Presto

24
PRESTO
October 25, 1924.
SHEET MUSIC AND RADIO
PUBLISHING CENSUS
Data of Music Printing for 1923 Compared
with 1921 Released This Week by
Department of Commerce.
The Department of Commerce announces that, ac-
cording to the data collected at the biennial census of
manufacturers, 1923, the establishments engaged pri-
marily in music printing and publishing reported a
total output valued at $14,600,973, of which amount
$4,457,308 was contributed by establishments which
both printed and published music and $10,143,665 by
those which had their printing done by others. The
rate of increase in the total value of products as
compared with 1921, the last preceding census year,
was 4.1 per cent.
In addition, music is printed and published to
some extent by establishments engaged primarily in
other branches of the printing and publishing indus-
try, but the output of music by such establishments
is relatively small.
Of the 109 establishments reporting for 1923, 48
were located in New York, 17 in Illinois, 10 in Massa-
chusetts, 8 in Ohio, 7 in Pennsylvania, 4 in Missouri,
and the remaining 15 in Arkansas, California, Con-
necticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ne-
braska, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia.
The statistics for 1923 and 1921 are summarized in
a statement. The figures for 1923 are preliminary
and subject to such correction as may be found neces-
sary upon further examination of the returns. The
figures for 1921 are in parenthesis:
Number of establishments, 109, (107).
Persons engaged, 2,816, (2,406); proprietors and
firm members, 55, (75); salaried employes, 1,845,
(1,431).
Wage earners (average number) 916, (900); maxi-
mum month, November 947, December (918); mini-
mum month, June 896, January (873); per cent of
maximum, 94.6, (95.1).
Salaries and wages, $4,713,298, ($4,187,584); salaries,
$3,353,618, ($2,940,721); wages, $1,359,680, ($1,246,-
863).
Cost of materials (including fuel and containers),
$2,251,078, ($2,016,311).
Products, total value, $14,600,973, ($14,024,672);
printing and publishing, $4,457,308, ($5,101,919); pub-
lishing without printing, $10,143,665, ($3,922,753).
BROADCASTING AND SALES
Football and Politics, Which Call for Great
Activity in the Broadcasting Stations,
Incidentally Help Sales.
Football is doing the same service for radio in Chi-
cago that politics performed during the big political
party conventions and in subsequent events of a
campaign nature. Saturday is "football day" in every
store in Chicago and its suburbs by reason of the
flocking of the football fans to the stores to hear the
returns from the college stadiums.
The games last Saturday between the Michigan
U and the Illini in Urbana, between Notre Dame
and the Army in New York, between Northwestern
and Purdue, and between Chicago and Indiana, trans-
formed radio stores into annexes of the football
stadiums and the returns made the listeners-in whoop
with gratification or howl with disappointment, as the
nature of the broadcast proceedings moved them.
That the events and their influence on the feelings
of the public had an effect- on radio sales is not
doubted by the radio store owners. A great number
of sales of receiving sets were made by the radio
retailers on Saturday and since that day business
shows a marked stimulation. The presence of the
football fans in the stores gave the alert dealers and
salesmen an opportunity to compile a prospect list.
But politics is a stimulator of radio sales of great
effectiveness. In fact politics as an advertiser of
radio is without a par, according to some of the
observant dealers in Chicago. For one thing the
number of people interested in politics is far greater
than that interested in football, baseball or any other
sport. Political campaigns are frequent. They come
every spring and fall and the quadrennial Presidential
campaign lasts with great warmth from conventions
in summer to elections in November. Politics has
sold more radio sets this year than any other agency,
music included, according to an observant radio job-
ber. The tumultuous and protracted Democratic
convention in Madison Square Gardens, New York,
in August advertised radio in a wonderful way. To
show how powerful was the broadcasting of the event
for advertising purposes, the tunes played frequently
by the band had a stimulation in sales, a fact freely
admitted by the sheet music dealers all over the coun-
try.
FAVORS HIT CONTEST
Jack Mills Proposes "World Series" Contest
Between Song Publishers to Determine
Most Popular Number.
Jack Mills, head of the New York music publish-
ing house that bears his name, has a suggestion to
decide what song deserves to be called the "hit" of
the year. Mr. Mills proposes that a "world series"
be held every fall between the various music pub-
lishers, each firm to select nine of its best numbers
and hold a public singing contest, the winner to be
decided according to the amount of the applause.
"My plan is a simple one," said Mr. Mills, "and
would give all an equal chance to win. 1 suggest
that each publisher select a team of singers to appear
as a group and sing one verse and chorus of each
song their firm had entered. The winning group
could then sing a chorus of all its songs, and the
number getting the greatest ovation would be ac-
claimed the winning song of the year.
"I am sure the public would welcome an oppor-
tunity to hear all the latest songs at one time, and
the affair should prove a novel diversion to the ex-
citement-loving New Yorker, who is always craving
a new dish on his entertainment menu. There are
scores of other features that could be worked up in
connection with such a monster program, and, I am
ready at any time to do my bit in arranging the
affair."
RADIO FOR ALL TRAINS.
Within a short time every railroad train will be
equipped with radio receiving sets, according to the
forecast of a radio committee which reported this
week to the Association of Railway Electrical Engi-
neers in annual session at the Hotel Sherman,
Chicago.
LOCATING THE SET.
The permanent location of a receiving set in the
home is a very important matter that should be im-
pressed by dealers on customers, and in fact it often
happens that only one place is available, although it
is desirable to have the loud speaker or phones lo-
cated in another place. Loud speaker or phone serv-
ice may be made available in many different rooms by
merely installing outlets in these various places.
A PORTLAND DEMONSTRATOR.
Frank Trevor, who for a number of years has been
the leading demonstrator at the Portland, Ore).,
Remick Song & Gift Shop, has been appointed pianist
with the Walter Galloway orchestra at the Peoples
Theater, one of Portland's leading movie houses. Mr.
Trevor will not quit Remick's entirely, but will pre-
side at the Bush & Lane piano on the mezzanine floor
in the front of the store from 12 m. to 2 p. m.
SETS SELL WELL.
Yahr & Lange, Milwaukee, wholesalesr of phono-
graphs in Wisconsin and Michigan, have been very
successful in sales of sets since entering the radio
field. This concern recently added Malone-Lemmon
neutrodyne receivers to their stock. Walter S. Lem-
mon, representative of the Carloyd Electric & Radio
Co., manufacturer of these receivers, spent several
days in Milwaukee assisting with their introduction
in this territory.
NEW RADIO INDUSTRY.
David Grimes, Inc., with executive offices at 1571
Broadway, New York, was recently organized by
David Grimes, the inventor of the Grimes System.
The officers of the company are prominent in the
music and radio industry. Mr. Grimes will produce
a line of instruments using his system that will offer
new and distinctive advantages in radio reception.
The new product will be known as the David Grimes.
The plant and laboratories are located at 141 Morgan
street, Jersey City, N. J., where they occupy a mod-
ern eight-story building equipped with the latest labor
saving devices. The company will manufacture a
general line of radio instruments and parts.
RADIO HELPS SHEET MUSIC
Fears of Timorous Dealers Contradicted by Facts
Plain to Live Merchants.
The pessimists in the sheet music business are the
men who do not understand the game or who do not
operate it in a sensible way. The ones wiio berated
the rolls and the records, when they first acquired a
place in the estimation of music store customers, are
now giving the same old tongue-lashing to radio.
;
"Oh, what's the use in trying to sell sheet music
when people can get all the music they want out of
the air," is their, bitter estimate of conditions as they
believe they are.
That kind of sheet music dealer has cold feet
which proceed from inaction. It is a mental condi-
tion, not a physical one that can be relieved by the
usual remedies. He lost his nerve at the very natural
interest of people in a new and wonderful thing that
brought them music out of the air. These radio fans
he observed flocking to the stores were equally in-
terested in rolls and records at their first appearance
a little while ago. The rolls and records only in-
creased their love of music and the radio is having
the same effect.
What is called the music public, the mass from
which the sheet music dealer gets his customers, is as
large as ever it was, and the coming of radio has not
caused any cessation of the love of music and the
interest in the means to create it.
ORDERS FOR UNKNOWN MUSIC
They Constitute An Annoying Problem of the Trade,
Involving Loss of Time and Money.
One of the great annoyances of the sheet music
dealer, especially the one who has built up a con-
siderable mail order business, is the receipt of orders
for music by obscure or unknown composers and
which cannot be found. It constitutes a positive evil
to the larger houses and means a considerable loss
of money measured in time. The pro rata loss to
many may be inconsiderable but the total in the
trade is big enough to evoke a protest.
Plainly a sales person in the sheet music depart-
ment, earns his or her salary by finding the music
required by the customer. And if the time of the
salesman is taken up looking for something that
cannot be found on the shelves or in the portfolios,
it is clear that time is wasted and a matter of loss to
the dealer. The pieces found and sold must bear
the overhead of the pieces for which the search was
made in vain.
And too often there is disappointment for the
obliging dealer when he hopefully orders the music
of the unknown kind from his jobber or publisher.
It is "passing the buck" to the latter. It is a
renewal of the irritation when the jobber or publisher
writes back to know who wrote the music and who
published it.
SELL THE STANDARDS.
"Regardless of what is said to the contrary, the
backbone of the music business all the way through
is the selling of standard numbers, those songs and
melodies that live on and on and survive the spas-
modic crazes or fads," says "Vocalstyle Notes," a
little periodical for sales people issued by the Vocal-
style Music Co., Cincinnati. "It pays the dealer,
especially, to push these numbers in the sale of Song
Rolls. This kind of stock never goes dead on the
shelves, is always salable and more welcome to
playerpiano owners than you might think. They like
a change from light popular selections. Then again,
such compositions show the piano to better advan-
tage in the home, making it more artistic afM 'human'
in its performance. This reacts to the dealer's advan-|
tage. People without players, hearing them, won't
opine that a playerpiano is just a 'jazz box.' They|
are best for demonstrating purposes also."
ADVERTISES SHEET MUSIC.
The Kesselman-O'Driscoll Co.. 517-519 Grand ave-l
nue, Milwaukee, Wis., freely advertises its sheet!
music department and features the stock in valuable|
ways that lead to an increase of sales. In ai
announcement in last Sunday's newspapers this is
said: "You will always find the latest song hits ir
our complete ground floor sheet music dppartmentj
Comfortable surroundings make selection easy."
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