PRESTO
The American Music Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
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,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Chicago. Illinois.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable In advance. No extra
charge in United States possessions. 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.
Photographs of general trade interest are always welcome, and when used. If of
special concern, a charge will be made to cover cost of the engravings.
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-
rtted and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1923
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
IT IS NOT CUSTOMARY WITH THIS PAPER TO PUBLISH REGU-
LAR CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANY POINTS. WE, HOWEVER,
HAVE RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN NEW YORK, BOSTON,
SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, MIL-
WAUKEE AND OTHER LEADING MUSIC TRADE CENTERS, WHO
KEEP THIS PAPER INFORMED OF TRADE EVENTS AS THEY HAP-
PEN. AND PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE REAL NEWS
OF THE TRADE FROM WHATEVER SOURCES ANYWHERE AND
MATTER FROM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS, IF USED, WILL BE
PAID FOR AT SPACE RATES. USUALLY P;[ANO MERCHANTS OR
SALESMEN IN THE SMALLER CITIES, ARE THE BEST OCCA-
SIONAL CORRESPONDENTS, AND THEIR ASSISTANCE IS INVITED.
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Forms close promptly at noon every Thursday. News matter for
publication should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the same
day. Advertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, five p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy should be in
hand by Monday noon preceding publication day. Want advs. for cur-
rent week, to insure classification, must be at office of publication not
later than Wednesday noon.
CONVENTION DISPLAYS
There seems to be more interest in piano displays in connection
with the approaching convention than ever before. It is in keeping
with the strange human characteristic which causes us to want what
he haven't got, and to consider lightly that which we have.
When a big piano exhibit was planned, as a part of the annual
convention, the opposition was large. When it was decided that too
much "commercialism" would be bad for the trade and industry, there
arose a demand for the exposition. And on the four occasions when
exhibitions were made, the interest was inadequate to draw at-
tendances sufficiently large.
This year there will be no regularly organized exposition. But
there will, nevertheless, be more instruments displayed than ever be-
fore at any of the conventions. Two months in advance of the begin-
ning of the meeting at the Drake, in Chicago, Presto had received a
score or more of letters asking about the possibilities of making
special displays. The Association executives issued particulars of the
plans for exhibitors, and the hotels announced that special.provision
would be made for space. The response was such that reservations
came in in such numbers that most of the desirable show rooms have
been spoken for. And arrangements are still being made, some man-
ufacturers who have never before participated in the convention ef-
forts being first in the liberality of their preparations.
So that the dealers who come to the June convention will not lack
opportunities for examining the instruments in which they may be in-
April 21, 1923
terested, or in which their local competitors find their strength. It
will be a convention in which "commercialism" will have a good share.
The "business end" of it will not be hidden. There will be a great deal
of buying and selling, and the things which so deeply concerned the
convention leaders of old will be for
And the last sentence suggests the change which has come over
the piano trade since the first convention twenty-six years ago. At
that time the uppermost topics had to do with the ethics of the busi-
ness. It was to denounce the "stencil," to curb "unfair advertising,"
to kill the "coupon," and to find some way by which to save members
from the pitfall of poor credit. Now it is how to sell more pianos and
get the money for them as quickly as possible.
It is, in other words, "business," good business and more of it. It
is how to make great old pianos greater, and newer pianos better
known ; how to meet the needs of the dealers, and how to hold the
most educational and most domesticated of all instruments in the
place it has won during the near-century since it began in America.
There are conditions, almost vital to individual piano industries,
to be considered. And the large number of special exhibits next June
will afford the opportunities.
RADIO ROYALTIES
Just now there is a good deal of newspaper excitement over the
rights and wrongs of the tax placed upon radio broadcasting of copy-
righted popular music. In this issue of Presto will be found an edi-
torial from the New York Times, in which an attempt is made to
analyze the complicated situation. As is usual in such matters, the
dispute is between the association, or combination, that controls a
good share of the popular music copyrights, and the broadcasting sta-
tions. The public has little to do with it and nothing at all to say by
way of what may be its rights.
The condition is similar to the one presented a few years back
when the "composers" organized and demanded that they be paid
for all public performances of the children of their inspiration, labor,
genius, or skill, in adapting old musical ideas to new settings. The
courts sustained the association and it was believed that the result
would mean the shattering of popular music.
But no such result followed, though there did come the combina-
tion of publishers by which the aspirations of aspiring music makers
were nipped in the bud. And today the radio opens up the old dispute
still more widely, but with quite different aspects.
It will be noticed that the New York Times editorial likens the
broadcasters to phonograph records for which the consumers must
pay, whereas the radio exacts nothing for its transmission beyond the
initial cost of the receiving set. The comparison seems far-fetched.
In the case of the phonograph record the "consumer" makes his own
selection. He buys what he wants and enjoys its performance at will.
The radio brings to him whatever the sending station chooses, and
often the "music" is not acceptable to the "consumer" who waits long
for the "bed-time story," the political harangue, or the tiresome ser-
mon to subside. As often as otherwise, not a sound or song comes to
his waiting ears that is really welcome or refreshing. Does he care to
be taxed for the possession of his radio set, as is proposed by the
copyright-controlling association of publishers and composers?
Perhaps the ablest writer on the subject of popular songs, and
their effect upon the public intelligence, is Mr. T. Rogers Lyons who,
in Musical Times, has denounced what he calls the "strangle-hold"
which has been put upon the music-loving public. That gentleman is
an advocate of the "independent" publishers and composers, and he
proposes that the/public performers and radio stations let the "con-
sumer" have music that is not controlled by the "trust."
The plan seems to be about the only one by which the radio
lovers can hear popular music without submitting to a tax for some-
thing they may not want. Furthermore, under existing publishing
conditions, it is the only plan by which aspiring independent song
writers and publishers can be insured a wide-spread hearing of their
offerings. It is Mr. Lyons' suggestion that publishers outside the
association print upon their copyrights a notice that they are tax free,
and may be sung or performed at all times at the will of the singer or
program maker.
It is a somewhat singular condition that a few years ago it was
customary with the publishers to pay liberally to have their copyrights
used in the concert rooms. Balladists, negro minstrels, and other
"artists," were engaged at considerable cost to help introduce the
latest songs. Today the singers and managers are penalized for pre-
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/