Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
feel confident that they are buying something that is
going to be practical and worthwhile. Several of the
manufacturers have publicly stated that color television
will not be available on a large scale for several years,
and it is also claimed that an all-electronic system, which
is now being studied, will be the color system of the
future. New developments are being created all the time,
and in our opinion not until a suitable system has been
developed reproducing true color and color telecasts
can also be seen on a black-and-white screen will the
argument be settled once and for all. It is, therefore, with
this thought in mind that dealers who sell television
perhaps may find a better feeling and a better outlook
for black-and-white sets now that credit terms have been
eased.
Why?
lE were looking over a report of piano work-
shops recently when we discovered a para-
graph which surprised us greatly, which
stated: 'One trip was made to Wichita on the invitation
of Friends University. This did not materialize as the
music merchants in the city were unwilling to get to-
gether and sponsor the program." Upon investigation,
we found that there were approximately a dozen music
merchants in this city of approximately 170,000 popula-
tion. Of course, there might have been some local reason
why the dealers did not wish to sponsor the program to
urge group piano lessons in the schools and show the
music teachers, both those connected with the educational
facilities of the city and the private teachers what a boon
piano instruction could be for them. However, the piano
workshops on the whole which have been held in other
cities have been so successful and the interest in group
piano lessons in the schools, colleges and parochial
schools has grown so perceptibly during the last 5 years
that it is really not understandable why any music mer-
chant should pass up the opportunity to create a promo-
tion, which in the long run is going to create sales for
him. As we have said before, there has been no promo-
tion devoted to the piano which has proved so successful
in getting the Boards of Education and musical directors
to institute piano classes in the schools, and we feel that
any music merchant who does not see the advantages in
this method of promoting music must .be a little short-
sighted. After all, all such promotions are being done
for his benefit as well as for the benefit of the students
who in later years will profit from having learned how
to play the piano in their youth. When the American
Music Conference approaches your town, Mr. Dealer,
don't give it the opportunity in its next report of stating
that the Piano Workshop "did not materialize as the
music merchants in the city were unwilling to get to-
gether and sponsor the program."
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, AUGUST, 1951
So This is the Piano Business
OMETIMES it takes a long time to sell a piano;
other times it doesn't. We hear some very interest-
ing tales regarding sales, as we drift about through-
out the retail establishments which we come in contact
with. For instance, on one of the most sultry and hottest
afternoons this month, a woman looked into the window
of one of the New York piano salons and saw an ebony
organ. She walked in and asked the salesman if they had
an ebony piano. She was told that they did, and she was
taken to the second floor and shown the ebony piano.
Sitting at the keyboard and playing, she wasn't very well
pleased with the tone, so she sat down to another instru-
ment but a mahogany one this time, and one that cost
approximately $200 more than the first one, and she
played and finally stated that she was very well pleased
with the tone of that piano, although she wished to have
an ebony piano. At least, that was her thought when she
came in. But she became so attached to the tone of the
other piano that she looked up to the salesman and said,
"Can you deliver this to my home this afternoon?" It
happened to be late on Friday and moving men don't
work on Saturday, but the delivery department of the
company was immediately contacted, and although the
piano could not be delivered on Friday, arrangements
were made to deliver it the next morning, and this cus-
tomer stated that she was perfectly willing to pay an
additional cost. So, the sale was consummated. In an-
other store, a gentleman looked in through the window,
stepped into the store, the salesman approached him and
he said to him, "How much is that piano there?" "The
price is $1,675", said the salesman. "I'll take it," he
said, and went to the desk and made out a check and the
piano was delivered the next day. You might call those
quick sales. On the other hand, in another store, a piano
which was finished in eggshell finish and hand-decorated
had been in the store for some time, and was used as a
window display piece several times, and the first month
it was put in the window a person appeared and asked
the price. The price was quoted and the person demur-
red. The next month he came in again, the piano was still
there, the prospect still demurred. This went on for 10
months afterwards, and each time the prospect intimated
he was waiting for the price to come down. On the 12th
month the salesman called him on the 'phone, asked him
if he bought a piano yet. The prospect said "no" but
expected to that week. So, he came in. The original price
quoted was still on the piano, but this time he bought it.
Editor
11