Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
58
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JUNE 5, 1920
CONDUCTED BY V. D. WALSH
PUBLISHERS' CONVENTION JUNE 15
Annual Meeting of National Association to Be
Held at Hotel Astor, New York—An Inter-
esting and Constructive Program Ready
Official announcement has just been sent out
of the twenty-sixth annual meeting of the Music
l'ublishers' Association of the United States to
be held at the Hotel Astor on June 15. The
first session will be called to order at 11 o'clock
in order to permit New York members to take
care of their correspondence before attending.
At the first session publishers and dealers not
members of the Association are invited to be
present.
The afternoon session will be devoted to the
business of the Association and the attendance
will be limited to members. There will be a
summary of the Association's activities during
the year, a report on the copyright situation,
and the usual reports by committees, together
with the election of officers. Members are urged
to make a study of questions to be brought up
at the meeting in order to speed up the work of
the convention.
The official notice devotes a special paragraph
to the necessity of hiring trained clerks and
providing for the advancement of such clerks
when their efforts warrant. It is urged that at
the publishers' convention a prize be offered for
the best article on the question of training
clerks, anyone in the trade being eligible to com-
pete.
CLOSE CHAPPELL CANADIAN BRANCH
After June 30 All Business Will Be Handled
Through New York Offices
Chappell & Co., the well-known English music
publishing house, have forwarded the following
letter to the Canadian trade, which no doubt will
be of distinct interest:
"Messrs. Chappell & Co., Ltd., 50 New Bond
street, London, West, take this opportunity of
informing their friends in the trade throughout
the Dominion that they have decided to close
their Toronto branch on June 30 next, with a
view to consolidating their business. After that
date all orders will be executed from their New
York office, at 185 Madison avenue."
A NEW REMICK SONG SHOP
J. H. Remick & Co. will shortly open up a
new retail store at 262 West 125th street, New
York. This is an attractive location and the
quarters are quite large. The new store makes
a substantial addition to the growing list of
Remick Song Shops.
TEN=CENT NUMBERS MAY DISAPPEAR
Publishers Finding It Impossible to Issue Such
Songs at a Profit—Many Firms Have Entered
30-cent Field—New Agreement May Be
Reached With Syndicate Stores
For a long period of months the publishers
have protested that it was practically impos-
sible for them to longer issue numbers to re-
tail at 10 cents. They stated the costs in all
directions had mounted so steadily that to at-
tempt to continue publishing music to retail at
such a -price was "business suicide." There-
fore many of them entered the 30-cent field in
an effort to continue the publishing of popu-
lar works at a profit.
A fight immediately loomed up with the ma-
jority of the publishers on one side and a well-
known syndicate store on the other, this latter
organization confining themselves to sales with
a maximum retail price of 10 cents. Many of the
larger publishers were cut off of the syndicate's
list and that organization made an effort to
deal almost exclusively with smaller publishers,
featuring their numbers in a large way. Fol-
lowing the syndicate's national announcement
of their new policy, they accepted a number
from a small publisher, featured it extensively
and used the most modern merchandising meth-
ods to create sales, and it is estimated these
reached over the 500,000-copy mark. However,
despite this publisher's smaller overhead, the
prompt payment he received for his copies, and
despite the song's large sale, he finally was
forced into bankruptcy, thus demonstrating that
the protest on the part of the publishers that
they could no longer publish 10-cent music at a
profit is based upon accurate information.
It is now understood that the same syndicate
will make an effort to come to an agreement
with the large publishers, eliminating entirely
the smaller organizations in their purchases.
This agreement will be arranged on a basis
of the publishers giving the syndicate one or
two of their numbers that have good possibili-
ties. The publishers do not appear any too
anxious to close such a deal, but as has been
demonstrated in recent weeks the sales of all but
the hits are falling off in the 30-cent field and
this may lead some of the houses to accept the
present offer.
Some publishers contend that it is possible
for a real large organization to place certain
numbers in the 10-cent stores, with their very
biggest numbers retailing at 30 cents. The con-
tention is that with large organizations and with
the sales as stated above, it is possible for
them without greatly increasing their overhead
to place a given number in a 10-cent catalog.
Especially is this true of novelty numbers and
publications that require quick action, and
while the profits from this source will not be
large, the plan will be a success. Then, too, the
mechanical royalties the publishers would re-
ceive from such numbers that become popular
would be practically as large as if they were
from their 30-cent catalog.
GRANADA
CASTILIAN
FOX-TROT
MELODY "HITS'"
ANYTIME
ANYD/£f
ANYWHERE
FOX -TROT
MUSIC Pl/fMJSHF.SS
— • — ' — • ^ - • • * - * . - * . * ^ . — * . - % . * - • — — ^ • — . - " — ITS
ALL IN THE SOffO-
E V RHYTMrvni
FOX-TROT
•-*—•
JBF \