Presto

PRESTO-TIMES
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
PRESTO P U B L I S H I N G CO., Publishers.
F R A N K D. A B B O T T - - - - - - - - - -
(C. A . D A N I ELL—1304-1927.)
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
- - - - - Managing
Editor
Editor
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 0234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), " P R E S T O , " Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
Post Office, Chicago, 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1.25; Foreign, $4.
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 correspondents, and
their assistance is invited.
Payment is not accepted for matter printed in the edi-
torial or news columns of Presto-Times.
Where half-tones are made the actual cost of produc-
tion will be charged if of commercial character or other
than strictly news interest.
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is re-
quested that their subjects and senders be carefully indi-
cated.
familiar allurement in daily newspaper adver-
tisements. It is indicative of the eagerness for
sales which is as old as commerce itself. The
radio business is one of the newest and the in-
terest in the receiving sets is widespread and
plainly evident. But it has traveled far in a
short time to so soon reach the urge of exi-
gency—the bid for the trade-in deal.
Of course, the trade-in malady has been di-
agnosed and its treatment prescribed for in all
of its phases and possibly the preventive and
curative activities of trade associations and in-
dividual dealers have ameliorated the evil.
Piano dealers have acted in a co-operative
way to fix trade-in valuation on old pianos and
the scheme has proved successful. Phono-
graph dealers have followed a similar course
with advantages to the groups so acting. In
time the radio trade will act in the same way
to eliminate the trade-in static in the business.
CHICAGO P. & O. ASSOCIATION
The glory of existence and continuous serv-
ice in the music trade is expressed in a newly-
Forms close at noon on Thursday. Late news matter
adopted slogan of the Chicago Piano & Organ
should be in not later than 11 o'clock on that day. Ad-
vertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, 5 p. m.,
Association, "The Oldest Music Trades Asso-
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy
ciation in America — Founded 1884." The
should be in hand by Tuesday noon preceding publication
day. Want advertisements for current week, to insure
phrase suggests pride in membership in an as-
classification, should be in by Wednesday noon.
sociation which exists on a foundation of
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
forty-three years of watchful interest in the
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
music trade and the wise display of activity
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1927.
when the occasion reauired it.
Most of the charter members of the asso-
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press
ciation
have passed away, but the same fine,
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur- broad-minded spirit which motivated them,
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that now' influences the vigorous membership of the
is not strictly news of importance can have organization ; the same fraternal feeling which
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they
concern the interests of manufacturers or characterized it throughout the years is in
dealers such items will appear the week follow- cheering evidence today.
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the The pride of the members is not in the mere
current issue must reach the office not later passing of the years since the association was
than Wednesday noon of each week.
formed, but in its activity in local ami na-
tional events in which the music trade was in-
terested. The Chicago Piano & Organ Asso-
TRADE=IN HISTORY
History repeats itself in the music business ciation represented the cause of music and the
and the repeated conditions too often mean dis- music trade and industry in noteworthy suc-
advantages for the music dealers. When that cession of events since 1884. It expressed the
happens the conditions are called problems and dignity of a great industry during the World's
solving them becomes prime motives with the Fair and in an equally admirable way in many
subsequent important events. It continues to
trade associations.
welcome
the opportunity to be of service to the
The trade-in incidents in the piano trade
music
trade
and industry and to the public in
multiplied until the sum in any year became
matters
relating
to music. The association
a menacing problem. That is how it is viewed
represents
the
element
of enthusiasm essential
today even with a decreased, number of sales.
to
the
success
of
movements.
What would be a profitable piano sale is, in
many instances, made less remunerative by the
exactions of the customer, who sets a ridicu-
VALUE OF EXPERIENCE
lously high trade-in valuation on his old piano.
The piano business is a comparatively old
He possibly has been prompted to put too high one and in the course of time has accumulated
an appraisal figure on his old instrument by a lot of precedents, not all of which are admir-
the eagerness of competing salesmen in offer- able. In the salesman, for instance, enthusi-
ing an impossible trade-in price.
asm is considered a first essential and that,
For a long time the phonograph dealer has the dealer is likely to find in the green hand
been confronted with the trade-in situation. as much as in the man of experience.
It came to him in the natural way it arrived
When the selling was easy and the way to
to the piano dealer. The introduction of the sales smooth, considerations about new' views
new forms of the phonograph, promising a re- did not bother the piano dealer. When he
vival of interest in the machines, really marked wanted a salesman, nine times out of ten he
a dismaying" increase of the trade-in evil in demanded an experienced one. But in later
the phonograph business. Now the phono- days when sales conditions often became des-
graph dealer complains that in order to effect perate he welcomed some youngster who was
a trade-in sale he must bid against his fellow frankly inexperienced and was not a bit
merchant in raising unwarranted estimates of ashamed of it. Possibly he had the saving
trade-in valuation on some old, obsolete and grace of enthusiasm.
worn-out talking machine, until finally there is
There are sales managers in the piano busi-
little profit in the deal.
ness who believe that experience is not always
The latest phase of the trade-in profit de- an asset. They discriminate between, of course,
preciation is in the radio business. "Your old the old-timers of proven ability and those who
phonograph or piano taken in exchange," is a base their worth merely on the years spent in
November 26, 1927
the sales efforts. They consider that experi-
ence takes enthusiasm out of some people and
replaces it with a silly sense of importance.
Nobody can teach them anything. It is sad
when experience means a rut.
On the other hand, the observant piano sales
managers often find the beginner will accom-
plish more than the experienced salesman be-
cause in his audacity he tackles problems in a
new 7 way. He is not shackled by precedents.
The results, to him, are more important than
the means. Every search for the piano pros-
pect is one of exigency and in itself evokes en-
thusiasm.
In the piano trade, of course, experience in
a salesman is an asset; it becomes a liability
only when it is expressed by adherence to ruts,
which mean the loss of originality and en-
thusiasm.
When a local movement becomes national
in its observance it plainly suggests the dis-
tinction of merits that appeal to the public.
And when the national movement progresses
to an international status it acquires a still
higher character. Not only in the number of
communities participating, but geographically
has the observance of Music Week made a
remarkable spread. The celebration is now
carried out not only in all of our states, but in
our territorial dependencies such as Hawaii,
Philippines. Alaska ami the Virgin Islands. The
governors of those territories have now joined
the governors of the various states on the
Honorary Committee for National Music
Week. The movement has also been adopted
in Canada and South Africa.
* * *
President Roberts of the National Associa-
tion of Music Merchants has exhibited a keen
regard for the fitness of things in his recent
appointments to the various important com-
mittees of the association. Every section of
the country is represented and the personnel
in every instance shows deliberation in com-
posing the committees. His judgment is par-
ticularly marked in the naming of the National
Piano Playing Contest Committee of which
Mr. Frank Bayley, Detroit, is chairman and
W. Otto Miessner and C. R. Moores, Fort
W'ayne are associates, with Miss Helen Curtis
of Chicago, as an honorary member.
* * *
Very pleasant tributes to the discernment
of the publicity department of the Jesse
French & Sons Piano Co., New Castle, Ind.,
are the numerous written and spoken com-
ments on the choice of name "Boudoir" for
the beautiful little upright which is such a
success this season. The selection by a manu-
facturer of a name suggestive of the predom-
inant qualities of a piano is an assurance of
success. When a word is so descriptive of the
character of the instrument that it aids the
public in visualizing its appearance, the efforts
of the advertiser are materially helped.
* * *
The next hearing of the protest of the music
trades to the Treasury Department over regu-
lations governing the reporting of income from
instalment sales, will be before Congress. Al-
though the members of the Ways and Means
committee, who heard the plea of the music
trade delegation in Washington recently, were
impressed at the justice of the requirements,
they were unable to change the new regula-
tions. When Congress convenes in December
a bill to amend the 1926 Revenue Bill will be
introduced.
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