Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
• , ? . t EDWARD LYMAN BILL-*—?
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY~SATURDAY
~~
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per year; all other countries,
f3.oo.
ADVERTISEnENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising- Pages $50.00, opposite read-
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 15, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EIQHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review wil)
contain a supplement embodying the literary
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.
THERE MUST BE A REFORM.
TF there is any one topic that deserves to
be ventilated persistently, it is the
evil of price-cutting' to which we referred
editorially last week. This thing has gone
so far that one is compelled to believe that
many manufacturers and dealers are not
strong enough to break away from this
price-cutting evil, or else lack a proper
consideration for the ethics of business or
do not understand the conduct of business
or perhaps do not comprehend where their
interests lie.
The manufacturer who sells pianos at an
advance which about covers the " cost of
manufacture " simply gets his money back,
and the trouble is, he does not include in
this connection many of the important
items which enter into this " cost of doing
business."
Again, we have many dealers cutting
prices to a little above the invoice price,
thereby selling instruments at less than
cost, for apparently many do not include
in their cost of selling the fundamental
expenses, such as rent, hire, cartage, in-
surance, and the hundred and one other
items which are to be reckoned with in the
conduct of an everyday business.
How is this going to end ?
Where is the profit coming in ?
This is not the age for sacred mystifica-
tion or legerdemain in traJe. If there is
any essential to progress, it is that the
manufacturer should be an earnest seeker
after knowledge, and at least understand
his business.
This cutting and slashing of prices should
end and it cannot end too soon.
There must be a reform. There must
be an upward movement in prices as there
is in the quality of goods; it is the only
panacea for the ruinous competition which
is dragging the commercial side of the
piano trade down to the level of the bicycle
industry.
Meanwhile it is gratifyingly observable
that many manufacturers and dealers rec-
ognize the deplorable condition of affairs
which exist and are swiftly getting away
from the mere competition of low prices
to a competition of higher-priced wares, of
attractive styles and better made pianos
generally.
This is due not so much to the dealers
as to the purchasers who have had a sur-
feit of the "cheap" for the past few years,
and who are now waking up to the fact
that it is impossible to secure good values
at low prices.
With this tendency abroad it behooves
dealers to become more enthusiastic re-
garding the high-priced instruments which
they handle. It will pay them to give
prominence to the higher-priced pianos.
With them they can build up a trade that
the popguns of shoddy and price-cutting
can never batter down.
Of course there will always be a demand
for cheap pianos, but if they are sold in
their class and at the proper price, the
high-priced instruments cannot fail to
come in for that consideration which they
merit. This in the end will mean larger
profits for the dealer, a living profit for the
manufacturer and a higher degree of pros-
perity in the industry at large.
FREIGHT RATES AND PRICES.
"FHE matter of freight rates is at present
attracting considerable attention from
manufacturers and dealers in all parts of
the country. The National Piano Manu-
facturers' Association, is making a thor-
ough investigation of the question with a
view to an amelioration of the excessive
charges now prevailing. In the vSouth,
piano and organ dealers have organized for
the purpose of making a united effort to
secure a change of freight classification
from first to second class on pianos and or-
gans. They intend to agitate the matter,
and are interesting influential parties in
this city as well as in the prominent music
trade centers of the West, so that a strong-
case can be worked up for presentation to
the officials of the prominent railroads with
which they do business.
One of the important factors which help
to fix the price of instruments is the rate
charged for freight. If the factory is quite
a distance from the receiving point, the
freight charge is an item which gives con-
siderable worry to dealer and manufac-
turer. This, of course, accounts for the
increasing attention given to the subject
of freight in most industries.
Manufacturing establishments of suffi-
cient importance to have their executive
office divided into departments, and whose
trade is not absolutely local, are now
equipped with a freight department.
This department fixes prices on business
carrying freight rates, and its function
makes it a valuable adjunct of the sales
department. It is believed that the new
officials are capable of almost accomplish-
ing the difficult task of annihilating space.
They can certainly make a competition for
desirable business extremely interesting"
for a local manufacturer who deludes him-
self with the belief that the hundreds of
miles separating him from others in the
same line of trade afford him substantial
protection. In this era of associations,
organizations, trade meetings and business
conferences, it may be remarked that no
association thus far appears to have been
formed of heads of freight departments to
compare notes as to how this special line
should be conducted for mutual benefit.
It would be very interesting indeed if they
could be broug'ht together in some way
and induced to tell what they actually
know about freight rates!
OUR GROWING EXPORT TRADE.
T H E figures bearing on the imports and
exports of musical instruments for
the month of August and the eight months
ending that date—the latest period for
which they have been compiled—which
appear elsewhere in this paper, are impor-
tant and valuable reading. They demon-
strate satisfactorily, we think, that the
tariff law, under which we are at pres-
ent operating, augments the interests of
American manufacturers—at all events
those interested in the music trade in-
dustry.
If we go back a few years—to the Cleve-
land regime—we cannot fail to remember
the enormous imports of musical instru-
ments which poured into this country from
all parts of Europe, while our export trade
was comparatively insignificant.
What do we find to-day and in this re-
port referred to?
An immense increase in exports and a
steady decrease in imports, as has been
the case month after month since the pres-
ent tariff law went into force. For the
eight months ending August, our export
trade in musical instruments shows an in-
crease amounting in value to $163,220 over
that of the same period last year, while
the decrease in imports for the same period
amounts in value to $87,788.