PRESTO
November 18, 1922.
the name of his piano after he has bought it, even if it happens to be
one of the "broadcasted" kind, unless it is one of the rare old timers
which have also had the strenuous efforts of the trade through a half-
century or so.
All advertising is good advertising if it tells the truth. All ad-
vertising of local kind will sell pianos and is doing it every day. Broad-
cast advertising may be made good by an adequate investment per-
sisted in year after year. But the "tricks of the trade" in the piano
business are such that the broadcast advertising may be turned
against the piano advertised unless it is one with representatives so
thoroughly distributed and so loyal, as to insure co-operation through-
out the entire advertised field.
If the piano advertised has' some very distinctive claim, the case
may be different. A good illustration is the "nationally advertised"
Gulbransen. The purpose of the broadcast advertising was based
upon the fixed price—something almost unique, coupled with the char-
acter of the instruments and a featured trade-mark. Advertising with
no feature by which to make a dent upon the public mind, beyond
the fact that it is a piano, must face a long and very expensive cam-
paign before the prejudice of competing retailers and the tireless
opposition of rival salesmen, can insure a return from the investment.
It is this that makes the trade paper advertising profitable. The
trade paper, read by the active dealers and their salesmen, finds the
local influences without which no piano can win. And the trade pa-
per goes beyond the printed adv. and tells the dealers not only how to
buy, but also how to sell the instruments of which they read in the
trade papers.
A WARNING
In the Sheet Music Department of Presto, this week, there is an
article which has in it the possibilities of money saving and avoidance
of disappointment and discouragement by a large class of earnest
music-lovers. It is the article by Mr. T. Rogers Lyons who for a long-
time conducted the Sheet Music columns of Presto and who is still
a forceful contributor.
We know of no other writer who has given so much thought to
the music publishing business, and especially to the correcting of the
false pretense phases of that business, as Mr. Lyons. Years ago,
when the "song wanted" fake first began to grow into proportions,
Mr. Lyons took hold of the deception and so thoroughly exposed its
inner workings that, as a result, a number of the perpetrators of
the schemes were suppressed.
Today the "song wanted" and "poems wanted" enterprises are
more numerous than before and Mr. Lyons has again taken a broad
glance at the workings of the schemes and has been applying correc-
tive measures. His article this week is the most decisive that has yet
appeared. It answers scores of inquirers who have written to Presto
asking for advice. Only last week a correspondent told of his expe-
riences. What he said precisely coincides with Mr. Lyons' precau-
tion and this week's warning is so forceful that no reader of this paper
need be misled, or have any misunderstanding on the subject.
This week, also, in the Sheet Music Department, is a letter from
another song writer who thinks he has been victimized. His story is
identical with scores which have come to Presto's sheet music editor.
The warnings which were sounded years ago by Mr. Lyons were,
for a time, productive of results. They put a quietus upon the activ-
ities of several very dangerous schemers, in the East. But in the
meantime other "song wanted" frauds have sprung up and given to
all of the enterprises of that kind, good and bad alike, the color of
fraud.
The business of song publishing has improved some during the
past year. The class of publishers has become better and the rule
of a sort of monopoly has, in a measure, been broken. There are
independent publishers whose offerings are meeting with encourage-
ment because they are worthy of success and not dependent alto-
gether upon the vodeville stage and the loud-voiced yawpers of the
department store counters, placed there by the publishers to sing
whatever the crowds may applaud and sell anything they like, irre-
spective of the faint semblance of printed sheet to the noises made
by the singers.
In other words, there are signs that the business of sheet music
publishing may return again to the respectable place it once occupied
in the trade and musical world. But until then the warning sounded
again this week by Mr. Lyons is something all ambitious song
writers and poetasters may well pay heed to.
The value of a piano's name is admitted. All retail piano dealers,
and all salesmen know the pianos they sell. They may not know
much about the other pianos. To every piano salesman there is a
value in the piano names they see in the trade papers. Other pianos,
the names of which they do not see in their trade papers are as un-
known to them as if they had never existed. There are exceptions,
but this is the rule. It pays any dealer to sell pianos that are adver-
tised in the trade papers. Presto's "Where Doubts Are Dispelled"
alone bears witness to this fact.
* * *
Can there be too much music? A very intelligent and successful
piano merchant says there can be, and that the signs arc that there is
too much, even now, for the good of the trade. He believes that the
people who should buy pianos may be "fed up" with music to such an
extent that the piano at home may lose its savor and be neglected—
where it should do the greatest good. It is a case of "too much of a
good thing." While we do not altogether agree with the piano mer-
chant, in a sense there is reason in what he says.
'r*
*p
***
The latest in piano selling is a sliding installment scale upwards,
the customer paying a dollar or more down and increasing every
month by only fifty cents until the first year has passed, and continu-
ing at the last month's rate until the instrument is paid for in full.
The first payment so often influences the sale that the plan is fa-
vored, often, though we are not necessarily recommending it—only
telling about it.
* * *
The live piano dealers are the best possible advertisers of pianos
to the public. They are as vitally interested in the instruments they
sell locally as are the manufacturers themselves in a broader sense.
And the dealers have no good reason for working hard to advertise
pianos the makers of which are not sufficiently enterprising to adver-
tise their own products.
TRADE SHOWS STRONG
FAVOR FOR POOLE GRANDS
perienced order getter in many a day. Mr. Fabyan
is expected at headquarters this week, but will not
remain long there. Like Mr. Poole, he will set out
to achieve more sales triumphs.
MUNZ SIGNS UP AS
EXCLUSIVE KNABE ARTIST
Ava W. Poole, President of Poole Piano Co., Boston,
Pleased at Factory Conditions.
NEW PORTLAND, ORE., STORE.
Famous Young Pianist Associated with the Ampico,
for Which He Has Recorded.
Ava W. Poole, president of the Poole Piano Co.,
Boston, is preparing to set out on another trip, al-
though he has only just returned from a long and
successful one seeing the trade of the Middle West.
The orders taken by Mr. Poole in his recent trip no
doubt accounted for a considerable part of the activ-
ity visible in all departments of the Poole Piano
Co.'s factory at Landsdowne and Auburn streets,
Cambridge.
Mr. Poole is particularly proud of the interest of
the dealers in the Poole grands, which of course re-
flects the favor for the instrument by their discrim-
inative customers.
The grand department in the
Poole factory is ope of the busiest. But all depart-
ments show a cheering state of activity. For the past
month overtime has been a common occurrence in
the factory.
Dan Fabyan, traveler for the Poole Piano Co., is
winding up a trip which the officials of the company
say has been the most successful fall trip of the ex-
L. A. Willard, associated with Bert Guisness, has
opened a new music store at 354 Yamhill street,
Portland, Ore., which they have named "The Music
Shop." Mr. Willard is well known to the trade, hav-
ing been with the Lipman, Wolfe & Co. in the piano
department for the past seven years. They will carry
the Starr Piano Co. line of pianos, Sonora phono-
graph, Gennett records and Columbia records, sheet
music, small goods, and have established a record
exchange.
ASKS FOR DISSOLUTION.
Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Nichols, in Al-
bany, N. Y., last week signed an order naming Wil-
liam Hawver temporary receiver for Riders Music
Stores, Inc., 530 Warren street, Hudson, N. Y. The
company had applied to the court for voluntary dis-
solution stating that it was insolvent. John J. Moy
was appointed referee and announced a hearing on
the matter on November 25.
Mieczyslaw Munz, a young pianist who made the
most brilliant American debut reported so far this
season by the New York daily press, is an exclusive
Knabe and Ampico artist. Not only were the critics
superlatively enthusiastic over this newcomer, but in
some cases particular mention was made of the tone
of the Knabe which he was playing.
Mr. Munz made his actual American debut on Oc-
tober 5 at a private recital in the Ampico Studios,
New York. His first public hearing, however, took
place on October 20th in Aeolian Hall, when the
auditorium was genuinely crowded with experts and
enthusiasts who were aware of the young Polish pian-
ist's European reputation.
Mr. Munz has already made several brilliant re-
cordings for the Ampico. He will also be available
for a limited number of Ampico comparison concerts.
Orion Nobles has returned to the sales force of the
Thearle Music Co., San Diego, Calif.
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