Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE TRADE-IN PROBLEM IS VITAL.
(Continued from page 3.)
The prospect had a Q
piano, which was ten years old. He had paid for it originally $250,
ond the competing house offered to allow $300 for this piano, whicli had been used ten years, in
part payment of the $550 B
player-piano. Can you beat it? A piano in use for ten years and
allow $50 more for it as a trade-in than was originally paid for it!
I am not using names because it is not good policy to do so in this case; but I may say that
the $550 asked was simply a fair price, and the dealer was annihilating all business soundness when
he made such an absurd concession to make a sale.
Now the question of trade-ins is going to be more and more acute, and, of course, to relieve
the situation will come player actions which may be installed in old pianos. That will be a saving
clause in the whole situation. In brief, many will take advantage of these conditions, but straight
pianos will be traded-in more than ever for player-pianos.
As the proportion narrows down finer and finer between the straight and the player-piano,
what then?
It must be clear that the present condition is full of danger, and it is not understandable how
a piano dealer can continue to do business along such lines as I have instanced above.
If we follow the history of this very house for five years we will find the man in bankruptcy.
There is no other hope, because a business conducted along such lines is bound to go down. It
is unscientific and unsystematic," and the man at the head of it does not realize just how close he
is drifting to the rocks.
Suggestions have been made in these columns that the Piano Merchants' Association take up
this subject for treatment at the next convention in June, and notwithstanding the fact that the
convention itself is nearly two months away we have printed the statement that the topics
have all been assigned. It is to be hoped, however, that a way will be found to consider this
matter, which many admit is the most important one which the music trade industry now faces.
If the articles which have appeared in The Review will have the effect to arouse the individual
to the danger, and cause him to change his working plans so that he will get off the shoals of dis-
aster and get out in the open sea, why we will feel that our work has been constructive and of some
advantage to our readers.
After all, perhaps, the main thing is to arouse trade interest to such an extent that the indi-
viduals will take it up, only I contend that the association, composed
of men who are engaged in retailing in this country, is in a better
position to throw its force in the direction which will make it a pow-
erful factor in the establishing of a new policy which should be adopted
in dealing with trade-ins.
Great Gathering Expected at Conventions
U
NLESS present plans miscarry the coming conventions of
the National Association of Piano Merchants, the National
Piano Manufacturers' Association and the National Piano Trav-
elers' Association, to be held at the Hotel Astor, in this city, in
June, will he the most notable and successful ever held by the
associations, surpassing in interest even the sessions held in
Chicago in 1911.
In the first place there is everything to induce the members
of the various associations to attend—matters of general and
deep interest to be discussed, the ever-present lure of the
metropolis, the fact that the city is the headquarters of over 150
piano manufacturing concerns, and the charm that attaches to
the convention itself, with the meeting of old friends, the discus-
sions of trade matters and the usual spirit of good-fellowship.
At the present time the officers of the National Association
of Piano Merchants are putting forth every effort not only to
influence the present members of the association to attend the
meetings, but also to induce as many dealers as possible to join
the ranks of the association before the June meeting. Present
and former officers of the association have sent persuasive mes-
sages to the members of the retail trade through the medium of
the trade press and direct, urging the benefits to be derived from
association membership, and in many respects there is being
carried on one of the most energetic and widespread pre-con-
vention campaigns in the history of the Merchants' Association.
For their part the members of the piano trade in New York,
through the medium of the New York Piano Manufacturers'
Association, are preparing a program of entertainment that will
insure the social features of the convention, meeting with and,
it is believed, going a little beyond the expectations of the con-
vention visitors in that particular. With a trip up the Hudson
River as the piece de resistance, there are many other forms of
entertainment planned by the local trade that should make the
hospitality of New York piano men notable in association circles.
Those attending the joint banquets at the various conven-
tions have considered it almost as a matter of right to have some
official, generally the mayor, of the convention city deliver an
address and preside as the guest of honor, but, as was the case
in Richmond in 1910, it is planned to have the Governor of the
State grace the banquet with his presence. Through the efforts
of Albert Behning, representing the banquet committee, in charge
of the arrangements for the joint banquet of the associations at
the convention, and who is fast winning laurels as an entertain-
ment provider for gatherings of piano men, Governor Glynn,
chief executive of the Empire State, has consented to make the
feature address on that important occasion, a tribute of value
not only to the piano men of New York, but to the convention
visitors from every section of the United States.