Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
MEW
ICditor and Proprietor.
LDWAKD LYMAN BILL,
J. B. SP1LLANE. Managing
EXECVTIVE AND REPOftTOKIAL STAFF:
W. N. TYLER,
EMILIE FRANCIS BAUER,
W. L. WILLIAMS,
A. J. NICKLIN,
GEO. W. QUERIPEL.
GEO. B. KELLER,
WM. B. WHITE,
BOSTON OPFICE:
CH1CAQO OPPICB
ERNEST L. WAITT, 255 Washington St.
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 1362 Monadnock Block.
PHILADELPHIA OPPICB:
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
E. C. TORREY.
5T. LOUIS OPFICE
CHAS. N. VAN BUISEN.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE: ALFRED METZGER, 425-427 Front. St.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SVBSCR PTION (including postage), United States, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per
vt-ar : all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENIS. $2.00 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
vpii-'v f-ontraots a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $50.00 ; opposite
reading matter, $75.00.
R_£MiT ANCfcS, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
l-yman Bill.
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains in its
THE ARTISTS* "Artists" nepartment" 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
augments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
n n r r m D v -* PIAMU T n e directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
OIR.bC I UK I of PIANO f oun( j o n another page will be of great value, as a reference
MANVFACTUR.EHS
f or dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NVMBER 1745 GRAMERCY.
~
NEW YOKIV, JULY 15, 19O5.
O
UR special reports clearly indicate that June was the banner
month for business of this year. During a recent talk with
The Review a leading supply man stated that the last two months had
been surprisingly good—a statement which furnished the best argu-
ment in favor of satisfactory trade conditions. To this supply man it
had been a source of surprise that the demand had been so large for
piano supplies from manufacturers during May and June. The general
opinions of dealers who naturally are in close touch with the local
situation seems to be that this is going to be a remarkable year in a
business sense. There is, too, no tendency to overdo trade. In other
words, men propose to stand pat. They have learned that there is
more money in keeping straight ahead on a straight road as long as
that road seems to be headed toward success, than to attempt experi-
ments, diversions and excursions into by-paths which may lead them
into conditions fraught with danger.
I
N other words, a safe, steady, conservative business seems to be
the law of all classes of trade, and it is demonstrated that the
business men of this industry are learning the value of not forcing
goods beyond the healthy demand. They are not endeavoring, as a
rule, to-day to do more than can be done with safety. There is more
discrimination shown in the character of sales than ever before.
Piano merchants have come to learn that after all the profits of the
year are made up not in the number of sales, but in the quantity of
sales. Greater care, too, is shown than ever before in collections.
They are watched closer, and it must be truly said that there is evi-
denced on all sides a greater desire to conduct business on healthier
business lines than ever before.
T
HE reports which we have received from various sections of the
country all have an optimistic tone. A good trade is expected
by the dealers in many points, even during the summer. With the
promise of good crops there is no reason to doubt that the fall busi-
ness will start in early and in a lively manner. Manufacturers will
act wisely who accumulate some reserve stock during the next few
weeks.
One man, whose judgment we have found to be sound on many
occasions, recently stated that there would not be enough finished
pianos on hand to supply the demand which would be sure to come
during the fall months. • He predicts a business record-breaker. We
can hardly take a radical view of the situation, but the fall appar-
ently promises well. In the first place, piano merchants talk confi-
dence. Crop prospects are unusually satisfactory, and with a large
crop in the West and another big and profitable crop of cotton in the
South, it would seem as if the prosperity of these two important sec-
tions of the country are well assured, and this condition, of course,
will have a stimulating effect upon the general trade.
I
T was exactly twenty-six years ago this month that this publica-
tion made its first appearance. The following is taken from the
first editorial appearing in Vol. I., No. I, July, 1879:
"This journal will have the interests of the music trade at heart,
and will strive to further those interests by furnishing all desira-
ble information, maintaining the cause of right and justice, giving
every man a fair field, and no favor, by binding itself to no party or
clique. We shall spare no pains or expense to give in full all infor-
mation concerning the manufacture of pianos and organs, the pub-
lication of sheet music; our patent department will be copiously
illustrated; our export department will furnish a mass of informa-
tion hitherto inaccessible to the trade. Our news department will
contain an abundance of interesting matter, while our editorial pages
will be kept free from the taint of corruption and will set forth only
our candid opinion of trade affairs. We do not stoop to beg for the
support of the music trade, nor shall we attempt to coerce it. We
only ask for such support and encouragement as we may show our-
selves thoroughly worthy of in the future."
T
HAT those early policies which were laid down by the paper
have been faithfully adhered to will be admitted by all who are
lamiliar with the history of this publication for a quarter of a cen-
tury, and it is therefore with some degree of satisfaction that this
institution can take a retrospective glance over two and a half
decades of straightforward work in behalf of this industry.
The Review began its life as a stricly trade publication, and it
is, therefore, to-day the only trade paper in this industry which has
been continuously published for twenty-six years.
We do not believe in entering into any long, drawn-out essays
as to what we have accomplished. That is unnecessary, for it is
generally conceded that this publication has been helpful in the
broadest sense to the allied music trades, and that it has never hesi-
tated to uphold the right or condemn the wrong.
T
HE Review has never been a sycophantic medium. It
adopted from the start straightforward, clean-cut rules, inde-
pendent in its utterances and honest in its dealings. It has never
fomented discord, and never has been saturated with intrigue; has
always urged harmony. We have never been led, and in that we
have differed somewhat from others regarding the true functions of
a trade publication. We have held that a trade paper should be
something more than a mere chronicler of passing events. It should
be in the van of progress, and should be an inspiring force for the
industry. There has been no blot upon The Review's escutcheon.
It has been conducted upon business principles. It has never sought
patronage on any other basis than a fair equivalent in the way of
circulation and general standing. From modest beginnings it has
steadily grown until it to-day ranks as one of the successful trade
paper properties in America.
A DVER.TISERS who commenced in a modest way years ago
- A . have steadily increased their appropriations, finding that the
largest values were offered them through The Review's widespread
influence. There has been no sudden or phenomenal expansion in
the paper's career, but there has been a steady, noticeable increase—
a growth which may be wholly credited to the values returned both
subscribers and advertisers.
For a long time The Review was published twice a month, but
even in those early days when the trade was young there was too
wide a gap between the dates of publication, and when the present
editor assumed the entire management of the paper he immediately
issued The Review every Saturday, and from that time dates the
more substantial growth of the paper.
T
HE general reliability of The Review has never been ques-
tioned, and it has ever been to the forefront in the advocacy
of those principles which make for trade betterment. A national