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.
Editor
F R A N K D. A B B O T T
- - - - - - - - -
(C. A. D A N I ELL—1904-1927.)
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
_ _ _ _ _ Managing Editor
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 0234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address ( C o m -
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.
Forms close at noon on Thursday. Late news matter
should be in not later than 11 o'clock on that day. Ad-
vertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, 5 p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy
should be in hand by Tuesday noon preceding publication
day. Want advertisements for current week, to insure
classification, should be in by Wednesday noon.
roll, never has broadcast in the United States,
although he once played over the radio in Eng-
land.
Today the apparatus for producing both
phonograph and piano records has been so
vastly improved and phonograph records and
piano rolls are so far superior to the old ones,
combined with the way they lend themselves
to broadcasting, that it would almost seem
that an era of broadcasting" of mechanical
music is at hand.
Only the biggest broadcasters can afford to
pay the great artists their price for appearing
in person before the microphone. On the
other hand, phonograph records and piano rolls
can be played at small cost at any station, no
matter how isolated it may be. And if it
sounds about as good as the real thing over
the air what will the outcome be? These are
questions the big broadcasters are consider-
ing, and, indeed, the outcome of it all should
be of immediate interest to the listening pub-
lic. It looks as if the public will be made more
familiar with the playing of great pianists.
DOES YOUR TALK ENTHUSE?
Mr. Dealer, do you talk the business up or
down? The question is a natural one when
Address all communications for the editorial or business
the trade comment and conversation generally
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
heard in music stores is remembered. It is
not always the fault of the public nor any lack
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1927.
of public interest in musical goods in any com-
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press munity that causes complaints by the dealers
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring and salesmen. Usually it is a lack in them-
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur- selves of the right kind of selling capacity.
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that
The trade paper man visiting the stores is
is not strictly news of importance can have often puzzled at the variation in the report of
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they
concern the interests of manufacturers or business. In one store he hears the declara-
dealers such items will appear the week follow- tion that trade is good or fairly good, with a
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the bright outlook for the future ; in another in
current issue must reach the office not later the same location he hears the depressing
than Wednesday noon of each week.
statement that business is "rotten" or that
there is no business at all.
Discouraging talk is a potent cause of dull
RADIO PIANO PROMOTION
business
at anv time. Poor business is the
The part of radio pianists in increasing the
natural
reaction
to depressing chatter in a
interest in piano playing-, and of course in the
store.
And
now
there
is every inducement to
pianos, is admittedly an important one. And
adopt
a
cheerful
mental
outlook. The active
the presentation of the playing of great pian-
dealers
everywhere
are
taking
advantage of
ists, broadcasted from their roll records is be-
the
piano
promotion
plans
including
the piano
coming more general with the radio stations.
playing-
contests
to
evoke
enthusiasm
in their
So much so that the custom is a matter for
sales
staffs.
variance between the Eederal Radio Commis-
The piano store is a more cheery place when
sion and the individual broadcasters, who are
the
effort of the salesmen for sales are vigor-
asking how much longer will they continue to
ous
and continuous.
The spirit of sales
pay the great artists regular concert fees for
achievement
by
active
efforts
in a few sales-
personal performances before the microphone ?
men
is
worth
more
than
a
score
of salesmen
The unusual results obtained in broadcasting-
who
stand
around
growling
while
they wait
fine records and mechanically reproduced
for
customers
to
drop
in.
The
piano
business
piano and organ rolls is causing impresarios
always
was
one
that
required
tireless
effort.
to wonder why they should not cut their studio
It
never
was
a
business
that
permitted
the
overhead and resort to the mechanical music.
retailer
to
anticipate
a
rush
of
orders
or
a
Aided rather than being hurt by the order of
steady
stream
of
prospects
at
any
particular
the Eederal Radio Commission that all me-
chanical music shall be so announced over the period. The most successful houses in the
air, manufacturers are putting their best foot piano business are the ones whose belief, ex-
pressed in the activity of the salesmen, is
forward with unusual results.
But. in any case the cause of piano playing "Business is there; go find it."
and piano selling will be helped. The results
from the rolls are marvelously true to the
DO WE NEGLECT EXPORTS?
artists when the music is broadcasted. Not
Quotations of statements in the daily papers
long ago Cortot, the pianist, was heard from by Henry Ford and Walter P. Chrysler, auto-
New York when as a matter of fact he was in mobile magnates, as to more sales of autos ex-
Paris and probably not aware that at that mo- pected, give manufacturers of pianos much to
ment hundreds of thousands of fans in Amer- think about. President Chrysler, in predicting
ica were enjoying his playing. The same was further increases in foreign sales, said: "Ex-
true of Arthur Rubinstein, who was in Lon- port trade now comprises about 15 per cent of
don the night his program was broadcast from the corporation's total."
New York. And Paderewski, who was re-
What a help it would be to the piano business
centlv heard from New York bv means of a if its foreign trade could be twenty per cent
December 3, 1927
of the entire trade ! Why, it would mean the
sale overseas of thirty to forty thousand in-
struments, and wouldn't that additional out-
put give business a substantial spurt!
Foreign trade in pianos can be worked up;
it ought to be done. But it must be done in
a way to suit the foreign demand and tastes ;
the foreign sales departments should conform
to the required customs which differ materially
from ours in many minor ways.
The whining department of some of the
piano factory offices might be changed into a
foreign selling department with good results.
Mr. H. (]. Pulfrey. manager of the Univer-
sity Music House, Ann Arbor, Mich., told a
number of interesting" facts in Presto-Times
of last week and what he said was filled with
valuable suggestions for music dealers in other
places. Mr. Pulfrey shows that the smallest
town can have a piano playing contest and at
a comparatively small expenditure of money.
The most essential thing is enthusiasm and
the energy it encourages. Prominent local
people are generally willing to give practical
aid to the promotion of a piano playing con-
test and newspapers, too, are willing to give
material aid to such a movement through
their news pages.
* * *
One of the admittedly surprising conditions
of the talking machine trade is that the rec-
ords, in improvements, are ahead of the talk-
ing machine. The new forms of the phono-
graph exhibit wonderful improvement over the
older forms, but the greatest advance in repro-
ducing from records has been made, not by the
development of the phonograph sound-box and
tonal chamber, but by that of thermionic-valve
amplifiers and loud-speakers. This is due, of
course, to the electrical method of recording.
Instead of the old mechanical type of micro-
phone, the musical rendering is now responded
to by an electrical microphone which passes on
very weak electrical impulses to an amplifier.
These impulses are amplified up to the desired
strength.
* * *
Many people have fine appreciation of things
artistic but don't know it. A great many peo-
ple have musical taste, but are not aware of it.
Radio fans are discovering that they don't have
to be "highbrow" to enjoy good music. These
facts have influenced an astute sales manager
in a Chicago music store to do missionary
work among men and to plan a more thorough
service for prospects in the stores and offices.
Limiting the sales propaganda to the homes
docs not discover all the opportunities, for
sales of pianos, reproducing pianos, talking
machines and radio.
* * *
.
The highly interesting and extremely useful
booklet, "How Music Is Made," recently is-
sued by C. G. Conn. Ltd., Elkhart. Ind., gives
the public, valuable inside information on sound
phenomena. It covers ground that never has
been covered before in such a delightedly clear
and condensed way. The little book teems
with information to interest and amaze the
adult as well as the school pupil.
^ ^ *
A piano sales promotion plan has been
formed in London with a British Pianoforte
Publicity Committee, which includes the best
known names in the British music trade. The
object is the same as that of our own piano
promotion plan operated by the National
Piano Manufacturers Association.
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