Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
K+-EDWARD LYM \N
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
in this. We do not mean that the install-
ment business should be discouraged, but
we do claim it should be relegated to a
subordinate position and that more em-
phasis should be placed upon securing cash
business than upon installment contracts,
many of which become enormously de-
preciated.
With many it has been the desire to get
a
large number of instruments out, no
SUBSCRIPTION (including: postage), United States^
Mexico and Canada, f.2.00 per year ; all other countries,
matter what the contract terms. They
$300.
ADVERTISEnENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
have not looked to the future, but have
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
ing matter $75.00.
been satisfied for the moment with a very
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
delusive present.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
Let us ask, is it business to sell a $300
or
$400 piano on $5.00 a month payments?
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 12, 1898.
—on even loss ? Is it business to have
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745—EIGHTEENTH STREET.
that amount of capital locked up in an in-
THE KEYNOTE.
strument for years, subject naturally to an
The first week of each month, The Review wilt
contain a supplement embodying the literary
enormous decrease in value?
and musical features which have heretofore
Some may argue that there are good
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
round
profits on pianos ordinarily sold at
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
these figures, and that the dealer can afford
trade paper.
to take generous risks; but we claim at
INSTALLMENTS AND DEPART-
this point that there is injected into the
MENT STORES.
business a dangerous element.
VI/HAT of the future?
The department store salesmen to-day
We are all interested in that topic, are claiming in substance to the public,
and when we say, what of the future in You will pay from $300 to $400 at the ex-
the manufacturing and selling of musical clusive piano stores for instruments on the
instruments—the interest becomes intensi- installment plan, no better than those that
fied for those of us who have personal in- we will sell you from $125 to $150. Why
terests at stake.
pay the piano dealer an enormous profit ?
As the modern methods of manufacture
That they are gaining is attested by the
and the distribution of merchandise are steady increase in the output of pianos
rapidly replacing the old, it is well to look from department stores that sell strictly on
around and adjust ourselves to the new a cash basis. They argue in substance
conditions. There are new factors which with their customers: We turn our money
are being daily introduced in every sub- quickly; paying cash and selling for cash
division of industry.
Other industries we can afford to sell on close margins, but
have their future problems to solve, and the long-winded installment fellows cannot
we probably will find that most of our at- compete with us in their method of doing
tention is required to the solution of those business.
which are closely interwoven with our own
The dissemination of arguments of this
trade. .
nature is having a certain effect which in-
3 East 14th St., New York
We shall return to the installment mat-
ter later, but while on the subject of possi-
ble changes necessary for trade betterment,
it occurs to us that the stool, scarf, free
cartage, free tuning and free music lessons
has about reached a point where it will be-
come necessary to include a piano as well,
unless a halt is declared on this free busi-
ness. If the evils of reckless competition
are not apparent in this trade, tell us, pray,
where we shall look for them.
Taking at random an extract from a
number of advertisements which lie before
us, we clip the following from an adver-
tisement of Goetz & Co., Brooklyn, in the
New York Journal :
NOTICE—We will give free with each
of following pianos stool, scarf, free
cartage and free tuning for one year ;
also, take back the piano any time be-
fore January 1, 1900, and allow all you
paid for it in part payment of new
piano.
In the same advertisement Goetz & Co.
offer to sell the line of pianos enumerated
in the advertisement from $3.00 to $5.00
monthly. They offer also to rent pianos
from $2.00 monthly upward.
Now, isn't it time to call a halt upon this
sort of thing ?
Can we better business conditions in
this trade by adhering to such methods in
retailing musical instruments ? Sold on
$3.00 to $5.00 monthly payments and free
everything ! The piano business is all
right, but it needs adjusting to the times.
Certain excrescences which have develop-
ed should be removed with the keen
scalpel of common sense. " Auction sales,"
"fire sales," "alteration sales," "defiance
sales " and all other "sales " are a regular
feature of our modern commercial life.
They are necessary to stock cleaning, and
a very convenient expedient to raise ready
cash, or to emphasize a particular product
before a community. Cleaning up sales
are all right. Napoleon used to remark
when reference was made to the number
of troops left on the battlefield, "You
can't make an omelet without breaking
eggs," and many dealers, no matter how
active or aggressive, can't work off the
odds and ends without the annual special
sales inaugurated under some catchy head.
All "sales "are all right save the install-
ment sale, as commonly interpreted to-day.
Two dollar a month installments !
Over three years to pay for a seventy-
five dollar, second-hand "rattle box."
Business, is it ?
Better, business suicide.
The Review, as a representative trade terpreted'means that the department stores
medium, believes in constantly agitating will gain more and more of the cash trade
those principles which have direct bearing from the piano dealer unless he adopts
upon the industry.
retaliatory measures to counteract the de-
We talk to a large audience weekly, and partment store influence. In this connec-
we propose to devote the editorial columns tion we would suggest the insertion in the
of this paper to the discussion of topics regular dealer's advertisements which con-
which are of vital importance to the trade. tain the names of reputable pianos, words
One of the matters which we have been which shall convey the intelligence to the
emphasizing is the sale of pianos on such in- people that " just as good pianos can be
finitesimally small monthly installments— found at their stores and at lower prices
that unconsciously we have drifted into the than the department stores off er," to use as
installment rut, so that it is to-day the a catch line the words ' 'department store pi-
dominating feature of the advertisements anos at less than department store prices."
which appear in the daily press offering Let this sentiment take the place of the
pianos to the public—that the average installment message to the people which
TRUST THOUGHTS.
salesman talks installment when he should appears in so many advertisements. In- \ 1 7 E hear considerable in this trade of
be talking cash.
stallment sales may be good but cash sales
the absorption of the smaller enter-
We affirm that there should be revision are a mighty sight better.
prises by the greater, and that eventually