Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
FEVLW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
GBO. B. KBLIJJR.
W . N. TTLBB.
F. H. THOMPSON.
BMILIB FBANCXB BACBX.
L. H>. BOWERS. B. BBITTAIN WILSON, W K . B. WHITB. L. J. CHAMBKBLIN. A. J . NICKLIN.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
B. P. YAN HARLINOEN, 196-107 Wabaab Are.
TELEPHONES : Central 414 ; Automatic 8643
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
L. WAITT, 278A Tremont St.
PHILADELPHIA :
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
A. W. SHAW.
CHAS. N. VAN BURBN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. II. GRAY, 2407 Sacramento St.
CINCINNATI. O.: NINA PUQH-SMITH.
BALTIMORE, MD.: PAUL T. LOCKWOOD.
LONDON. ENGLAND:
69 Basinghall St., E. C.
W. Lionel Sturdy, Manager.
REVIEW
foundation that it can successfully withstand any shocks to which
it must be exposed in days to come.
N advertiser in writing to The Review asks the following ques-
A
tion : "Do you believe in magazine advertising, and would
you advise us to enter into it?"
Yes, we believe in magazine advertising. It is excellent, and
if one has a large amount of money to expend there is no question
as to ultimate results. But we do not think that it will be profitable
for our client to invest in magazine advertising, because we know
in the first place that his expenditures would only amount to a few
thousand dollars—not enough to make an appreciable effect in the
great magazines, where a small advertisement is hopelessly lost
among the mass of general advertising which takes up more than
two-thirds of the total number of pages in the current magazines
of wide circulation. We know, too, that he has not a strong chain
of agencies over the country, therefore his advertising would not
materially help his dealers, and he would be paying too high a rate
for those whom he could directly interest.
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, f 4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, f 2.00 per lncb, single column, per Insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount Is allowed. Advertising Pages, $60.00; opposite
reading matter, $75.00.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, shonld be made payable to Bdward
\>yman Bill.
Directory ol Plamo The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporation*
on another page will be of great ralue, as a reference
Manufacturers found
for dealers and others.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
tirand Prtii
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal..St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medot.LewlB-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE—NUMBER 1745 GRAMERCY
Cable address: "Elblll New York."
NEW
YORK, FEBRUARY 23, 1907
EDITORIAL
D
URING the last half of February there has been a material
improvement in business. Up to that time there has been a
general languishing in trade circles, and considerable disappointment
has been expressed in the retail departments of the piano industry
at the slowness of trade since the first of the year.
In reviewing the trade situation last week we referred to causes
which have contributed to this dulness. There is no good reason
why piano men should not look forward with satisfaction toward
an excellent year's business. A little slowing up does not mean that
dull trade is to follow. The pessimist has been refuted, and his
philosophy put to scorn, and business men everywhere are confident,
and confidence begets success. When all faces are turned toward
the dawn, no one can see the retreating shadows. It is, however,
the time to make the best out of generally satisfactory conditions
which surround us.
I
T is the time when business men should do a paying business,
and there can be no better occasion than the present for piano
merchants to increase the size of their deferred payments on piano
sales and to lessen the period over which the payments are to run.
It is conceded by business men in all lines that the granting of
long credit constitutes an element of weakness rather than strength,
and when piano payments extend over several years there is liable
to be a material depreciation in the paper assets of the dealer who
holds a vast amount of such instalment paper. There is no better
protection for business than to inject an element of conservatism
into the present expansive methods which have been generally pur-
sued in all trades.
W
E have had few failures in the piano industry during the
past year and a half, and this applies equally to the retail
as well as the manufacturing departments, and this year there will
be a less number than formerly, if rules of conservatism and busi-
ness prudence are firmly adhered to. The Review does not believe
in advocating an alarmist doctrine, but we feel there is no time so
good as the present to put the entire piano business on such a firm
M
AGAZINE advertising, as we view it, is unprofitable for
piano men unless they have splendid national connections.
Tn order to reap the fullest benefits, a concern should be represented
fairly by agents in the various cities throughout the land. People
who read the advertisements and are interested in the statements
made therein go to the nearest piano stores, and ask the merchants
if they have the Blank piano. Of course, they have not, and the
clever salesmen, who are not always guided by the finer instincts,
immediately take the opportunity to give the piano which is adver-
tised a gentle rap, and immediately offers a substitute. Then if the
persons who are interested in the advertisement care enough to
follow up the subject, their searches end in finding that there is no
representation of the particular piano in their vicinity. Piano pur-
chases are not made largely through factory correspondence, ex-
cepting the very cheap mail order instruments; therefore the piano
manufacturer who has a few thousand dollars only to expend in the
magazine might as well have dropped his money into the sea as far
as any actual returns come from his outlay.
A NUMBER of the larger manufacturers who have expended a
l V good deal of money in the magazines tell us that their returns
have not been anything nearly commensurate with the outlay, and
that while they have received thousands of replies which have been
sent to their various agencies, the prospects have not materialized
in a fairly remunerative way. Too large a percentage of the letters
have been written by young boys and girls who have been more
interested in gathering chromos and colored literature than in pro-
curing pianos for the home circle.
Mehlin & Sons do some clever advertising on the back page of
novels. You will see their advertisements almost everywhere on
the cars and at the news-stands, and while they do not mention in
their advertisements the name of their agents in the various cities
throughout the country, they expressly state that their pianos can
be secured from agencies in certain cities and towns, naming the
places; hence it is easy for the residents of those towns who are
interested in the advertisement to locate the Mehlin piano.
S
UBSTITUTION has and will continue to be an evil which exists
in this trade, and all trades for that matter, for dishonest
practices exist nationally of substituting an inferior article for that
which is admittedly good, on the ground that the one substituted is
"just as good." The piano merchant who has a call for a particular
piano does not hesitate to substitute the "just as good" piano, and
in too many instances he gets for the "just as good" a price which
should entitle the purchaser to become possessor of the original in-
strument asked for ; in other words, the one which has built the repu-
tation of the manufacturer.
T
HEN, too, there are many dealers who use the great names of
piano history simply as an allurement to draw customers to
the store, where salesmen are too often instructed talk the "just as
good," and even counsel the customer "not to pay too high a price
for a name." Because these practices exist in a national sense
should encourage piano manufacturers to place their own retail
prices on the instruments which they create.