Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
ing to the accepted code. Every dealer who
desires to be up to date should have dull-
finished pianos in stock, and when they are
placed side by side with the highly polished
instruments, we believe that he will find
that there will be an immediate decrease
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
in
the demand for the former. Dull finish
EIITOR AMD PROPRIETOR.
J . B. S P I L L A N E , MANAGING EDITOR.
is up to date, and what is more, it has come
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
WALDO E. LADD
to stay.
Executive Staff:
GEO.
W. QUERIPEL
A. J. NICKLIN
There is another point which should spe-
PnDlisliai Every Saturday at 3 East 14th street, New Yorfc. cially recommend it. While the cost of the
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States, Mexico
dull and mirror finish is practically the same
and Canada, *2.oo per year; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEnENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special discount
there
will be less wear and tear on the tem-
is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite reading matter,
$75.00.
pers of the dealers and the manufacturer,
RBniTTANCB*, in other than currency form, should be
made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
because with the dull finish the .old cry of
Enttred at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter
"checking" ceases. The dealer then will
NEW YORK, AUGUST 24, 1901.
not
have to devote as much time listening
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745-EIGHTEENTH STREET.
to the long-drawn-out complaints of people
THE
On the first Saturday of each
ARTISTS'
month The Review contains in its
regarding the checking of their beautifully
DEPARTMENT "Artists' Department" all the cur-
rent musical news. This is effected
finished pianos, and the manufacturers, in
without in any way trespassing on the size or ser-
turn, will receive less of these complaints
vice of the trade section of the paper. It has a
special circulation, and therefore augments mater-
handed down the line to him; in other
ially the value of The Review to advertisers.
words, the introduction of the dull-finished
DIRECTORY OF
The directory of piano manu-
PIANO
facturing firms and corporations
pianos into general use means a reduction in
MANUFACTURERS f o u n d Q n p a g e 2 Q w m b e Q £
the cases sent in for consideration by the
value as a reference for dealers and others.
DIRECTORY OF
A directory of all advertisers
grievance department of the business.
ADVERTISERS
xn
The Review will be found on
page 5.
It is really surprising, when we stop t 0
consider the matter, that there should be
any
particular argument required beyond
EDITORIAL
merely a plain statement of fact to introduce
TURNING DULL FINISHWARD.
the dull finish. It possesses so many fea-
EALERS and man- tures of attraction, aside from appealing to
Piano Industry must
r\
ufacturers w h o aesthetic and cultivated tastes, for, in purely
follow where the fur-
niture trade has led
are
not
believers in the a business way, the advantage is beyond
—Dull finish generally
adopted f o r artistic
utter rout of the "mir- power of argument to refute.
home fittings—Dealers
desire the latest.
ror polish" as applied THE BENEFITS "OF" COMPETITION.
TWENTY-THIRD Y c / R .
RLMFW
to pianos by- the dull finish, should pay a
visit to the leading furniture establishments
in their respective cities. They will find that
the mirror finish to-day is only used in con-
nection with the cheapest kinds of furni-
ture. Bedroom sets ranging in price from
$15 to $25 invariably have the brilliant pol-
ish which is so generally used by piano man-
ufacturers, but depart from the cheap scale
and it will be found that the mirror polish
is immediately abandoned. The high-priced
chamber sets which are sold from $150 to
$200 are all offered for sale wth the dull
finish, and, as Colonel Conway remarked
to The Review last week, "piano making,
which is essentially an art industry, should
lead; but in this case it is following the
furniture industry."
The action of the Piano Manufacturers'
National Association has created special in-
terest in the dull finish, and when dealers
give this matter investigation, we believe
it will be within a very brief period of time
when the demand for the old style finish
will have become vastly reduced, excepting
for the very cheap pianos. One represents
refinement and the other vulgarity, accord-
water mark, and to-day we have single firms
placing supply orders with the fixed plan
of turning out ten thousand pianos in a
single year.
Now, we cannot say that the increase in
output is due wholly to growth in popula-
tion. The basic cause is competition, not
only in manufacturing, but in advertising,
in both wholesale and retail fields, the
competition between the dealers being in-
strumental in creating added interest in pia-
nos.
Not only has competition brought
about a tremendously increased output, but
constant betterment as well in the instru-
ments. Compare the cheap pianos of 1901
with the medium-priced of a few years ago,
and it will be seen at once that great values
are offered in the instruments of to-day,
that a change amounting almost to a revo-
lution has been going on in piano manu-
facturing.
Again, this betterment cannot be wholly
credited to changes in machinery, for the
real cause of the vast improvement has had
its origin largely in competition.
Competition has been the chief instrument
in perfecting our factory system, which is
unsurpassed in the world. If to-day a com-
bination could be made which should include
the manufacturing interests of the country,
competition would cease, provided indepen-
dent manufacturers could be effectually kept
down, and, following out the pet scheme of
the piano trust promoter, if the combina-
tion could be extended to the retail depart-
ment of the industry, and control through
I T was not so many its own branches, the retail distribution, the
Competition h a s
revolutionized our in-
y e a r s ago that output would immediately begin to dwindle.
dustrial system—Ad-
vance made in the pi- twelve days was con- There would be a material shrinkage the
ano w o r l d — T h e
sidered fast time in first year, and an enormous shrinkage the
elimination of com-
petition would be fatal.
crossing the Atlantic. second.
A few days later eight days was considered
Why? Because competition in pianodom
a wonder of the century; six days and less would cease. There would not be the same
is just record time nowadays.
energy applied to dispose of pianos, the
What, forces have been instrumental in same intelligence and perseverance, the same
creating these changed conditions and ceaseless endeavor that there is largely man-
bringing about surprising results?
ifest in every city and hamlet in America
Competition.
to-day.
A steamship company builds an ocean
Of course, we do not believe it possible
racer to beat a record; another company for a combination to even temporarily hold
follows suit, and so on; the ships become absolute control of the musico-industrial af-
much more luxurious and faster, and the fairs of this country, but even if it were
steamship companies grow in like propor- possible to induce a large proportion of the
tion.
manufacturers to join the combination, we
If competition had been removed, prob- have grave doubts as to the future success
ably we should be content to-day with the of such a combination.
old slow system.
The peculiarities which invade every de-
The same conditions exist in the indus-
partment of this industry are not discover-
trial world.
It was not so many years ago when a able in any other, and we do not believe
thousand pianos per year was considered an that it will ever be possible to form an ab-
immense output for a single institution. sorptive trust among music trade men.
Then twenty-five hundred was the high There will always be enough of independent