Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
Editor and Proprietor.
J. D. SP1LLANE, Managing Editor.
EXECUTIVE STAFF:
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND,
A. E >MUND HANSON,
GEO. B. KBXLBR,
A. J. .NlCKLIN,
EMU IK FRANCES BAUER
GEO. W. QUERIPEL.
BOSTON OFFICE :
CHICAGO OFFICE:
W. MURDOCH LIND, (94 Tremont St.
E. P. VAN HAKLINGKN, 36 La Salle St,
PHILAD'LPHIV OFFICP: R". W. KAIFFMAN.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the Nezv York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION including postage), United States, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per
year; all other countries, $4.(JO.
ADVERTISEMENTS. $2.no per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00; opposite reading
matter, $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
I.y-rnn Hill.
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains in its
"Artists' Department" all the current musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or service of the trade
DEPARTMENT section of the paper. It hns a special circulation, and therefore aug-
rnents materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
found on
W * wil1 b e o f g r e a t v a l u e a S a r e f e r e n c e £ o r
MANUFACTIRERS
dolors and P others.
THE ARTISTS'
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NUMBER 1745-EIGHTEENTH STREET.
NEW YOUK, OCTOB1R 31, 19O3.
EDITORIAL
1
HP HE volume of business done in October has been in some re-
*
spects disappointing. Collections have been coming in slowly.
Of course this slowing up in business is the natural result of the
decline in Wall street, following upon the sensational revelations
with regard to the methods employed in promoting trusts.
<• Some of the music trade men have been investors, though not
many have been caught badly. It may, however, be a good thing
after all, for many a merchant must have seen a great light in re-
gard to the unwisdom—to put it mildly—of investing his profits
in quarters as to whose integrity and stability he is -profoundly
ignorant. A growing piano business forms a mighty sight better
place to invest spare cash than some of these inflated trusts.
T might well be asked what better investment can a man have than
in his own business ? In the case of the piano retailer it is espe-
cially plain. For in no branch is the expenditure of money so con-
stantly required or so generally remunerative. Instead of entrust-
ing one's spare cash to a lot of people at a distance with whom he
has no acquaintance, the piano merchant had much better invest the
same in his own business—to be applied to the purchase of stock,
store betterments, or in up-to-date methods of advertising, all of
which would be helpful to his business enterprise. If the business
doesn't require the money, then put it in real estate.
I
Profit by the example of Samuel Hamilton, the well known
piano merchant of Pittsburg, who has made a fortune by shrewd
and intelligent real estate investments. The ownership of real
estate will increase your standing in a community, and besides such
a form of investment is not only safe but in nearly every instance
remunerative. Throw the get rich quick idea overboard, and you
will not only make more money but will build your business on a
broader and firmer basis and make more profit in the end, in selling
pianos than if the funds were divided and some placed in the hands
of these big conscienceless promoters of the Morgan type who are
working serious injury to the country's interests.
' I "" IME was, not so many years ago, when some piano merchants
believed that the public desire was largely for cheap pianos,
and for a while the very cheap piano occupied an important position
in the center of the piano stage.
It was price—price was rampant in piano arguments everywhere,
and the instruments which were thrown together in the cheapest
possible manner were sold in large quantities. Unhappily they
were not always sold at their true worth, for in thousands of cases
dealers received for the cheap pianos enough money to have en
titled the purchasers to have become owners of good, reliable and
reputable instruments.
The dealers learned in many cases by experience that that kind
of business did not pay, and was in the end a losing investment, so
for the past few years there has been a complete reversal of action
in this particular. Dealers have gotten tired of listening to the
complaints of deluded purchasers and they have been talking quality
rather than price. The very cheap piano has been in its decadence
for some time. Through steady advance in piano making and the
utilization of labor saving machinery it has been possible lately to
produce instruments of surprising value at low figures. These are
being sold more nearly in their class than ever before.
'TP HIS is precisely as it should be, for to sell in the proper grade
*
is commendable, it is business honesty.
There has been in all sections an unmistakable trend upwards
to the quality standard rather than a lowering to the price standard.
Perhaps this is best emphasized in the unusual activity which has
prevailed in the factories producing high grade instruments.
Some of the newcomers in the field have built instruments of
a medium grade. They have wisely steered clear of exploiting the
very cheap instruments and have not been desirous of joining the
upper ranks of pianodom or of associating with the piano four
hundred. They have chosen a healthy intermediate position and
have in most instances met with deserved success.
The piano business has kept steadily changing, but while it
has been undergoing prodigious changes it has kept on expanding
at a rate which has surprised many who figured formerly that the
whole country would be supplied with instruments by the dawn of
the new century.
ONTINUAL factory enlargements emphasize the constant
pressure made upon the manufacturing facilities in this
country. It is activity of the ceaseless kind, and no matter in what
line we may engage, it at once becomes a hard, unceasing fight
to the finish. Industrial warfare is unrelenting and the moment the
new-comer enters the field of piano making he is at once challenged
by a host of competitors who are well entrenched behind walls of
patronage.
It is but natural that every man should fight for every foot of
commercial ground which he has fairly won, and those who are in
possession of the field are not willing to retire in favor of a new-
comer. Therefore he must produce something distinctive to win,