Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A Criticism and the Reply.
WELL-KNOWN piano merchant in sending a critical
A
communication to this publication says: "I will say that
I have always regarded your paper as clean, free from aspersions
and attacks on manufacturers and dealers.
"However, I acknowledge to a lack of interest in any and
all of the papers published in the interests of the piano trade,
as I have been unable to find much information and but little
uplift.
"I plead to the same feeling regarding the National Associa-
tion of Piano Dealers, in which I lost interest a good many
years ago.
"If seems to me that the paper that will benefit the trade is
the one that will give it information, advice and uplift, and that
it will use its pages freely to comment or criticise piano adver-
tisements without fear or favor.
"As it is, I believe no one will contradict me in claiming
that the music trade press is fulsome in praise where manu-
facturers advertise liberally and is either silent or critical when
they don't.
"It is possible that certain patronage would be lost if the
trade press were to be absolutely straightforward and honest
in reviewing the various conditions as they come up from time
to time, but it is only by so doing that the press would be of
genuine value to the trade. One might refer, for instance, to
the recent entering into the retail business of manufacturing
interests in New York, with the aid of a chain of department
stores, using the money made through the dealer in the years
gone by to take business away from the dealers in the years to come.
"The press is silent regarding this condition, and for that
reason dealers remote from the localities where this campaign
has already been introduced are practically ignorant of it, where-
as with a straightforward trade press they would know all
about it.
"If you can remodel your paper to make it the Bible of the
piano dealer you will put your periodical in a class by itself.
"I have admired The Review for its straightforward posi-
tion, but I think that there are things which we can criticise
without being unkind."
The above is taken from a communication of a man of high
repute, and who is evidently sincere and means precisely what
he says.
He first acknowledges his lack of interest in the trade
papers, and at the same time it is plain that he reads them, and
reads them closely, for there is no other special field in which
he can gain information which is of value to himself and to
his salesmen.
There is no question but that trade papers could be better,
and there is no question, either, but that some of them are bad
enough; but they are conducted by men who are human beings,
who have the same impulses, good or bad, as the men who read
them, and if the advertisers had been unwilling to support a
malicious or decadent press it never would have existed. There-
fore it is fair to presume some men desire a servile or abusive
press. They need it in their profession.
So far as finding information in the trade papers is con-
cerned, we must differ very materially with our friend, because
every issue of The Review contains contributions from a hundred
different sources. Aside from the staff in our home city and
branch office in Chicago, there are correspondents in the prin-
cipal cities throughout the Union who contribute weekly.
So far as advice and uplift are concerned, we have hundreds
of letters on file which show that the advice of this paper is
looked for by men who rely upon its utterances.
For many years we have fought for the maintenance of
correct principles. We may say that the National Association of
Piano Merchants was originally planned and urged by this paper.
We may say that great national questions, such as one
price, the coupon, guessing contest evil and the one name piano,
doing away with misrepresentation in advertising, have all been
argued in these columns month after month.
In fact, we have at intervals taken up the great question of
trade expansion, and fought for trade advance faithfully and
conscientiously.
We may say that years ago we saw the possibilities of the
player-piano, and we commenced educational work along those
lines, acquainting the dealers with the trade-building power of
this new claimant for public patronage, and endeavored to im-
press upon the trade the importance of educational work in con-
nection with the sale of player-pianos.
In this connection we may add that we have produced the
only technical works in the world relating to the player-piano;
we have conducted an important player department weekly, and
monthly have produced a complete section of the paper devoted
to player-pianos larger in itself than some of the lesser music
trade publications.
This work has been conducted at considerable expense,
but with the desire to make this publication a power in the
legitimate development of music trade interests.
No one who has not gone into the subject carefully can
appreciate the amount of educational work which is required
along technical lines, and in this particular The Review has
occupied a unique position.
So far as the trade press being fulsome in praise when
manufacturers advertise liberally, it is but natural to suppose
that trade paper conductors feel well disposed to the men who
support them as compared with those who do not; but to say
that the trade press is lacking in honesty in reviewing various
conditions is hardly fair.
We would like to call the attention of our critic to the fact
that when the great wave of coupon advertising and guess-
ing contests and puzzle schemes was sweeping the country and
threatening to completely demolish piano selling conditions,
The Review, of all other trade papers, commenced a campaign
against this admitted evil.
Some of our old-time friends and advertisers were opposftl
to us. They thought that we had no right to criticise their aots, \
and the result was an unpleasant feeling was created, not on
our part but on the part of others towards the paper and its
management.
They felt that we were interfering with their plans, and
they did not hesitate to say so, and some of them said many
bitter and harsh words concerning our policy at the time, but
such actions did not swerve us in the slightest. We did not
resort to abuse in any particular; on the contrary, we tried to
convince, by argument, our clients and others who were adopting
the coupon, guessing contest scheme of piano selling that they
were wrong and that we were right. We succeeded in arousing
national sentiment opposing this whole plan. We carried it to
such a point that the dealers in convention expressed themselves
as opposed to its continuance, and thus we created a national
discussion which resulted eventually in sweeping the puzzle
schemes off the piano calendar, and at the same time we were
successful in annihilating some of our own trade, for it is a
fact that the piano men, like business men in other lines, are
thin-skinned—they cannot stand criticism—and they resented
our attack upon their methods, even though we were very careful
not to mention names in connection with our anti-guessing and
coupon campaign. So, with the loss of thousands of dollars in
advertising in this particular campaign and in others, we think
that *he criticism of our subscriber is hardly fair.
It is true that some manufacturing interests have been in-
terested in creating a chain of distributing interests through
department stores, but that move is legitimate. One is per-
fectly justified in seeking any output for products so long as the
methods adopted conform to established business principles, and our
friend could not surely expect a trade publication to tell the
manufacturer that he had no right to put out his goods through
a chain of department stores if he chooses, even though he is
running the risk of offending some of his dealers,
(Continued on page 6.)