy a
full morning to help management further
fulfill its responsibilities to sales per-
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, JUNE, 1951
by LOUIS G. LaMAIR, President
American Music Conference
LOUIS G. LaMAIR
interest in music has required several
years of constant effort, building up
momentum to the point where sugges-
tions for this material come to editors,
writers and artists from what they see
and hear about them. The publicity
work done by AMC since 1947 can be
compared to the firing pin on the bomb
that starts the action going. Much of
the increased material is inspired by
the material AMC instigates, in a sort
of chain reaction.
Marked Effect on Sales
It is not a coincidence that the sales
of the music industry have shown this
same increasing trend. Piano sales—
always a good barometer of the level
sonnel. Sales people—good ones—are
golden. Many may be psychologically
affected by talk of shortages and ask,
"Should I seek employment elsewhere?"
Some good sales people have already
been hired away, others have been called
to the colors. Manpower problems may
become serious. Employment is at a
high level, unemployment is very low.
Merchants must prepare themselves to
get the maximum from their present
sales forces, hold on to their men, and
give adequate training to new people
to fill the gap of those lost. It's not
easy, but a management problem which
we can help you solve at the Convention.
Fifty Years Young
This year the National Association of
Music Merchants is observing its Fiftieth
Year of service to the music industry. I
of music business—broke all recent
records in 1950. Sales of other musical
merchandise were equally good. Fig-
ures of the Census Bureau show that
in every month of last year the increase
in sales of music stores rose faster than
the general level of business—outpacing
the demand for basic goods. And the
music industry is the only important
industry that showed a decline in sales
during the years just before the war!
This heightened level of interest in
music, reflected in increased musical
activity, is paralleled by the increasing
acceptance of music in the schools.
While no accurate figures are possible
on the number of children who are re-
ceiving instruction as part of their school
work, reports in the press and the bulle-
tins of educational organizations indi-
cate that hundreds of school systems
have inaugurated such programs or ex-
panded them during the past year. The
field men of AMC, in their work in all
sections of the country, find a much
greater enthusiasm among educators,
teachers, recreation workers and others
for their know-how and help in increas-
ing musical activities. This includes a
growing demand for guidance in the
fields of class piano, class strings, band
and orchestra instrument instruction,
vocal instruction, music in recreation,
church music and other areas. Where
three years ago, when the field work of
AMC was started with one man, it was
necessary to develop opportunities to
afford this help, today the demand is
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feel quite proud that fortune has given
me the opportunity to be the President
of this fine organization at the Golden
Anniversary mark. One cannot help but
feel humble in deference to all our past
officers and directors to whom the credit
must go, in accounting for the stature
of the NAMM on its half-century birth-
day. I am grateful, however, that at this
milestone we have an association that
has grown stronger through the years,
by delivering a service where and when
it is needed. It is my sincere ambition
that when the century mark is reached,
we will have grown again and fifty
times stronger than now. Let us all hope
that our successors then may look back
to declare that perhaps the first fifty
years were neither the hardest, nor the
best.
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