PRESTO-TIMES
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
Dearborn
C. A. OANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT -
- Editor*
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial 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, 94.
Payable In advance. No extra charge In United States
possessions. Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
application.
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre-
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
acter of the product while trimming the soggi-
ness out of the overhead charges. Normalcy
means a quick turnover of the piano factory
product by continuous advertising in the music
trade journals and by means of dealer adver-
tising in local newspapers prepared or sug-
gested by the manufacturer's expert publicity
staff. Normalcy means more sales for factory
and retail sales managers who understand con-
structive market development. That is what
the return to normalcy means, regardless of
the anticipated trends.
ON WISCONSIN!
current issue must reach the office not later
than Wednesday noon of each week.
RECITALS BY PUPILS
Financial, industrial and commercial experts
frequently express the hope of a "return to
normalcy." For quite a long period conditions
have been abnormal; abnormally stimulated
from the opening- of the Great War into 1920;
abnormally disturbed since 1920. A general de-
sire is for what is meant by normalcy, this
normalization which the music business as
well as all others has been anticipating and
which is now probably rapidly materializing.
Some of the experts hold it means a return
to the type of underlying conditions that pre-
vailed from 1865 to 1896. a period of slow price
movement downward. Others believe that in
normalcy the characteristics interrupted by the
war and beginning around 1896 a cycle of
slow price movement upward, will be dupli-
cated.
It is certain that a new period of normalcy
will be characterized by one or another of
these two basic trends. But to the active man
in the music trade it is not of first importance
which of the two finally prevails for he knows
that business was profitably conducted under
both.
Plentiful business is to be had under nor-
malcy, yet many businesses fail nevertheless.
Normalcy really means business for those who
fight for it consistently and intelligently. Prof-
its for piano manufacturers who search out
helpful innovations in equipment; who dis-
cover methods for producing pianos at lower
unit costs ; who keep up or improve the char-
presumption to speak of business as a science.
Yet today business can qualify as a science
under each of the specifications President
Coolidge sets up. As to assembling facts: In
the music business, the initiative of individual
manufacturers and merchants, local state and
national associations of the music trade as well
as the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce
—all are gathering facts about the music bus-
iness. The comparison of the facts and their
interpretation, that is their bearing on condi-
tions—follow their assembling.
*
The second annual convention of the Wis-
consin Association of Music Merchants, to be
held in the Hotel Wisconsin, on October 4 and
Payment is not accepted for matter printed in the 5, will be an evidence of the power of enthusi-
editorial or news columns of Presto-Times.
asm to effect growth in a trade organization.
Where half-tones are made the actual cost of pro-
Mr. W. Otto Miessner is president of the as-
duction will be charged if of commercial character,
or other than strictly news interest.
sociation and his activity in promotional work
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is
for the piano is its inspiration.
requested that their subjects and senders be carefully
The Wisconsin Association of Music Mer-
indicated.
chants will provide the opportunity at its busi-
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the ness sessions next week for the frank discus-
sion of vital matters in the trade, as well as
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full
delicate
ones. In the discussion on "Fraudu-
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon
lent Advertising" some speakers are expected
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current
week, to insure classification, must not be later than to cut loose in verbal denunciation of specific
Wednesday noon.
cases.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.. 417 South
The varied attitudes of the piano trade to-
Dearborn Street, Chicago. III.
wards radio will be presented by speakers at
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1927.
the Monday session and radio as a detriment
and as an advantage will be presented.
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press
The business on both days will be filled with
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring interest enough to keep the auditors glued to
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur- their seats as attentive listeners except when
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that
is not strictly news of importance can have they joyfully or belligerently arise to inter-
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they rupt some speaker with an expression of their
concern the interests of manufacturers or feelings. Anyway, the Wisconsin association
dealers such items will appear the week follow- promises there will not be a dull moment dur-
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the ing its annual convention.
WHAT IS NORMALCY?
October 1, 1927
Public recitals by groups of pupils taking the
free courses of piano instruction in the public
schools or the comparatively free lessons pro-
vided by music dealers are of undoubted value
for stimulating interest in the piano and inci-
dentally creating a desire to buy pianos in the
minds of parents and the public generally.
Educators are being convinced that group
piano instruction is of definite value to the
pupil from many angles. It evokes enthusiasm
and a spirit that individual lessons cannot call
forth. Where the piano courses have been in-
troduced into the schools there is every evi-
dence that they may be considered a perma-
nent part of the curricula.
The public proof of the actual accomplish-
ments under the group instruction plan is a
great stimulation for the scheme. Piano mer-
chants, too, may tie up effectively with group
piano instruction in the schools without impart-
ing an air of commercialism to the action. The
piano dealer's activity in movements of a mu-
sical character is something expected. With-
out actual statements in words or type he ad-
vertises his business. Without saying a word
he is talking eloquently for his pianos. It is
good advertising for a dealer when thoughts
of pianos suggest his name.
It was President Coolidge who called busi-
ness "the newest science," adding "by science
I mean the assembling of facts, their compari-
son and their interpretation."
Twenty-five
years ago it would have been considered rank
*
*
The music trade of Illinois is promised a
gala week beginning Monday, October 10. On
that date the annual meeting and election of
the Piano Club of Chicago will be held at the
Blackstone Hotel and the program promises
unusual doings, even for a club remarkable for
the spirit and originality of its functions. On
the day following the Illinois Music Mer-
chants' Association will begin its three-day
convention at the Palmer House. For the suc-
cess of this event the Piano Club of Chicago
and the Chicago Piano & Organ Association
are sponsors and as both bodies are hosts of
proven ability and warmth, the Illinois dealers
from all parts of the state may be assured of
a pleasant time.
*
* *
Novelty and oddity in an advertising scheme
are powerful in achieving success for the
thing featured. Using the music of records
and rolls in effecting their sales is not new,
but Mr. C. C. Baker, the Columbus, O., dealer,
hit upon a new method in their advertising
uses that brings results. He pulls a thousand
people a day into his store every day through
the use of his musical fountain. The people sit
and enjoy their drinks and hear the various
records and rolls when they call for their
preference. The fountain is in the front part
of the store and the music is brought from
the rear through a loud speaker. It is prov-
ing the most successful method of selling ever
tried out in Columbus.
*
*
*
There is one kind of economy that does not
pay, and that is cheeseparing methods applied
to advertising. The healthy view of economy
does not include niggard cutting down of ad-
vertising appropriations when conditions arise
that may distract people from the considera-
tion of pianos. In such conditions economy
often means a larger advertising outlay than
usual. There is a vast difference between the
economy wisely administered and that which
merely pinches.
* * *
The problem of the scientific men would be
reasonably easy if each sound had a simple vi-
bration of its own, but each of the ordinary
sounds is composed of a whole group of vibra-
tions. The musical range of a piano includes
vibrations extending from about 30 per sec-
ond to about 4,000. The pipe organ includes
frequencies from 16 to sometimes more than
16,000. The range of speech is from about 60
to about 8,000 cycles per second.
*
* *
The wish too often is father to the thought
when a man in the music trade voices bright
anticipations of business. Perhaps it often in-
dicates a purpose to realize in his own affairs
the hopes he states as beliefs. Anyway it
show's a desire to extend an air of optimism
and reacts helpfully where his words are heard
or read.
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