Music Trade Review

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THE MUSiC TRADE REVIEW
ufacturers as they can, then all would be
better. There are many dealers who se-
cure the agency of certain pianos and hold
them, doing little or nothing to make the
territory which they control profitable to
the manufacturer. Now when the manu-
TWENTY-FIRST YEAR.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL.
facturer is approached by a department
Editor and Proprietor
store representative he naturally looks over
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
the ground and sums up the situation pre-
cisely as it is. He finds that in certain
3 East 14th St., New York
localities where his pianos have been repre-
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per year ; all other countries,
$300.
sented for years, there has been business
ADVERTISEHENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis- of unsatisfactory proportions carried on.
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read'
ing matter $75.00.
He then figures that if the regular dealer
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
is not more watchful of his interests it is
Entered at the Neva York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
quite time that he removed his instruments
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 14, 1899.
from a position of almost loss to one of
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745-E1QHTEENTH STREET.
profit. He is too practical to disregard
THE KEYNOTE.
money-making opportunities.
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary
Manufacturers as a whole prefer to do
and musical features which have heretofore
business with regular dealers, but if the
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
regular dealers will pursue the policy of
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
indifference and inactivity towards their
trade paper.
interests, then naturally he figures about
making a change, and whether that change
FACTS AS WE VIEW THEM.
\ X / E were impressed with the belief that is made to a department store or to an-
the alleged scare of the dealers over other dealer is dependent entirely upon
department stores had subsided to such a how the manufacturer views the situation.
There are some dealers who will em-
point that it was hardly perceptible. Cor-
respondence received during the week blazon their windows with golden signs of
proves that there still exists on the part of the greatest names of the industry. These
some dealers a clearly-defined fear, found- names give character and dignity to their
ed upon the belief that department stores business, as they are familiar to the edu-
would continually poach upon the pre- cated public.
serves of the regular dealer.
And are not these names in many in-
Now, really, there is not the slightest stances used purely and simply as drawing
cause for alarm over the department store cards?
bugaboo. All that is necessary is to take
We know of a number of cases where
a keen, practical, twentieth century view of dealers have held the agencies for some
the business situation, as it now appears. noted makes of pianos and have transacted
There is no use whatsoever in sitting down only a trivial amount of business in those
and sending up an occasional wail over the lines for years. Now the manufacturer
departure of trade from regular lines into is waking up to the idea that that condi-
that of department stores. Merchants in tion of affairs is not beneficial to his busi-
every other line have had this same trou- ness interests, and the quicker the dealer
ble to combat, and they have not met the realizes the full force of this statement the
issue successfully by sitting down and pass- better it will be for him. The stool pig-
ing hours of regretful consideration on the eon idea is played out, and if a dealer in
discouraging outlook for the regular mer- the future proposes to use the great names
chant. It is easy to float with the stream, as drawing cards while he supplies to his
for otherwise much strength is exhausted customers some of the cheapest pianos
in attempting to successfully stem a strong manufactured at prices which should en-
current.
title the purchaser to really good instru-
The trend of the times is towards con- ments, then he may conclude to lose his
centration and consolidation in everything, desirable. makes of instruments, for the
and while the department store has ab- manufacturer surely will make deals with
sorbed and concentrated under one roof department or other stores that he deems
hundreds of regular lines, yet it has not more advantageous to his business.
proven thus far an injurious factor to the
Recently our attention was drawn to an
music trade.
illustration where a certain dealer was
If the dealers themselves would figure highly indignant because an agency had
that they are to a large extent custodians been withdrawn from him. He felt he
of valuable merchandise, and that it is had held it so long, that he was really
their business to make their custody of entitled to hold it in perpetuity. The
_certain instruments as profitable for man- manufacturer had an excellent opportunity
to divide up the territory and make several
deals each one of which would be more ad-
vantageous than the one which he had
been continuing for a term of years. He
wrote to the dealer urging him to buy
more stock. This the dealer did not do
and the manufacturer transferred his
agency. The dealer thought that he was
treated unjustly, when the facts in the case
were that he had sold less than ten pianos
per year for this manufacturer and had
held a large amount of territory in which
he had the exclusive sales rights. In three
months this manufacturer had disposed of
more pianos than the former dealer han
died in three years.
Now, it is just such illustrations that
should bring the dealer to his senses with
a round turn. To Liptonize—A manufac-
turer will not lift an agency that is profit-
able to him. But he does not propose to
be at the mercy of the dealer, leaving in
his possession valuable territory from
which he is getting meagre returns.
Whether this territory is redistributed
among regular dealers or whether it will
go to department stores rests entirely with
the dealer himself. If he is progressive,
alert, and watchful, making the manufac-
turer's interests and his own identical he
need entertain no fear of department store
annihilation.
That is about the way we view the situ-
ation to-day.
FOR FOREIGN TRADE.
A CCORDING to some of our prominent
manufacturers the Export Exposition
at Philadelphia will have the direct effect
of encouraging trade with foreign coun-
tries. Immediate results are already being
felt. That America will ultimately domi-
nate the world in all kinds of manufactures
cannot be doubted, and all the American
piano manufacturer desirous of capturing
a large amount of foreign trade needs to
do is to study the requirements of the
country to whose people he especially de-
sires to cater. In other words not to
build American pianos for England and
the Continent, but to introduce a counter-
part of the English and German piano as
made abroad, and make them in America.
The Review policy for years has been to
counsel American manufacturers to build
instruments specially designed for export
trade. When they do this there can be no
doubt that the same qualities which have
enabled the manufacturers and merchants
of the United States to develop the enor-
mous trade which exists in that country
to-day would crown their efforts with like
success in any other market having a large
consuming capacity.
In the music trade the dominant idea