Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
L. B. BOWKBB,
OBO. B. Kuxmt,
W. H. D T K I I ,
R. W. SIMMON*.
AUGUBT J. TlMPl.
B. BBITTAIN WILSON,
A. J. NICXLIN,
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
E. P. VAN HAHUNGIN, Room 806,156 Wabaah Aye.
Telephone, Central 414.
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
GI.AD. W. HENDERSON.
PHILADELPHIA:
R. W. KACITMAN,
A D O U BDSTBN.
CHAS. N. VAN BTJMN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GRAY, 88 First Street.
CINCINNATI, O.:
JACOB W. WAWTOB.
BALTIMORE, MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 69 Baslnghall St., B. C. W. LIONBL STURDY, Manager.
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 and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada, $8.50; 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, $60.00; opposite
reading matter, $75.00.
REMITTANCES. In other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
-An important feature of this publication is a complete sec-
tion devoted to the interests of music publishers and dealers.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Brand Pri*
Paris Exposition, 1000 Silver Medal. Charleston Exposition, 1002
Diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Qold Medai
Bt. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal
Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 4677 and 4678 GRAMERCY
Connecting all Departments.
Cable a d d r e s s : "ElbllL. N e w York."
NEW YORK, MARCH 26, 1910
EDITORIAL
I
F the guessing contests, puzzle pictures, coupon schemes are to
obtain generally in the piano trade, how is it going to leave
this industry in three or four years?
Will pianos be thrown in as an inducement to make other pur-
chases by department stores, or will no piano sales be made without
prize baiting?
When this tide recedes what new plan can be adopted to make
piano sales?
Will not the public have become confused, discouraged and
disgusted to a large degree by this prize offer craze, which even
now has demoralized the legitimate business to a considerable extent
in some sections of the country?
Some of the offers made are so absurd and the intent of the
advertisers so thinly veiled that it is a positive reflection upon the
sanity of the people who read the inducements and who swallow
the bait offered.
Let us consider this question seriously—it is a vital one and it
interests every man who has dollars invested in this industry,
whether he is a manufacturer or dealer.
If this guessing contest scheme is right then why not engraft
it as a regular feature of the business?
If it is good for the trade in New York to have coupon baits
offered them, if it is good for the public in New Orleans, in Salt
Lake, Oshkosh, to fatten on the same kind of pabulum, why not
in every city in the nation?
. Why should not every dealer country-wide adopt the plan ?
If it is good, it is good for all, and the old system of selling
goods upon their merits and for their actual worth is absurd. We
were hitting the wrong trail and the quicker the dealers get close
to the guessing contest proposition, whether offering collar buttons,
shoestrings, stickpins and a bundle of coupons as prizes, the better
it will be.
Why not run the entire piano business as a general guessing
coupon scheme proposition?
REVIEW
If it is right why should a few enjoy the benefits?
If it is good then let all get in on the ground floor.
Why should a few of the shrewd men of the trade enjoy an
exclusive position when dealing with the public in a general coupon
prize offering scheme?
Why should not all get under the gift offer tent as quickly as
possible?
B
UT, seriously, is it right?
Are we not sowing the wind which later on will create a
whirlwind of destruction?
Are not men sacrificing future business stability for a fleeting
profit of to-day?
Are not men who are working this coupon scheme into their
general business plans going at the pace that kills?
What will follow when this plan has been worked to death?
Where will the trade be?
Mrs. Jones will stroll into a piano store and look over the
alluring prize offers and can refuse to accept Mr. Hot Stuff's offer
because she can get a shoe buttoncr and an additional corset cover
from some competitor farther down the street.
Then again why not offer a few packages of chewing gum?
It is used generally and probably would be enjoyed, particu-
larly by the callow youth and young maidens.
It is time we halted on this scheme and took our bearings.
We are drifting from our ancient moorings and we are getting
into mighty dangerous waters.
We are surely and effectively contributing to the undermining
of public confidence in piano values.
Now, The Review proposes to handle this proposition broadly.
By the time we have completed the agitation of this scheme we
are rather inclined to think that we shall have the trade interests
pretty well aroused to the dangers by which we are confronted.
The Minneapolis dealers, realizing the demoralizing effects of
this kind of competition, have succeeded in interesting the local
papers published in that city to such an extent in their anti-scheme
campaign that they have refused to accept any advertisements in
which these guessing contests are exploited.
Now, why is not the Minneapolis plan an excellent one for
every city in the country?
We shall be glad to hear from our readers and we should like
to throw the columns of The Review open to a general discussion
as to the ultimate effect of this guessing scheme upon the legitimate
interests of the trade.
We propose to handle this matter as all others which are treated
in these columns—in a broad, liberal, effective manner.
It is up to you, gentlemen of the trade; you are all interested
and by an open discussion the blinded sight of some may be restored.
Can the piano dealers of this country hold the respect of the
buying public if they adopt delusive schemes in the exploitation of
their wares?
This subject is worthy of the serious consideration of anyone
whose interests are interlocked with piano selling.
And it should be understood that no one who is engaged in the
business can be entirely removed from the influence of pernicious
practices.
If the trade becomes tainted all piano dealers become tarred
more or less with the same stick.
Now, what means and methods can be best adopted to suppress
this growing evil?
We would specially request dealers in every section of the coun-
try who believe in the campaign taken up by The Review to forward
us all advertisements of coupon and guessing contests and other
plans by which the public is deluded.
W
E are making trade history pretty fast nowadays and some
of those who have been loudly knocking certain leading
concerns in the trade would act wisely if they just consider one
thing, and that—if the piano business of the future is to be con-
ducted on an aesthetic plane it must be in a large degree through the
influence of the great names in piano history.
They are the bulwarks of the trade—the pillars on which the
structure rests.
Knock them out, remove them, and down comes the whole
structure—down to a low trade level,