Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
FEVEW
EDWARD LYMAN DILL.
Editor and Proprietor.
J. B. SP1LLANE,
ig E d i t o r .
EXECVTIVE STAFF
THO». CAMPBXU.>COFHAND,
Gxo. B. KCIXKB,
W. MURDOCH LlND,
A. J. NlCKLIN,
BOSTON OFFICE:
ERNEST L. WAITT, 266 Washington St.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE:
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
EMILIE FRANCES BAUER,
GEO. W. QUERIPEL.
CH1CAQO OFFICE:
E. P. VAN HARLINGBN, 86 La Salle S t
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
R. J. LEFEBVR*.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE:
ST. LOUIS OFFICE :
CHAS. N. VAN B U I I N .
ALFRED MBTZOXR, 425-427 Front S t
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per
year; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 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
Lyman Bill.
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 has a special circulation, and therefore aug-
ments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
^he directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
f oun< j o n p a g e 3 0 w ;u be of great' value, as a reference for
MANUFACTURERS
dealers and others.
THE ARTISTS*
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NVMBER 1745 GRAMERCY.
NEW YORR, NOV. 12. 1904.
dred pianos at a dollar a week and nothing down. The concern is
a rich one, and it did not need the money. So while individual
manufacturers may through generous impulses grant credits to men
who are not worthy of the favors shown them, yet as a whole manu-
facturers are not building up an unfair competition by an over-indul-
gence in regular credits. That is our opinion.
T
HERE is no doubt but there is a tendency on the part of some
of the smaller dealers who have a limited amount of capital to
do business far beyond their financial ability. They spread out their
small resources over a very broad surface, and when the least strain;
comes a break occurs.
If the dealer has but a small capital, and is putting out pianos,
on times of payment which carry them over three or four years,
how can he meet his maturing notes in, say, four, six, eight or
twelve months?
I
T is only a question of a very short time before all of his resources
are tied up in this endless paper chain, and he has simply got to
be carried by the manufacturer or quit selling. There can be no
question but that this sort of business is demoralizing to the best
interests of the piano trade, and in no other lines of merchandise are
such values to be secured for such a small payment down, and such
small monthly payments as in the retail piano line.
I
F one buys a set of books, say, worth from fifty to one hundred
dollars, monthly payments are anywhere from three to four
dollars, and there is invariably a first payment of from five to ten
dollars. Now some piano dealers deliver a value amounting to $300
at nothing down and a dollar a week. Of course if one has an unlim-
ited amount of money and caters to this kind of business it may be
all right; but we cannot see how a dealer can expect to succeed who
possesses but slight monetary resources who advertises to capture
this long time trade.
H
T
HE recent financial collapse of a Detroit dealer brings to mind
the question: Are piano manufacturers too generous with
their credits ? It would seem in ordinary merchandizing that a man
must have established assets of either character or money to secure
a five or ten thousand dollar credit from a manufacturing concern.
And yet in this trade it seems possible for men who are short on
both character and credit to get merchandise amounting to thou-
sands of dollars.
Are piano manufacturers more generous than those in other
lines of trade?
E would be very much better off if he reduced his business
volume as well as his liabilities, and cut out that part of his
sales which do not show fair returns within a reasonable time.
It would seem to us that the iong time business, is being longer
drawn out, it is near the snapping point, and the time may come
when manufacturers will be very suspicious of a dealer who
caters to that line of business—unless he has an exceedingly long
bank account—a condition of piano trade happiness which is rare
indeed in these strenuous times.
T
HEY are after the special brand business in the hardware trade.
This month two great hardware conventions, one of manufac-
turers and one of jobbers, will be held at Atlantic City, and nearly
all of the great houses will be represented at the two gatherings.
A record attendance is promised both in the number of concerns rep-
resented and in the high position and representative character of the
OME argue yes, and they go so far as to state that if credits men who will attend.
were limited to only deserving individuals the entire piano
An unusual degree of interest centers about these meetings be-
business would be materially bettered. They affirm that the most
cause of several questions which the manufacturers and jobbers
difficult kind of competition comes from the men who do not pay propose to discuss.
their bills, but who are forced to cut prices oftentimes below the
The two important matters awaiting discussion are the manu-
price indicated on the manufacturer's invoice in order to raise
facture and sale of special brands and the catalogue house problem.
money to tide themselves over a particular crisis. In this way the The catalogue house trade has injured the regular hardware dealers
life is cut out of trade, and the legitimate interests of the business in hundreds of cities and hamlets throughout the land. This compe-
suffer materially through the overindulgence of manufacturers in
tition has reached such a critical stage that it is suggested that manu-
credits to undeserving dealers.
facturers who sell to catalogue houses be boycotted.
S
F course the hardest kind of competition to meet is the com-
petition that does not meet maturing obligations. There is
no chance for argument there, but are piano manufacturers less
careful than men in other lines of trade in granting credits ? Do
they assist in bolstering up unfair competition?
There is an unmistakable tendency in this business to extend
the date of final settlement both in the wholesale and retail lines.
When dealers advertise a piano at nothing down and a dollar a week,
it means that four or five years must elapse before the final payments
on the instruments have been made.
O
PECULIAR condition of affairs truly, and it may be stated
that some of the dealers who have followed this dollar a week
course are apparently not in pressing need of money. There was
one department store in New York which recently offered eight hun-
A
I
N the piano trade the catalogue house competition, which threat-
ened at one time to become quite a factor, has never developed
so that it cuts much of a figure in the business. Some concerns were
catering early to this line of trade. Their regular dealers, however,
complained, and if persisted in would have resulted in the serious
curtailment of the sale of the manufacturers' regular brands.
There are some, a limited number, who are supplying such
houses with pianos,. as Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery
Ward & Co. Manufacturers, however, find that it will be difficult to
ride two horses; in other words, to sell to the regular dealer and the
catalogue house, to compete with him in the same territory.
T
HE special brand business, which is made one of the principal
topics for discussion at the November hardware meetings, is
certainly a very interesting and important one for the piano manu-