Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
LYMAN
Editor and Proprietor.
PUBLISHED
EVERY
SATURDAY
3 East 14th St.. New York
SUBSCRIPTION (Including postage) United States and
Canada, $3.00 per year; Foreign Countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
Insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts s. special dis-
count is allowed.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
b« made payable to Edward Lyman BilL
Entered at the New York Past Office as Second- Class Matter.
NEW YORK, APRIL 24, 1897.
TELEPHONE NUMBER 1745. - EIGHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review
will contain a supplement embodying the liter-
ary and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a trade
paper.
THE TRADE DIRECTORY.
The Trade Directory, which is a feature of
The Review each month, is complete. In it ap-
pears the names and addresses of all firms en-
gaged in the manufacture of musical instruments
and the allied trades. The Review is sent to
the United States Consulates throughout the
world, and is on file in the reading rooms of the
principal hotels in America.
MOVING AHEAD.
E have always claimed that the perma-
nency of an institution, whether com-
mercial or journalistic, depended solely
upon whether or no there was a demand for
its product. In journalism it is not a ques-
tion of what one competitor may have to say
about another, for, obviously, opinions of
this kind are usually influenced by personal
motives, jealous or otherwise.
We claim, and that emphatically, that
when a paper ceases to give value to its
advertisers—when it fails to be a power—
when its influence is felt no longer—itslife
then depends entirely upon the financial
resources behind it. If none, the paper
ceases. So all this talk about too many
papers, about small values, and all that
sort of thing is inconsequential and amounts
to nothing.
Some papers are dropping behind and
are steadily losing advertising patronage,
because they fail to give correct values—
they fail utterly as purveyors of news and
publicity.
Notwithstanding the times have been
depressed during the past three or four
years, The Review has gone steadily ahead,
and to-day is more firmly entrenched than
ever behind the breastworks of patronage
and trade support.
W
This position has not been attained
easily; it has been won by years of hard
labor and persistent work, and by rigid
adherence to those principles which, from
our standpoint, we believe to be absolutely
correct. We claim back of every successful
enterprise there must be character; with-
out it there can be no permanent success.
Hardly a week passes but that we are in
receipt of many letters not alone endorsing
the position of The Review, its extensive
circulation, its excellent advantages as an
advertising medium, but strong congratu-
latory words upon the assured progress
which the journal is making.
Last week while the editor of The Re-
view was in Boston, Mr. Francis H. Owen,
president of the McPhail Piano Co., who
had recently returned from a trip through
the Northwest extending as far as the Pa-
cific slope, said, "When I started out on my
trip I began to study the trade paper ques-
tion carefully, and the relative position of
each paper in the trade. I returned satis-
fied in my own mind as to their relative
value. I will say this for you. That you
are right in it. I have found your paper
in almost every locality, and was surprised
to see its standing and reliability among
the dealers. I cannot say it for all papers,
but your paper certainly has a national rep-
utation to feel proud of, and I for one am
satisfied as an advertiser."
There is something strongly convincing
and at the same time satisfying as well to a
publisher to receive such an unsolicited en-
dorsement from such a critical source as an
advertiser.
Here is another one under date of March
16. Mr. F. Edwards, ^"treasurer of the
Hutchins Manufacturing Co., Springfield,
Mass., writes:
"I want to express an appreciation of
your paper as an advertising medium. We
have received requests for catalogues from
nearly every State in the Union. One day
last week brought one from Oregon, South
Dakota and one from Texas, including sev-
eral nearby ones."
To show the strength of The Review in
this matter, we may add that the Hutchins
Manufacturing Co. have advertised solely
in The Review.
Here is another one under date of April
2. The Zobo Manufacturing Co. write:
"We have appreciated the many benefits
we have received through our advertise-
ment in your journal and consider the
enormous amount of business we have got-
ten through you."
We have never been prone to indulge in
vain-glorious boasts regarding our circu-
lation, but in every part of the Union, The
Review has a good support and its utter-
ances count. It has behind it nearly two
decades of continued permanency. Its per-
sonal representative has traversed every part
of the North American continent, and we
say this without fear of contradiction, that
The Review is the only paper whose editor
has covered the length and breadth of this
country time and time again. We have done
this, not in the interests of a few men who
have been called upon to pay traveling
expenses, but entirely upon our own re-
sources with trie fixed idea of extending
the influence of the paper. We have not
attempted a tour of the country which ter-
minated at St. Louis, and we have never
made a promise but what we have lived up
to; we never have asked a favor of anyone
in this trade excepting a fair patronage,
for which we believe we have given ample
returns. We have always upheld the dig-
nity of the trade, and have been influen-
tial in many ways in making suggestions
which have resulted in the betterment of
trade conditions.
We are marching mighty close to the
band in these latter days of the century.
Mean to approach closer, too.
+
[•
The indiscriminate guaranteeing of cheap
pianos is one of the many evils which has
come to the surface in the retail trade
within a recent period—at least since the
Cleveland regime of cheapness obtained in
this fair land of ours.
Guarantee—guarantee — without limit,
without qualification—without restriction
—everything, anything is guaranteed. As
there is invariably no distinction made be-
tween good reliable products and the cheap
instruments, sales can be made with
greater ease. What boots if the goods fail
to give satisfaction or are returned? The
manufacturer can be squeezed—the extra
profit is secure anyway. That seems to be
the plan of operation.
Somehow dealers can always be found
who are trying to cut under the lowest
notch. They are prouder of being "always
the cheapest " than of being "always re-
liable." This modern method of doing
business is not only questionable from an
ethical standpoint, but is opposed to the
best business interests of those who prac-
tice it. The day the dealer commenced
guaranteeing cheap rattle boxes he bid
good bye to present or prospective trade
in high grade, legitimate pianos. Thisisa
fact he usually overlooks.
Truly many evils have been born of the
hard times, and the sooner business men
return to common-sense methods the better.
There is danger ahead and a halt should
be called before it becomes too late. A repu-
tation is not for the day, but for all time.