Music Trade Review

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Automatic
Dealing with the Various Types of Musical Instruments Intended for Public Places, Pneumatically or Electrically Controlled
A NEW FIELD OF OPPORTUNITY FOR THE PIANO MERCHANT
Piano Merchants Who Will Study the Automatic Musical Instrument Field Will Find Therein an
Excellent Opportunity for Broadening Their Business and Increasing Their Profits
It is well known that the regular piano mer-
chants have not taken to the so-called "auto-
matic" or coin-operated type of musical instru-
ment as rapidly or as strongly as could have
been wished. Why this should be so is another
matter, but a matter which very strongly de-
serves attention.
The so-called "automatic" instrument, which
means any kind of piano, organ or combination
of the two with accessories, either coin-oper-
ated or not, suitable for public use, has always
been a sort of specialty, a sort of little branch
set off by itself. The regular piano merchant,
carrying a regular line of player-pianos, has for
various reasons always looked at the automatic
instruments askance, not realizing apparently
how very closely these are connected with the
other pneumatic lines. As a result, the auto-
matic instruments have failed to receive that
general consideration from the main body of
the trade, to which they are so decidedly en-
titled, although they have been extremely suc-
cessful at that. Still, the music industries are
now started upon a new road, the end of which
is not yet in sight, and a great many old ideas
are due to land on the scrap-heap. The idea
of the exclusiveness of the public-place-player-
piano, as it may be called, is one of these.
A Definition
It may be as well to make the distinction per-
fectly clear. The names "automatic player,"
"film player" or "coin-operated player" do not
wholly, in any case, tell the story. The real dis-
tinction is between the instrument primarily in-
tended for private and that which is primarily
intended for public use. Here is the real dis-
tinction, and it is most significant.
It is significant chiefly because the nature of
the public places in which the public instruments
have been installed has been steadily changing
for the better. There will be little disposition,
we think, to quarrel with the statement that
when the so-called automatic instruments first
FOTOPLAYER
for the finest
Motion Picture
Theatres
AMERICAN PHOTO
PLAYER CO.
San Francisco
New York
Chicago
came into the market the kind of popular enter-
tainment place which asked for automatic music
was not particularly desirable. Not to be mealy-
mouthed about it, the saloon and the backroom
attachments thereof gave the tone to the whole
line of these places, and the shooting gallery
or penny arcade ran a good second. It was
not a particularly high-class sort of trade, and
particular persons kept away from it.
Prohibition
Now consider the facts to-day. In the first
place, the saloon era is passing, fast. As the
law stands, the U. S. A. will be completely dry
on July 1, 1919, and thence until the period of
demobilization is concluded. The hazy belief
that the war is over and we can all go back to
the selfish pursuit of selfish aims is due for
a rude awakening. European events are rapidly
coming to a head, and it is quite certain that an
Allied army of occupation will have to be re-
tained under arms for quite a time yet. Even
if this were not so, and without the existing law
coming into effect at all, there is the prohibition
amendment, which is certain to be ratified in
time, and which might be ratified within the
next twelve months. One-half of the territory
and one-half of the population of the United
States, or something like them are now under
prohibitory laws directed against the liquor
traffic. The people appear to be making up
their minds strongly against further toleration
of the trade in intoxicating beverages. The sa-
loon, in a word, is doomed.
The Broadening Field
Already, therefore, the automatic player-piano
in its many forms has completely emerged from
its ancient surroundings, which indeed it could
not avoid at the time, but which have now be-
come a burden to it. The field is broadening.
First of all, and in some ways above all, has
come the motion picture theatre. Here the
events of the last few years have been im-
mensely important. The problem of providing
suitable musical accompaniment for the film
drama has been solved only in part, but the
solution undoubtedly is to be found in the per-
fected development of some kind of combined
piano and organ with various mechanical and
percussive accessories, playable both by the key-
boards and by music roll. It does not need
very much acuteness to see that this is the so-
lution towards which the motion picture theatre
is tending. The immensity of the field thus
opened up may plainly be understood by the
most casual thinker.
But the passing of the saloon means the pass-
ing of what has been, in a perverted sense in-
deed, a sort of public neighborhood club. A
substitute for it must and will be found. In
many of our suburban and smaller civic com-
munities the ice cream parlor or drug store with
soda fountain is by degrees obtaining the semi-
public position once occupied by the tavern of
old days, which neither the modern saloon nor
the modern hotel has ever quite been able to
occupy in the same way. Here, too, is a field
for future cultivation in a musical sense.
Similar remarks may be made, of course, about
every known type of legitimate public place of
entertainment. It is obvious that the passing
of the old era means the bringing forth of a
complete new place for the public automatic mu-
sical instrument. It also means the removal
forever of any stigma of opprobrium that may
ever have appeared upon the body of the auto-
matic business through any of its early and
perhaps unfortunate connections.
Now, it is obvious that the piano merchant
who hesitates to get in touch with this big field
of usefulness must have some very good rea-
sons for his hesitation. So far as can be judged
the only assignable reasons may be summed up
as follows:
The belief that the selling of these instruments
requires special expertness.
The belief that special maintenance depart-
ments composed of special experts must be em-
ployed to attend to complaints and keep the
instruments in order.
The belief that prices are so very high as to
take the business entirely out of the hands of
ordinary piano salesmen.
To these objections brief and pointed answers
may at once be given.
Some Selling Points
The automatic piano, organ or piano-organ,
for cafe, restaurant, hotel and other public place
is a good deal easier to sell than an ordinary
player-piano. Firstly, because in most public
places it will pay for itself through the coin-
control feature. Secondly, because it is an ad-
vertising feature in itself to its purchaser.
Thirdly, because to-day the old inartistic cases,
poor workmanship and poor music are replaced
by the finest of designs, the best of material
and workmanship and musical effects worthy of
any one's respectful attention.
The modern automatic instrument is virtually
foolproof. Any trouble it is ever likely to in-
cur will in most cases be traceable to the elec-
tric motor, and that usually means to faults in
the electric service of the city or town where
the instrument is installed. Even so, troubles
are few and very far between. Pneumatic trou-
bles are no more frequent than with the ordinary
player-piano, and any man who can look after
the latter can manage the former. Pipe tuning,
with the small installations which all but the
largest instruments alone require, is easily
learned by any piano tuner. It is not necessary
therefore to have a special maintenance depart-
ment.
Prices are moderate, running from $500 up.
The talking points are many and convincing.
The field is constantly widening and the recent
introduction of the coin-controlled reproducing
piano means that the last shadow of noisy vul-
garity is wiped away forever.
Piano merchants who neglect the automatic
musical instrument field are very foolish.
Edward M. Osborn, piano dealer of East
Hampton, N. Y., was on a visit to New York
last week. He handles the Laffargue and
Strich & Zeidler lines as his leaders.