Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
tinually howling over the ruinous compe-
tition, and all of that, wasting their energy
and time in bemoaning their fate that large
trade is gravitating to their rivals on ac-
count of lower prices which they are offer-
ing to capture the trade.
LYMAN BILL « •
Editor and Proprietor
To our mind, all this business rivalry is
a good thing; it is stimulating, and never
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
in
the history of this trade has there been
3 East 14th St., New York
such values offered as there are to-day.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage). United States,
Mexico and Canada, $3.00 per year ; all other countries,
Their money's worth is what the people
$4-00.
ADVERTISEn r NTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
are
anxious to obtain in these times of close
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
money and close competition. The cry of
ing matter $75.00.
RPMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
the
hour is a dollar's worth for a dollar ex-
tie made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
pended. Values are needed in the fullest
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
sense, and the man, be he merchant or
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 25, 1897.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745-E1QHTEENTH STREET
manufacturer, who can offer the best values
for the least money, is the man who is
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will steadily forging to the front in the indus-
contain a supplement embodying the literary
and musical features which have heretofore trial procession.
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
It is an active age, one in which the cost
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a of production is steadily being lessened by
trade paper.
modern mechanical appliances, which as-
THE TRADE DIRECTORY.
sist greatly towards producing goods in
The Trade Directory, which is a feature of
The Review each month, is complete. In it larger quantities and at greatly reduced
appear the names and addresses of all firms
rates, thereby placing certain wares within
eng»,ged in the manufacture of musical in-
struments and the allied trades. The Review the reach of those who, under the old re-
is sent to the United States Consulates through-
out the world, and is on file in the reading gime, never could become purchasers.
rooms of the principal hotels in America.
Owing to the Christmas Holiday The Review
appears this week one day earlier than usual.
ALONG THE YEAR'S PATHWAY.
T
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The retail piano trade is capable of tre-
mendous expansion. It is still in its in-
fancy, as far as development goes, and new
methods will be added to enlarge the retail
markets—new methods in advertising.
The age is iconoclastic in everything, and
the fact that some of our older and best in-
stitutions in all lines of trade have been
forced to succumb to the modern ideas of
advertising their wares, only demonstrates
more fully the fact that the methods of
disposing of goods in every line of trade
have undergone a complete metamorphosis.
Time was in the piano trade in New
York in the days of old Tom Metz, peace
to his ashes, when the carriages used to
roll up at the entrance to the Fifth avenue
warerooms, and the ladies would enter to
purchase a piano and not to shop. It was
easy and Metz used to tell the story that
the regular form was in the early days for a
salesman to sit at his desk, rise to greet
the lady as she came in, hastily run over
the list of prices, four, five, seven and
eight hundred dollars, with his index finger
indicating each instrument in line, then
turn to the boy, "John, show the lady a
piano; madam, leave your check at the of-
fice please," and when she returned with a
receipted bill in her pocket, quietly bow
her out.
HE gratifying reports made by the
majority of piano manufacturers for
the year so soon to close, is, in many res-
pects, satisfactory. The year has been
much better in every way than its prede-
cessor.
1897 may properly be termed a conva-
lescing year, while '98 bids fair to be one
brimful of healthy trade life. With the
country fairly free from the overshadow-
ing political clouds, and the war scares rel-
egated to a rear position, it would seem as
if we were in a fair condition to reap some
good results industrially and commercial-
ly for the next two or three years. With
the various clouds dispelled, and the busi-
ness horizon comparatively unobscured,
the future looks brimful of promise. Con-
fidence is well restored, and after all, it is
upon confidence that the foundation of
business safety is built. With less talk
about poverty and more faith in the nation,
we will gravitate rapidly towards better
times.
The pessimists we will always have with
us, and this trade is not exempt to any ap
preciable degree more than other lines of
industry, from men who are prone to look
at business affairs through an indigo hued
Those days have gone never to return
glass. There are plenty of growlers who again, and perhaps it is because New York
belong to the discontented lot, who are con- has not entirely adjusted herself to the new
order of things that the retail trade does
not show theresults thatacity of itsmagni-
tude should. With a population of be-
tween three and four millions the retail
trade in New York should be immense.
It is not, and one asks at times, what are
the reasons?
One thing, there must be more printers'
ink expended. There must be up-to-
date ideas applied to retail advertising.
Obsolete methods must go and more hustle
must be used in bringing the goods persis-
tently and intelligently before the people.
In other words trade must be created.
People must be induced to purchase pianos
in the same manner that they are induced
to purchase books and other things on the
installment plan. There must be unre-
mitting work on these lines, and trade will
show better results.
Those firms who have patronized the
music trade papers most liberally, and
at the same time have exercised judg-
ment in their advertisements, have been in
many respects the most successful. There
may be plenty of lights that do not shine,
but these are not the days for unbusheled
luminaries.
#
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Never before in the history of the coun-
try has there been such a movement
towards trusts in all lines as there has in
1897. There has been consolidation in al-
most every trade. The move has extended
to the music trade. It has been agitated,
and some of the strongest members of the
trade are believers in the benefits which
would accrue to the members of this in-
dustry should they consolidate in what is
termed, in the vernacular of the country to-
day, as a trust.
There are others who are just as strongly
opposed to the trust idea who do not mani-
fest a willingness to join a trust consolida-
tion.
There is one thing, however, which is
apparent to every live man in the industry,
and that is that the cost of marketing the
piano product is excessive. But is a trust
the right kind of a panacea?
The subject has been and is now one of
deep consideration, and if the thinking
members of the trade decide that a trust
will assist it, why a trust will come. The
changing method of manufacturing and
marketing goods has brought about a revo-
lution in our industrial affairs, and one
cannot tell or predict with any accuracy
just where all this is going to end.
There is one idea which is pretty thor-
oughly exploded, and that that there are
abnormal profits in the piano business.
Where are the rich men of the trade to-day ?