Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN DILL,
E d i t o r a n d Proprietor
J. B. 5P1LLANE. Manarfln* Editor.
EXECVTIVE AND REPORTORIAL STAFF:
GKO. B. KELLER.,
W. N. TYLER,
BMILIE FRANCIS BAUER,
WM. B. WHITE,
W. L. WILLIAMS,
A. J. NICKLIN,
GEO. W. QDERIPEL.
BOSTON OPPICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE
ERNEST L. WAITT, 255 Washington St.
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 1362 Monadnock Block.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE:
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
S T . LOUIS OFFICE
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
E. C. TORREY.
C H A S . N. VAN BUKEN.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE: ALFRED METZGER, 425-427 F r o n t . St.
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 B11L
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains in its
THE ARTISTS' "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
augments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
niRFTTORV rf PIANO T h e d l r e c t o r y o f P l a n ° manufacturing firms and corporations
UIK.LHUKT of riAnu found on another page will be of great value, as a reference
MANVrACTUKERS
f or dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NVMBER 1745 GRAMERCY.
NEW YORK, JULY 29, 19O5.
T
HE extreme heat of last week paralyzed all lines of trade, and
many factories were compelled to shut down temporarily.
Quite naturally business continues to be quiet, but the reports which
come from manufacturers in regard to the first half of the year, in-
dicate that business for that period was on the whole of very satis-
factory volume, several of them referring to their trade as having
been exceptionally good.
The prevalence of warm weather naturally has the effect to
depress trade in the immediate present, but the tone of advices from
all classes of merchants and manufacturers is encouraging and even
confident. With the practical assurance of good crops and the preva-
lence of generally prosperous conditions, the outlook for the re-
mainder of the year is full of promise.
r
I ^ H E R E is a belief on the part of some that the fall trade will be
X
the largest which has ever been experienced in this industry.
There are many who believe that there will not be manufactured
goods enough to go round, but nevertheless, it is the tendency of
the dealers to order sparingly. Very few piano men place heavy
orders months in advance, for there is no denying the fact that
there is a tendency to conduct business conservatively, and not to
purchase at all speculatively. Conservatism is all right; in fact it
is better to exercise moderate conservatism than not to use discre-
tion in purchases for future business. But at the same time, con-
servatism can be overdone.
According to the views of those who are best informed the
fall trade will be of satisfactory proportions, therefore it will be
to the advantage of piano merchants to see to it that their trade
stock is ordered well in advance. Bright, fresh stock in the early
fall will help them to get the first of the favoring trade breezes. A
state of preparedness is the first essential to business success.
A
MANUFACTURER writing to The Review says: "I think
your term 'special brands' which applies to pianos of indefi-
nite origin much more applicable than the old worn out term,
'stencil.' We have outgrown that word, and 'special brands' ap-
plies with directness and exactness."
The word "stencil" has become obsolete, and the names which
appear on the fall boards of various pianos made for dealers are in
most cases their own special brands. They are names under which
they exploit them, and they are generally created in most instances
for the individual dealer.
The term, "special brands," will steadily grow in favor, and
find a permanent place in piano nomenclature.
O
NE of our correspondents in a Western city last week stated
that a local dealer "was very much pleased with his special
brand pianos which bore his own name, and which he was
selling with splendid results, competing with the best known pianos
on his floor."
This same dealer, by the way, has the agency for one or two
pianos of established reputation and splendid history, and yet he
is using the drawing influence of both of these instruments to sell
his own specials.
()f course, this sort of traffic from a legal standpoint is all
right, and if manufacturers are content to permit their instruments
to be used to prop up some special brands why it is their affair, but
any one who has given this subject the study which it deserves
must realize that the exploitation of the special brands "as the just
as good" or "a trifle better" is working serious evil to the industry.
It is undermining the faith of the people in the pianos of glorious
historv.
customers, believing in the. sincerity and honesty of the
dealer, have purchased his own special brands after listening
to his positive utterances regarding their values—his statements
that in them are incorporated several of his own ideas, and that his
own plans are carried out down to the minutest detail—that he has
incorporated within them all of the good points of the best grade
pianos in addition to some of his own which, of course, are far su-
perior. After having listened to the persuasive eloquence of the
dealer whom they trusted, and having selected one of his own special
brands rather than the instrument which bore the manufacturer's
name of established reputation, and learned that it has proved
to be an instrument of mediocre value—in other words, a common,
ordinary, commercial piano—has not the whole transaction through-
out shattered their faith in piano values, and in the truthfulness
of the statements of piano merchants? They trusted the dealer
implicitly, and when they accepted his word that his own special
brand exceeded in value the pianos which had won fame, they
accepted his statements that on account of his reduced expenses he
could sell it to them at a considerably reduced price. They swal-
lowed the bait because they believed the dealer.
T
HE people will learn that the instruments which are exploited as
specials are of the most ordinary values in pianodom, and the
whole line of the dealer's argument will have done much to destroy
their faith in piano values.
This question is a broad one, and affects even the instruments
which occupy a seemingly impregnable position to-day, for, if per-
sisted in the sale of special brands will in the future very seriously
militate against any concern maintaining a high position in the
piano world for artistic products.
As far as the legality of this kind of work is concerned that is
not to be questioned. Self-interest dominates the views and de-
termines the attitude of the dealers who purchase these goods and
the manufacturers who create them and carries with it, some argue,
no reproach.
T
HEY say that it is simply good business. Well, if it is, it should
be discussed from a broad standpoint, and like all trade
questions treated purely upon merits, with a breadth of view,
independence of judgment, and a uniform fairness that shall avoid
abuse on one side or on the other.
The Review 7 holds that a discussion of this matter in an inde-
pendent, impartial spirit can only be helpful to the best interests of
the trade, and our observations gleaned in thousands of miles of
travel yearly, teach us that the insidious work of the special brand
is steadily going on in such a way that it is obviously detrimental
to the future of the piano business.
How to adjust it—how to regulate it?
W
ELL, that is one of the problems which confront the trade.
Piano merchants buy and exploit this class of goods,
because they make large profits on the individual sales. In most
instances they sell the pianos out of their class. Manufacturers