PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago, Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable In advance. No extra
charge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell Its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing In the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be Indicated by the word "advertisement" In accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all Instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1920.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE NEWS OF THE
TRADE—ALL KINDS OF NEWS EXCEPT PERSONAL SLANDER
AND STORIES OF PETTY MISDEEDS BY INDIVIDUALS. PRESTO
WILL PRINT THE NAMES OF CORRESPONDENTS WHO SEND IN
"GOOD STUFF" OR ARE ON THE REGULAR STAFF. DON'T SEND
ANY PRETTY " SKETCHES, LITERARY ARTICLES OR "PEN-PIC-
TURES." JUST PLAIN NEWS ABOUT THE TRADE—NOT ABOUT
CONCERTS OR AMATEUR MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENTS, BUT
ABOUT THE MEN WHO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND
THOSE WHO SELL THEM. REPORTS OF NEW STORES AND
THE MEN WHO MAKE RECORDS AS SALESMEN ARE GOOD. OF-
TEN THE PIANO SALESMEN ARE THE BEST CORRESPONDENTS
BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE TO READ AND HAVE
THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FINDING OUT WHAT IS "DOING" IN
THE TRADE IN THEIR VICINITY. SEND IN THE NEWS-
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
FRIENDLY ENEMIES
Just a question in which the quality of judgment in a place of
power is given emphasis. It is involved in a suggestion that the
average music trade paper may do more harm by an eagerness to
do some good, than if it devoted itself wholly to discussing the
weather and the degree of tone possible to a tom-tom as compared
with a tin can. There was an illustration last week.
One of the conservative and ambitious New York piano man-
ufacturers found that, because of some of the necessarily arbitrary
demands of the late war, his affairs had become temporarily en-
tangled. He concluded that the better way was to ask for a re-
ceivership, and he did so. A neighboring piano manufacturer was
named to help straighten things out. There seemed very little
prospect of anyone suffering loss in the matter, and there was lit-
tle to expect but a quick return of the industry to its accustomed
activities. But, of course, the trade papers learned of the embar-
rassment and, as "newspapers," they saw an opportunity to prove
that they were worthy of the name. They burned to "print the
last news first," and they did it.
Of course there was really no news in it that could interest the
piano dealers. They had no responsibility in the matter. They
are busy selling pianos. They couldn't possibly find any inspira-
tion in the depressing circumstance of a New York factory's closing
its doors. They presumably took the trade papers for the helpful
suggestions they might find in them. They need the stimulation
that comes from stories of success, and the promptings to greater
effort and better progress. On the other hand, the temporarily
embarrassed manufacturer could only be harmed by the needless
trade paper publicity. It might obliterate a good share of the good
which he had done by paying the same trade papers for space in
their advertising pages. He had, doubtless, notified his friends and
creditors, so that there could be no news in that quarter.
And so the natural question under the circumstances is: What
December 18, 1920.
are the trade papers for? Is it any part of their business to temper
the itch for "news" into the leavening of common sense? Do they
owe anything to the other manufacturers who, while too strong to
suffer directly by such "journalism," may realize its hurtfulness
by reason of the psychologic effect upon the entire piano trade?
There is seldom, if ever, any gain in failure. There is never any
gain in the ethical sense or highest honor among men. The music
trade papers are usually well conducted. But there are few who
will deny that the hectic eagerness for "news" is liable to do more
harm than can be fully offset, or equalized, by the most profound
and proficient editorial columns. So far as Presto is concerned,
the line which filled the cover page "box" a short time back set
forth a cardinal principle. It was this: "We Print No News That
Can Onlv Hurt."
PRICE NOT ENOUGH
One of the powerful piano industries of New York says that
"reduced prices alone will not move goods." By which was meant
that even small figures are not enough to tempt many buyers in the
piano business. That is because, there being no standard of piano
prices, the public can not be expected to recognize opportunities when
they see them. In other words, salesmanship is necessary to sell
pianos.
Notwithstanding the ocean of wisdom that billows in the trade
press, and also elsewhere, there are no rules that fit piano selling
with anything like assurance. The only school of salesmanship is
in the piano wareroom, or out in the open where the "prospects" may
be found at their work or, better still, in their peaceful and all-too-
silent homes. The piano salesman is a psychologist, a hypnotist and,
above all, a hustler. If he's lazy, no matter how much he may know
about salesmanship, he can't sell pianos. And if he thinks that the
chief bait is in low prices, he may give pianos away, but he won't
sell many of them.
A piano dealer may stick his store window full of cheap signs;
he may make small figures six inches high and put a brigade of
"spielers" on the sidewalk to call in the passers-by, but he won't make
any money in that way. He might do better to hang out a red flag
and ring an auction bell, for that would put him out of business.
But unless the piano dealer is a hustler, or knows that species when
he hires his help, his low prices will not do much toward making him
wealthy. For there is no selling-inducement in price alone. To be
effective it must be supported by activity and salesmanship. The
quality of salesmanship must possess the kind of energy that not only
finds the "prospects," but also increases the prices by showing the
customers why cheap pianos are really costly ones as compared with
good pianos at better prices.
The piano trade is on the verge of new conditions resembling
those which once were old. It will depend upon the dealers them-
selves whether these conditions become such that selling pianos
may signify hard work, for little or nothing, and a descending scale
of dignity and satisfaction, or the maintenance of business self-
respect and legitimate profits in a legitimate trade—the best in the
world if conducted in a way befitting its purpose and character.
Forget price as the star argument. Sell instruments that de-
serve your good salesmanship and, if your customer demands the
price argument, let him understand that you can meet his require-
ments without sacrificing what is almost priceless—the distinction
and character of a fine instrument, to say nothing of your monetary
interest in it. Cheap pianos may still be possible, even now, but
pianos worthy of your energies can never be cheap.
SOME TRADE RUTS
There are ruts in the piano trade just as deep as that of the slacker
who sits in his store expecting business to come to him, as it has been
coming during the war period and the time since the war. It is a
rut for the piano manufacturer to look on his advertising as merely
an incident in his business instead of as an investment which, prop-
erly developed, should create cumulative trade expansion. And he
should realize that to produce results the co-operation of the adver-
tiser is essential. It is a very inexperienced and narrow-minded ad-
vertiser who looks for invariably direct results. Great fortunes have
never been made that way.
The average business man judges by what he himself sees or
deals in. Therefore his broader judgments outside his own line are
not to be trusted. He gets in such a rut studying about his own trade
world that he is bored to death if any one starts talking about mat-
ers and things that he can not envision over the gun-sights of his
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/