Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
This is practically an open acknowledg-
ment from Wanamaker that at least two
pianos, we will say the Chickering and
Vose, are not to be slaughtered, but there
is at the same time a certain coloring to
the advertisement which gives rise to the
•EDWARD LYMAN BILL.
belief that Wanamaker hopes quickly to
Editor and Proprietor
overcome certain obstacles which possibly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
clog his distributing machinery. In other
3 East 14th St., New York
words it would seem that he is desirous to
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, $SJOO per year; all other countries,
remove all restrictions which are now im-
ADVERTISEriENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
posed upon him by manufacturers in the
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read«
way of prices.
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
The advertisement of Wanamaker in the
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Claa Matter.
New York papers has also been much com-
mented
upon. There is practically the same
NEW YORK, APRIL 22, 1899.
prelude to the advertisement that we have
TELEPHONE NUMBER. 1745-EIOHTEENTH STREET.
referred to in the Philadelphia announce-
THE KEYNOTE.
ment, one part of which we may quote
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary with appropriateness, showing the serious
and musical features which have heretofore way in which this piano matter is con-
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing sidered :
on our regular news service. The Review will
"We have not merely opened a piano
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
trade paper.
department, we have entered the piano
business. The selling of pianos hencefor-
WANAMAKER ADVERTISING.
ward is not to be a branch of our business,
T^HE piano world breathes free at last— but a part of it, to be conducted like every
other part of our business—in an earnest,
the initial Wanamaker piano adver- intelligent and, if you please, a dignified
tisement has appeared,—it occupied an way."
The prices at which the Krell pianos are
entire back page in all the leading papers
of Philadelphia, and the prominent part of offered range from $300 for uprights to
the advertisement was a reproduction of $600 for the grands. Royal pianos from
a whole editorial page of. The Review of $150 to $235. They are sold on a length
Jan. 21st. We are not aware of a similar of time not exceeding eighteen months;
compliment having been paid a publication they are offered for rent for from $3.00 to
in any trade. However, that is only an $10.00. It is probable that shortly the
incident. Let us dissect the other part of Wanamaker Piano Club will become a fea-
the Wanamaker advertisement.
ture of the business.
Wanamaker—and we may say Wana-
Such advertisements as we have referred
maker, for the entire advertisement is to must impress and attract the purchasing
over the name of John Wanamaker, sign- public, and it would seem to us that it
ed in his well-known chirography—states must stimulate other piano merchants to
that for a decade he has been frequently renewed efforts and also to the expenditure
solicited to take up the sale of pianos, and of greater sums of money in the columns
it was only at the beginning of the autumn of the public print.
of 1898 that the firm decided to enter the
THE RECEDING TIDE.
piano arena. Then follows the analysis of
the different instruments carried in stock in T H E trust epidemic is now getting under
better control. The extensive trading
alphabetical order from A to G, running in
this order: Chickering, Vose, Krell, in industrials together with heavy fluctua-
Royal, Symphony, Angelus, Pianophone. tions in prices has resulted in losses to
A part of the advertisement it is well to many investors, and there has been a
quote, as to our minds it constitutes the marked decline in industrial securities as a
class, and an evident discrimination against
key to the Wanamaker piano business:
"Our methods of sales for pianos will them when offered to banks as collateral.
be such as prevail for all other merchan-
While considering the stupendous growth
dise. We are not undertaking this new
of
trusts in America during the past two
business to make havoc in the trade, but
to try to aid by our system in the distri- years, it may be well to say a few word*
bution of the king of musical instruments regarding the origin of this recent ovjf-
in the interest of a wider cultivation of
music. We may not be able to do all we whelming factor. To our mind the father
want at the first, seeing we are not mann- of the trust idea to-day was the English
facturers, but under the control of the
makers who have contracts with others all syndicate formed for the control of the
over the United States. For the present beer interests in America, and it may be
we shall be obliged to accept rulings in interesting to quote a few historical facts
one or two respects that we hope in time
regarding the failure of the trust ancestor.
to have reconsidered."
The English investors in the beer inter-
ests of America were heavy losers, and the
causes which contributed to the losses of
the original stockholders were these: When
promoters interested the brewers to the ex-
tent of purchasing their plants the pro-
moters received a large percentage in cash,
and the brewers, many of whom began
again in smaller competing enterprises
with the result that the stock in the Eng-
lish syndicate began going down a steady
decline.
It was not the antagonism of the public
that caused the downfall in this case, but
from the fact that many brewers and
their workmen engaged in smaller similar
enterprises, thus fighting the trust and
trust prices. In the end they won, and
that was before the public feeling had been
aroused to such an extent in an antago-
nistic way as it is at the present time.
The trust seed has been sown at various
intervals and apparently under favorable
conditions but in many instances has lacked
fertility, and the lack of unanimity among
the factors has been sufficient to defeat the
best laid plans for organization.
We have chronicled several abortive
attempts to form this industry into a trust,
but thus far all efforts have proved futile.
Naturally the subject is an interesting one,
as it is being constantly agitated by schem-
ing promoters who are interested in secur-
ing from piano manufacturers a generous
rake off in the way of commissions. These
promoters have a way of stating to one
manufacturer that his neighbor—a strong
competitor—has already given an option
on his plant, and is favorably inclined
towards the trust. He does this to win the
man with whom he is making the argu-
ment. The other man learns that he has
been misquoted and he looks with suspicion
upon all subsequent statements of the
promoter.
We are in a position to state that promi-
nent pi£no manufacturers, whose co-opera-
tion i$ much to be desired by the trust
promoters, would not go into a general
trust.
IN A NEAR INDUSTRY.
TN the furniture trade, which is a near
kin to the piano industry, promoters
are also at work in different branches of the
furniture supply trade, but the work has
not progressed sufficiently for a prediction
of the outcome.
The furniture trade seems very much in
the same attitude as the piano trade
towards the trust. Individual members of
that industry whom we have interviewed
recently, say that the chances for success