Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
43
GETTING BUSINESS IN SUMMER.
The New York Talking Machine Co. Showed
an Increase of 33 1-3 Per Cent, for the First
Six Months of 1912, and Summer Business
Is Keeping Up If Not Adding to the Record.
During a brief chat this week with General Man-
ager G. T. Williams, of the New York Talking
Machine Co., 81 Chambers street, New York, dis-
tributors of Victor machines and records, he said:
"We feel highly elated over the result of summer
trade to date, and so far as that is concerned we
can see no reason why it should not be better for
the balance of the season. Our fiscal year closed
the last of June, and the first six months of this
year show an increase over the first six in 1911 of
•33% per cent. This rate of increase, part of which
was produced during the so-called dull season, is a
little out of the ordinary.
"It would seem to me," continued Mr. Williams,
"that a substantial gain of this nature, in the sum-
mer months and during a Presidential campaign
year, effectually demonstrates that slow business,
because of political unrest, is a myth and purely
imaginative. Personally I do not believe that it
will cause the slightest difference, except possibly
during election month itself. However, our busi-
ness for the year so far is altogether too satisfac-
tory to cause any worry -for the remainder of
1912."
Mr. Williams expressed the opinion that the gain
over 1911 was simply due to the high grade adver-
tising of the Victor Co. and to the first grade prod-
uct which the Victor Co. build. These two es-
sentials, coupled with the New York Talking Ma-
chine Co. spirit of "get out and hustle for busi-
ness," have accomplished marvellous hot weather
results.
TALKING MACHINE POPULARITY.
Pianos More Affected by Automobile Competi-
tion Than Talking Machines, Says a Piano
Merchant Who Talks Most Interestingly.
A piano merchant, in a chat the other day, gave
it as his opinion that the automobile is a real rival
of his product. This information was the outcome
of a question respecting the greater popularity of
talking machines, the low-priced kind in particular,
in the rural districts, in villages and small towns.
Said this gentleman:
"The talking machine hasn't done nearly so much
harm to the piano business as has the automobile.
It is true that plain country folks set great store
by a talking machine. For instance, I spent part
of my vacation fishing a stream miles from a town
in a section where the houses were widely sepa-
rated.
"Within a radius of ten miles there were
perhaps ten or a dozen residents. Four of these
had pianos and four had talking machines, and by
all odds the latter carried off the honors. By in-
vitation neighbors of each of the talking machine
quartet would drive miles to spend an evening lis-
tening to the sort of varied program usually asso-
ciated with the talking machine in rural places.
Campers along the lake were included in these in-
vitations sometimes and usually they accepted.
"I found that the records in each case were about
evenly divided among popular vocal and instru-
mental selections and humorous recitations and
jests of the vaudeville order.
"I never heard of a gathering of the neighbors
to listen to piano playing. This was up in New
York State, and in some of the Western rural
communities the proportion of pianos to talking ma-
chines is less. Nevertheless this doesn't indicate
as much of a slump in the piano market as might
be imagined, for the reason that forty-nine out of
fifty of the talking machine owners wouldn't buy a
piano anyway. Perhaps there is no one in their
family who can play a piano or who cares to learn
to play.
"As matter of fact the sale of pianos in
villages and small towns 'is quite as brisk now as it
ever was, that is, of the less expensive grades.
The talking machine has hindered the growth a
little, but not much."
Victor-Victrola
Try to think of the one
great musical instrument
and your mind instantly
reverts to the Victor-
Victrola. This is so whether
you look at it from a musi-
cal or a business stand-
point.
The Victor-Victrola is
the one instrument above
all others that stands pre-
eminent in the musical
world and in the musical
industry.
Its success has been the
success of the Victor dealers
the world over, and the meas-
ure of success it has attained
is shown in a most strik-
ing manner by the luxurious
salesrooms of Victor dealers
on the principal business
thoroughfares—some of these
establishments selling the
Victor line exclusively and
paying rentals as high as
twenty thousand and thirty
thousand dollars a year.
And the success of the Victor-
Victrola, the u p l i f t i n g of the
talking machine industry to its
position of dignity and power,
has had its effect on the better-
ment of the entire musical trade.
The Victor-Victrola is the
keystone of music trade pros-
perity, and the opportunities for
every dealer are greater today
than ever before. The lower-
priced Victor -Victrolas opened
new avenues of distribution and
greater things are still in store.
Victor Talking Machine Co.
Camden, N. J., U. S. A.
Berliner (iramophone Co., Montreal, Canadian
Distributors.
Always use Victor Machines with Victor Records and
Victor Needles—the combination. There is no other way
to get the unequaled Victor tone.
Victor-Victrola IV, $15.
Oak.
Victor-Victrola VIII, $40.
Oak.
Victor-Victrola XVI, $200.
Mahogany or quartered oak.