Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportoiial Stall:
GBO. B. KILLS*,
B. BBITTAIN WILSON,
W. H. DTKKS,
A. J. NICKLIN,
L. B. BOWSES,
WM. B. WHITE.
R. W. SIMMONS,
AUGUST J. TIMPS.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
BOSTON OFFICE:
E. P. VAN HARLINGBN, 156 Wabash Ave.
G. W. HENDERSON, 178 Tremont S t
Room 806,
Room 12.
Telephone, Central 414.
Telephone, Oxford 1151-1.
PHILADELPHIA:
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
R. W. KACWMAN,
ADOLF EDSTEN,
CHAS. N. VAN BOREN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GRAY, 88 First Street.
CINCINNATI. O.:
BALTIMORE. MD.:
JACOB W. WALTERS.
A. ROBERT FRENCH.
LONDON. ENGLAND: 69 Basinghall St., E. C. W. LIONEL STURDY, Manager,
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Cluss Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada, $3.50; 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 forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
SPOflnn
^ n important feature of this publication is a complete sec-
fcVV'VUU.Ha tj o n devoted to the interests of music publishers and dealers.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning,
FW>n9f*tm4>nt UK,pal llllt.1119. a r e dealt with, will be found in another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will bo cheerfully given upon request.
Player and
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal. Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma..Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal.. .St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal
Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 4677 and 4678 GRAMERCY
Connecting all Departments.
Cable address: " Elblll. N e w York."
NEW YORK,
OCTOBER 8, 1910
EDITORIAL
I
f is safe to say that the dominating factor in the trade of this
country this fall and winter will be the player-piano.
There is nothing in the history of the music trade industry to
compare with the growth in popularity of this instrument.
But if it be true that the player-piano was never so well known
and popular as to-day, it is equally true that it has never before
been subjected to such searching criticism—challenged so keenly
to stand on its merits.
The day of uncritical wonder has passed. The player-piano
is known. Its merits are being recognized and appreciated in the
musical world. Its faults have been discerned and mercilessly
criticised.
Musicians have seen fit to assume an attitude of hostility that
has already done much harm and will do more unless it be checked.
Moreover, a large number of people who have bought player-pianos
do not begin to realize their artistic possibilities.
The player-piano has been sold as if it were a staple commodity,
which it is not. Customers have been told that "it plays itself"
and "a child can play it," which is not the fact.
W
HY not start the fall season by inaugurating a new policy—
a determination to tell customers the plain truth? Sales
will not be lost that way. On the contrary, many will be made to
people who otherwise would not consider the proposition.
It would be well, in the beginning, for dealers and manufac-
turers to find out just how many of their salesmen really know how
to talk the player-piano proposition intelligently.
Granted there are a great many people who do not care whether
REVIEW
they get music or noise when they are using a player-piano. For
these people it is only necessary to talk prices and terms.
But neither the numbers nor the opinions of this class are in-
fluencing the player business. It is the critical man or woman, the
one who has some slight knowledge of music, who must be looked
after.
Many sales unquestionably are lost every year through the
inability of the salesman to make the most of the player. Give the
public what it wants by all means, but remember that it takes all
sorts of people to make a world; the majority may not care, but
the minority, which is critical, is the valuable, the cash paying, the
influential portion of the buying community.
Recitals, careful demonstration, an atmosphere of dignity and
artistic restraint, coupled with the fullest knowledge of the player's
capacities in every province of music's realms—these are the essen-
tials of player selling success.
T
HEN there is the question of music rolls. Recently a dealer
visiting The Review offices complained that people do not
buy music rolls as they buy talking machine records. He stated
that it was his experience that player-piano purchasers were very
enthusiastic at first and bought a lot of rolls, but then suddenly
dropped off.
The reason is obvious. A talking machine owner buys records
with the knowledge that he only has to insert them in the machine
to get perfect results. The whole interpretation is in the record.
But with the music roll it is a different proposition.
The player-piano is sold to a customer, sent to his home, and
he is invariably told that he can now play all music as if he were a
Busoni or a Paderewski, and that his family can do the same.
What is the result?
Within twenty-four hours he finds he can do nothing of the
sort. He runs off his music and it sounds mechanical. He ex-
presses his disappointment in vigorous fashion.
N
OW, if this customer were taken in hand at first, his tastes
ascertained, and he supplied with music of a kind well with-
in or even below his own taste, and then encouraged to visit the
library, to talk music with the salesmen there, to try things over
on the instrument, and get hints on manipulating the player, on
the meaning of musical terms, and so on, that man instead of
being disappointed would in a very short time become an enthusiast.
He would be going through the shelves-himself collecting rolls, and
keenly discussing the various phases of music, and a customer for
rolls would be made for all time.
Of course, all this means careful training of the sales force. It
means monthly reunions with educational talks on player develop-
ment—the reading and studying of such technical and musical
literature on the player as is being sent out from the offices of The
Review. It means the upsetting of custom and tradition, but this
is the age of progress and there can be no standing still in the player
field if the business is to be put on a proper basis.
HEERY reports of improved business conditions have been
made by dealers who sojourned in New York in large num-
bers the past two weeks. Visitors from the Pacific Coast and
the Northwest predominated and, with the exception of San Fran-
cisco, they stated that activity was most pronounced in these sec-
tions and the prospects excellent. Moreover, they asserted that the
quietness of trade in San Francisco is but temporary.
Dealers from the Central West and South also made excellent
reports and stated that dealers generally are much happier than they
were four months ago. While the harvest was not all that was
hoped for early in the season, and while there are ragged edges on
the business results thus far this year, the effect as a whole has
been most encouraging. The cash sales have shown a good per-
centage and collections have been fairly easy.
P
N
I
UBLICITY is a trade scout. It goes out in advance of the
army of salesmen, and stirs up the possibility of business.
O matter how strong the tendency is toward the commercial
piano the wise dealer is he who seeks to maintain reputation
by ever keeping aloft the quality standard.
T makes no difference how good your trade is—you will sell
tivc,
more goods if you keep your stock and store clean and attract