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artisans and laborers in our cities. It
becomes in all, from the highest to
the lowest, a source of innocent and
intellectual pleasure and more im-
provement. It beguiles the hours of
sorrow and alleviates the cares of
business, while it diffuses through all
classes an increasing taste for the
enjoyment of the social and domestic
circle, harmonized and elevated un-
der the influence of music. Even the
higher sentiments of religion and
patriotism are powerfully stimulated
by its aid, as the national and sacred
character of the popular songs and
airs heard in public and private at
all times abundantly testify".
Well, the old hard-hitting brand
names competition went on and in 1869,
the industry's sales were up to 25,000
pianos. There are no piano figures for
10 years later, but only 20 years after-
wards, the industry was making 90,000
pianos annually.
By the turn of this Century, it was
over 100,000, by 1920, over 260,000
per year. And by that time, on every
economic level the industry had estab-
lished the fact that the piano was a
requisite for almost every home.
Meanwhile, there were coming along
these imitators, these copy cats, these
fellows with electric gadgets to compete
for the household dollar. Their crews
were out on the street, door to door,
doing a good job copy catting. They
were advertising, too, heavily.
Now, so far this is all incontrovertible
fact. Here comes the opinion, for what
it is worth.
Knew Specialty Selling
The music manufacturer and re-
tailer had forgotten more about special-
ty selling than these new fellows would
learn for a long time. They too were
not without funds for advertising. They
could have kept the piano right in there
as a universal favorite, a universal
home requisite.
For a while they evidently did just
that. While national advertising ex-
penditures did not quite match these
new competitors, the industry spent
about $70,000 in magazines alone in
1925 and the biggest musical instru-
ment volume in the history of the busi-
ness was done that year; $131,000,000
wholesale, (that would be just under
$200,00,00 in 1952 dollars) — $400.-
000,000 or more at retail. In the dol-
lars of those days, it was about $10.00
retail for every household in the
United States—or in 1952 dollars, it
would have been close to $15.00 for
every family.
Not bad, that peak, was it? Right
there in the running.
But what happened? More and more
of the dealers were beguiled by that
new gadget, the radio. It really began
with the phonograph. You could jusi
sit in the store and people would walk
in and buy these new gadgets, like
cigarettes. Seemed to save a lot of ef-
fort—a dangerous idea but an intrigu-
ing idea. Just turn our dollars and make
a profit.
Well, yes and no. It made sense to
sell the new big reputation, brand-
name radios. But you had an exclusive
on pianos and organs—any number of
kinds of dealers could sell radios—elec-
trical dealers and department stores
and even drug stores. It was inevitable
that price warring, mark-downs and
saturation might, from time to time,
make this "easy buck" a less easy one.
Did Manufacturers Lose Faith?
Now—still in the realm of opinion—
I believe the piano and organ manu-
facturer, too, lost some of his faith,
some of that faith that engenders faith
and that makes brand industries. I
believe he gave ground, failed to come
back in there, punching, with more ad-
vertising, more firm belief that people
wanted to make music as well as hear
music.
In a word, I beleive that the instru-
ment business didn't decline of natural
causes—that it was nearly killed by
the faltering of that old burning faith
that makes brands and makes brand
markets.
You know what happened. 15 years
later the volume of piano production
was half what is was in 1925 (and, of
course, even much lower than that, dur-
ing the bottom years of the depression).
By 1938, when the Selz survev was
made for the National Piano Manu-
facturers' Association, in contrast with
the almost universal distribution that
had previously existed, less than 50%
of the 5,000 representative families
interviewed owned pianos, and close to
half of the latter were more than 15
years old.
75% Pianos 15 Years Old
If the present published estimates
are correct, today only 20 to 25% of
American families have pianos—and at
recent rates of distribution—we know
that about 75% are more than 15 years
old.
From a 1921 peak of a little over
$10 annually per American family (or
about $15 if you translate the dollar
of the "20s into today's devalued dollar)
the per-consumer expenditure for musi-
cal instruments dropped to as low as
$1.50 at the bottom of the depression,
back to about $2 in 1940 and around
$4.50 per year, today.
Not a word of this is intended to
question the wisdom of many dealers
in adding the phonograph, radio and
later television to their lines. The trade
had a right to its share of the revenue
from these new devices, so closely re-
lated in appeal and purpose to the
products which first made the industry.
I merely say that I beleive that the
other diversion, the solid core and most
profitable aspect of the music business
could have been perpetuated in its full
dimensions and can still be restored,
if the principles and practices that had
built the industry in the first place,
had been maintained.
I say the old brand name faith
faltered, the faith that worlds could
be conquered. I say it can be—and in
some instances—is being rekindled.
Some of the defeatists who beleive
that the instrument aspect of your busi-
ness cannot be recaptured, that the de-
cline arose from immutable natural
causes, cite as one reason for their
belief, the increased diversity of family
interests, the heightened competition of
other interests, inside and outside of
the home. They call attention to the
mobility of families (thanks to the
automobile), the movies, golf, TV,
etc.!
Like Theodore Steinway, I am a
stamp collector. And in answer to this
view, he knows and I know that, in the
same period that piano sales declined,
philately, a strictly home hobby that,
like the musical instrument requires
some knowing and some doing, rose
to the highest level of popularity in its
history. The conclusion is inevitable
that the stamp trade was doing an ef-
fective selling job while some of the
music trade was accepting reasons why
it could not be done.
Composition vs. Income
The argument is advanced that there
are many more competing outlets for
the consumer dollar than there were
25 to 50 years ago. But the answer to
that is that the median income of the
American citizen is also about three
times what is was a quarter of a cen-
tury ago. an increase more than the
inflation of the dollar in the same
period.
As against these arguments, it is
clear that the phonograph, radio and
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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1952