June, 1930
PRESTO-TIMES
ISSUED THE
FIFTEENTH IN EACH
MONTH
F R A N K D. ABBOTT
The American Music Trade Journal
Editor
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CHICAGO, JUNE, 1930
Local opinion as to piano trade conditions do not count for much in seeking a general
view. For, with the railroads running everywhere and sidetracks in every town and village,
piano manufacturers are not hampered by geographical environment. They can, and do, ship
pianos to any point in the United States and some of them do an export business besides.
Clement E. Moore, of Springfield, Ohio, Tells How
Presto-Times, with its correspondents interviewing nationwide travelers and receiving let-
Trade Cuts Its Own Throat.
ters from dealers everywhere, is in a position to give its readers the general view, which is
Clement E. Moore, of Springfield, Ohio, one of the anything but hopeless. In fact, the trend is toward prosperity in the piano business. Pianos
closest observers in the trade, gave Presto-Times one
of his analytical dissertations recently in substantia- are being sold and while not many new agencies are being established, individual independent
tion of what he has been taking note of as reasons dealers are increasing in number. Many who are returning to the piano line are glad to get
why and wherefore pianos are often poorly sold and
back into the harness. Even the dull towns can be revived by thorough canvassing.
POOR SELLING METHODS
HURT THE MUSIC TRADE
why radio is what it is. He said:
"One of the greatest favors ever handed the piano
dealer was when radios—good, bad and otherwise—
were promiscuously placed on the market through
the avenues of grocery, hardware, confectionery and
department store distribution and which has made
the radio a cheap form of music with its ever grind-
ing of noise and sometimes music. It seems every-
body these days wants to give talks over the radio.
This and the incessant mixture of music, cheap talks,
would-be singers, morning- exercises and the like,
have brought down the price of the radio until no
one really knows when a bargain price is offered.
"I can personally cite a number of dealers whe
seem possessed of that over-anxiety to sell a piano
customer at nothing down. They rush the piano to
the house; then later when payments become due,
trouble starts. In ninety-nine out of one hundred
cases the purchaser is not concerned, as he has noth-
ing in the piano.
"We have noticed that the dealer who will deliver
a piano to this class of buyers usually is out of busi-
ness in a short time, or gets tangled up with the
manufacturer.
"The manufacturer can keep up only when the
dealer sells for 10 per cent down or more. Good
judgment tells us to sell less pianos and sell them in
a manner that they have some value to the purchaser.
"The real cheap sale is simply the last stab at
holding on a little longer. My idea is, 'Make it a little
hard for the purchaser to buy, rather than to make
it too easy.' For when so easy to buy, then the arti-
cle is not appreciated and becomes valueless; and this
selling method is just the thing that has materially
made the piano too common an instrument of music,
just as the value of radio is considered at this time.
"Any instrument that produces music is nice, but
it is in the manner in which that instrument is sold
and used which determines its value."
GULBRANSEN COMPANY KEEPING STEP
The recent canvass by the Gulbransen Company along the line of discovering markets
for pianos, has armed the company with advantages multiplied manifold, but in keeping with
the true, object of education, which is culture. Salesmen are trained to show that the piano is
the valorous giver of treasure, if the piano may be personified as a generous individual.
The Gulbransen Company is not selfish in its campaign, but freely turns over for the bene-
fit of all its contemporaries all it has learned, even using a page advertisement to emphasize it.
This is co-operating in mutual defense; whipping things into some kind of disciplined order.
The Gulbransen Company knows the limits of triumphant common sense. It doesn't
want the public to say, "Hush; look solemn, a fool is coming," when one of its salesmen are
approaching. Nor does it want its salesmen t o look over-wise, as one who has spoken in
cipher to a few. It rather desires to show them a way for treating with the customers indi-
vidually.
WHAT A PIANO DOES
A piano provides a definite means to the extension of the capacity for living. It is em-
ployed consciously for this purpose, and not as in imagery of social life, but as an integral
method of turning a human habitation into a home. Tt is like a ship on her way, with a
background and a destination—governed by the thought of going on. While the piano has
become an institutionalized necessity, it is, like other manufactured articles, still subject to
improvement, although in all essential qualities it is bound to remain the same. A good piano
and a good watch give class distinction to any man or woman. They are both durable bits
of property. The zest for duration is not dying out, for, as touching the invention of arts
and usages as culture advances, the habits and tastes which contributed to build up civiliza-
tion are still building it farther and farther away from barbarism.
A PLEASANT CALLING
Close intimacies and lasting friendships are not the only advan-
tages to be derived from following the piano business. Collateral
development includes carrying on a successful business that grows
larger with time. No business, of whatever nature it may be, is
immune against set-backs, poorer years or seasons—any farmer
knows that. But it would be a poor fool of a farmer who would quit
for any such silly reason as an off-year. The other necessaries of
life are not sold so easily as the discouraged piano man would have
himself believe. That's why a number of such fellows are about to
return to the piano game this year. They have discovered that the
piano is not held to be dispensable; that selling pianos is one of the
cleanest and most delightful occupations; that dilating upon the
merits of a good piano is a pleasant calling. Wisely, considerately
and prudently the salesman elucidates the need of a piano in the
home, and as he overcomes apathy or indifference on the part of the
customer he rises to the occasion and winds up the transaction with
the desired signature on a contract.
ORIGINALITY
To be sure of the originality of anything patentable the United
States Patent Office clerks go through the files seeking for similar
devices that may have been patented before. If a device presented
for a patent operates on a new principle, based on a wholly com-
prehensible concept, the man seeking the patent is deemed obviously
within his rights and his patent in time is granted. The realm of
change, however, is not beholden to patentable things, but to dis-
covery and application of the powers and forces always existent in
the air, in electricity, in heat and light, in cold and darkness, in
calorics and germs, in speed and in putting on the brakes. Men who
do strange things and talk of ergs and joules today are as numerous
as the locusts of Egypt; among them are radio engineers. What
will such men bring forth in the musical world in 1930? What
original line of discovery is some of them working upon that will
change the face of the musical map? They are working silently
and secretly as inventors have always done, so our surprise is re-
served for tomorrow.
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