Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE
W
HY do some business institutions gain by leaps and bounds
while others simply plod? The former class are controlled
by men who are always receptive, and who are watchful of every
detail of their business, and are ever ready to lend an ear to the
suggestions that come from their employes, great and small, or
from any other sources. Such men inculcate the same spirit in
their more immediate assistants, and especially do they encourage
the efforts of new employes who are endeavoring to instill into the
business routine some of the ideas which they have brought with
them from their former places of employment.
In establishments of the plodding class, efforts of such new
employes generally meet with the persistent opposition from those
whose co-operation they have every right to expect. In the well
managed piano establishments suggestions are always in order, and
it means usually that a combination of ideas will bring the store
system into a perfect condition, or one which reasonably approxi-
mates that state of business bliss.
T
HERE is still a good deal to learn about piano selling, that is
successful selling, which, of course, means disposing of in-
struments at a profit and getting the money for them, and men who
have the ability to sell goods at a profit are worth good salaries
because they are rare, and we do not believe with some that piano
salesmen are overpaid. In the department stores outside of the
managers there is not required the same high degree of intelligence
that is demanded in an exclusive piano department. Hence the
salaries of piano salesmen should not be on a par with those in
department stores.
T
HE first of January is a pretty good time for every piano mer-
chant to make up his mind to do business for the new year,
and he may as well admit that whatever his competitors are doing
in the way of arousing enthusiasm is not going to hurt him. That
is, unless he permits the cobwebs to grow over his door. It is a
mistake to think that the energetic and progressive plans of one
progressive piano merchant will injure another. It is not so. The
livelier the spirit that prevails in every particular trade in any city,
the better it is for the stores located there, and if one of the big
piano stores springs a surprise which keeps the people coming their
• way, the other stores managers do not sit down and weep and
wring their hands over the piano sales that are going by them—not
much. The action of the progressive man stimulates a hustle all
along the line, and as a result more business is done.
T
HE enormous advertising of the Aeolian Co. has immeasurably
helped the general player trade of this country, and every
fairminded man will admit it. This great concern has been getting
out beautiful four-page supplements in the leading magazines; not
once, but many times; not this year, but last year, and the year
before that, and that, and so on. It has been this attractive adver-
tising of the Aeolian Co. which has aided every piano player manu-
facturer in this country.
We name the Aeolian Co. because it is conceded that this con-
cern has expended more money for publicity than any other house
in the music trade line. Good advertising and good business hustle
helps every man in the particular line of trade wherein the legiti-
mate exploitation of wares is going on. For a man to profit, how-
ever, by general publicity he must keep wideawake. We cannot
all be original, but we can do the next best thing, and take every
possible advantage of every good idea that can be easily obtained,
and it is foolish policy for a merchant to feel that because his com-
petitors are advertising largely that they will get his trade away
from him.
L
YON & HEALY have been the biggest advertisers in Chicago
for years. They have expended vast sums of money annually
in the exploitation of their various products in all kinds of mediums
—papers, magazines, railway stations, in surface and elevated cars.
Their enormous advertising does not seem to have injured other
Chicago houses; on the contrary, it has helped them, and the more
pianos and musical accessories are advertised, the better it is for
the entire trade. It stimulates activity and induces the man who
is not progressive to open up a little and spend some money in ad-
vertising, and unless he is progressive, he deserves to lose his trade.
If his values are right and his wares are reliable every music trade
merchant should relish competition. Keep alive in the new year;
don't worry about your neighbor?; they are all right. Are you?
REVIEW
I
N no year of music trade history has there been such an enor-
mous number of grand pianos put forth as during the past
year. Every piano concern manufacturing grands has been more
than busy in that special department. It requires a good deal of
space to successfully build grand pianos on a large scale, and there
are few out of the total of manufacturers who are adequately
equipped to take care of this class of trade.
We are informed, however, that a number of manufacturers
are preparing to increase their grand output by adding to their
creative facilities during the present year. The small grand is
steadily growing in popularity, and why should it not? It is a
graceful, beautiful adjunct to any home wherein placed.
A
GREAT many piano dealers during the past year have taken
on talking machines, and some .have been bitterly disap-
pointed in the results achieved. They belong to the class of men
who expect that simply placing a certain line of goods in their sales-
room will at once create a demand for them.
It is an absurdity to think that talking machines or any other
special product will sell without proper exploitation and nursing.
The piano players did not grow in favor until they received the
energizing care of specialists, and the talking machine will suffer
the same fate. The wise music dealers who have prepared special
talking machine departments and placed them under the care of
experts who have been liberal in their advertising expenditures have
been more than pleased with the results. The class of men who
have been neglectful of interest in the machines are the ones who
have been disappointed. This special business, however, has grown
and developed at an enormous rate, and the American talking ma-
chine is shipped to all lands in large numbers. The special ex-
ponent of the industry—The Talking Machine World—which is a
part of this newspaper institution, has increased its influence and
circulation at a phenomenal rate, and the manufacturers and dealers
are a unit in praising the policy of this publication and its helpful-
ness to the industry.
T
HE first national music trade show was held in Madison Square
Garden early last fall, and exhibitors who took part in this
enterprise expressed themselves as being highly pleased with the
results obtained. Perhaps the strongest evidence that can be pro-
duced in favor of the show may be found in the statement that
nearly all the exhibitors who took part the present year have se-
cured increased space for the next year's show. Some have trebled
the amount of space which they occupied this year, so that we may
expect that next year a larger, more imposing and more representa-
tive music trade show will occupy Madison Square Garden during
September. The manager, Captain Dressel, is an energetic, force-
ful man, who proposes to make the National Music Show the same
success which he has accomplished in other industries.
r
~T > HE matter of prices just now is commanding a good deal of
X attention in all parts, especially from manufacturers on
whom rests the responsibility of deciding the course to pursue in
regard to their own product. There has been a marked increase
in the cost of goods, owing to the important advances which have
taken place in the price of raw material of practically every kind,
and this increased cost is not as yet represented in the selling
price of all the manufacturers. Many of them are recognizing the
fact that if present conditions continue it will be absolutely neces-
sary to advance prices, but they have been reluctant to take this
action.
LONDON exchange, in reviewing the book, "Theory and
Practice of Pianoforte Building," recently sent out from
this office, says that it is strange indeed that a country which has
done so much for pianomaking has never put forth previous to this
a technical work, showing how to build pianos.
We were influenced by such views in preparing this publication,
and it is gratifying to know that it is being received so enthusias-
tically by members of the trade in all parts of the country. One
large dealer, in sending in an order for additional copies, writes:
"I believe that you have conferred a great favor upon the entire
trade by producing such a publication. I propose that every one
of my salesmen shall have a copy, because I believe that a man
should thoroughly understand that which he sells, particularly
when the product is so complicated as the piano."
A