Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
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NEW
YORK,
M A Y 23, 1 9 0 8
EDITORIAL
I
NDICATIONS now point to an unusually large attendance at
both of the coming- music trade conventions. A good many
dealers have signified their intention of visiting New York during
the clan gathering period, and all indications point to a huge aggre-
gation of music trade people in this city when the conventions occur
here next month. The members of the Chicago trade will be here
in goodly numbers, and New York will be the Mecca of music trade
people during the second week of June. Old Father Knickerbocker
will bid the guests a hearty welcome, and the members of the New
York trade will leave nothing undone to make their tarry a pleasant
one. No matter how great the crowd there will be no inconvenience
on account of lack of hotel facilities, because New York with its
hostelries for the housing of a floating population of seven hundred
thousand daily is able to lodge more transients comfortably than
any city on earth.
As a matter of fact great conventions should never be held out-
side of cities where there are excellent hotel facilities. It does not
add to the pleasure of a convention if men have to put up with all
sorts of unpleasant accommodations in cramped hotel quarters and
dining equipment not to their liking. It would be a good plan to
have the gatherings alternate between the East and the West, select-
ing only such cities as have adequate accommodations to house
without discomfort large aggregations of humanity.
S
OME of the subjects which are presented by the Executive Com-
mittee of the National Piano Manufacturers Association for
discussion at the business sessions of the convention next month
may certainly be termed "live wires." Whether anyone may be
shocked by treading too hard upon them is a question.
The first subject relating to the player piano and its future in-
fluence on the piano industry affords opportunities for the flight of
imagination to altitudinous points. One thing is certain, we do not
have to dip into the future to recognize the influence of the player
piano, for its influence is obvious to-day. Just what part it will play
in years to come is more or less problematical. One thing is cer-
tain, with the unmistakable tendency toward reduction and simplifi-
cation in player mechanism, it will be easy for anyone who owns a
REVIEW
piano to have player mechanism incorporated therein at a moderate
expense, and as a selling force it is admittedly great.
T
HE second topic on the list, querying the necessity of a written
guarantee, to our minds would be answered by the majority
of the trade in the negative. As a matter of fact, guarantees, re-
sembling beautifully engraved stock certificates, may impress some
purchasers. They may make the people who purchase pianos think
that they form a rock-ribbed protection, which will secure them
against fire, cyclones, earthquakes and other ills which cause man-
kind to tremble at times. But, after all, guarantees, as they are
written to-day, mean nothing, unless there is the desire back of the
guarantee to protect the purchaser. Every reputable piano manu-
facturer will stand back of his product, but he will not stand for
abuse on the part of the retail purchaser. He is not going to make
good the ignorance and wanton negligence on the part of the owner
of the piano, because if he did he would be more out of pocket than
he is now, and the Lord knows that piano manufacturers have to
stand enough in the way of unjust demands upon them as it now
stands. There are some people who will move a piano near a red
hot stove and will open a window where the fog and rain would
pour in upon the instrument, and then wonder why the strings rust
and the varnish cracks.
The subject whether the association should adopt a monogram,
or trademark, is a question to our minds which purely interests the
association, and is not open to criticism of outsiders.
T
HE fifth query as to whether the actual retail price of pianos
should be cast in plain figures on the plate is a question of
general trade interest.
We have taken the position for some time past that the manu-
facturers themselves held the key to a very vexatious problem. If
they would advertise the exact prices at which their instruments
could be purchased at retail they would settle the real status of the
special brand piano once and for all, provided, of course, that they
place the correct selling price on their instruments and not exag-
gerate the figures such as was formerly in vogue in cataloging
pianos, so that the dealer could say, when pointing to the catalog
pricing, here's a $500 piano, when in reality it would only be worth
about half that sum. There is a question, however, whether it
would be good taste to have the price of a piano cast in conspicuous
figures on the plate.
We are rather inclined to think that the majority of the members
will reject this proposition. However, the question will be brought
up, and no doubt there will be considerable discussion, because this
subject will reach immediately into the by-paths, which are intensely
interesting and have an important bearing upon the manufacturers
and their relations and obligations to the public. An addition to
the by-laws has been presented to W. L. Bush, whereby every
member shall, not later than January i, cast in all piano plates
names which clearly indicate the origin of the instruments. In
other words, Mr. Bush's proposition is that all pianos should have a
definite origin, so that anyone entering a wareroom and examining
different instruments can immediately trace their ancestry to a defi-
nite source. Without doubt the presentation of this proposed change
in the by-laws will precipitate the warmest kind of discussion, be-
cause there are a number of men who do not believe that any trade
association can formulate rules and regulations which conflict with
the ordinary business policy of some of its members without the
withdrawal of some from the membership roll of the association.
As we view it, the real warmth of association oratory will center
upon Mr. Bush's proposition to amend the by-laws.
Mr. Bush has not hesitated to express his personal views in the
most emphatic manner and he proposes to make the association go
on record defining its attitude toward the special brand piano.
HE advantage of price restriction to merchants and manufac-
turers has never been better illustrated than in the talking
machine industry during the past few months. It is well known
that talking machines are sold under certain restrictions that pre-
vent price cutting and no jobber or dealer can cut prices to retail
purchasers, and as a result the trade has stood up amazingly well
during the hard strain which has been placed upon it since last
October.
There is no doubt but that many dealers would have been in-
clined, had the restrictions been removed, to have offered machines
T