Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
President and Treasurer, C. L. Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Vice-President,
. B. Spillane, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Second Vice-President, Raymond Bill, 373
'ourth Ave., New York; Assistant Treasurer, Win. A. Low.
{
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
RAYMOND BILL, B. B. WILSON, Associate Editors
WILSON D. BUSH, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
Executive and Reportorlal Stall
as to form a corporation with the intention, at some time or another,
of embarking in roll making. A ten cent store syndicate has taken
a more than casual interest in the plan for publishing its own
music to be sold at ten cents, owing to the increase in the popular
prints to thirty cents, and thereby out of the reach of the ten cent
emporium.
Whatever may develop from these plans, or rumored plans, the
fact remains that they indicate that the music industry with its
various branches is an industry worthy of the consideration of the
capitalist who wants to invest in something that will produce definite
and satisfactory dividends. In short, it reflects the prosperity of the
trade as a whole.
All that is needed now to complete the annual harvest of rumors
is our old friend, the $40,000,000 Piano Trust. Where has it been
these past few months?
EXPANSION IN THE TRADE
V. D. WALSH, W M . BRAID W H I T E (Technical Editor), E. B. MUNCH, L. M. ROBINSON,
C. A. LEONARD, EDWARD LYMAN RILL, SCOTT KINGWILL, A. J. NICKLIN, L. E. BOWERS
WESTERN DIVISION:
BOSTON OFFICE!
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Telephone, Wabash 5774.
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N E W S SERVICE IS S U P P L I E D WEEKLY BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED I N T H E LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT
AMERICA.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
Entered as second-class matter September 10, 1892, at the post office at New York, N. Y.,
under the Act of March 3, 1879.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada, $3.50; all other countries, $5.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $6.00 per inch single column, per insertion.
On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages, $150.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill, Inc.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques
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PI an A allll
and
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tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning,
regulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos
§
are dealt with, will be found in another section of
this paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prxx
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
S t Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal—Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE
Vol. LXX
TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 5982—5983 MADISON SQ.
Connecting all Departments
Cable addresa: "Elbill, New York"
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 7, 1920
No. 6
CLEANER MUSIC TRADE ADVERTISING
HE report of the Better Business Bureau published in The
T
Review last week is significant as showing the improved char-
acter of music trade advertising. It is true that the Bureau has
been called upon during the past couple of months to investigate
complaints in fifty-seven cities, but an analysis of the complaints
shows that jealousy among competitors was responsible for a good
many of them and that those really worthy of serious consideration
grew out of overenthusiastic statements made by advertisers as to
the value and quality of the products they are offering. In several
cases the Bureau went to the trouble of making investigations of
certain public claims regarding values that at first glance seemed
ridiculous, but which on closer study proved to have basis in fact.
It is not to be hoped that the music trade or for that matter any
other trade will be entirely free from the offensive advertiser, for
there is a certain element that will, intentionally or not, overstep
the boundary line. But the trade at this time is clean—the Better
Business Bureau's report proved it. With this condition prevailing,
advertising that a few years ago would be considered sensational
without being dangerous now stands out as most offensive in com-
parison with the general run of publicity.
DAME RUMOR BUSY AGAIN
FEBRUARY 7, 1920
P
IANO manufacturers still continue to emphasize in a practical
manner their faith in the future of the industry by announcing
plans for the material expansion of'their manufacturing facilities.
Within the past few weeks there have been a half dozen or more
piano manufacturers who have indicated that they will increase the
capacity of their plants as rapidly as the work can be carried out.
These announcements serve to discount in some measure the stories
regarding industrial unrest, supply costs and the other problems as
they affect the music industry. Although these are without doubt
existent, they are not proving a bugbear to the real progressive
concern.
We receive from various sections of the country reports to the
effect that there was a slowing up of business in January, but that
is always the case during the first month of the year and can be
traced directly to the reaction from the holiday rush. Ordinarily
normal business in the few weeks following Christmas appears quite
unsatisfactory as compared with holiday demands. Manufacturers
who are arranging for increased production are not considering the
present so much as they are looking into the future. They believe
that the demand for musical instruments is going to increase right
along for years to come, and are backing up their opinions in the
most practical manner.
KEEPING AN EYE ON OVERHEAD
HE advice of H. L. Draper, treasurer of The Cable Company,
T
that retail merchants should pay particular attention to watching
their overhead in order that they may obtain adequate prices for
the products they sell, is advice that is well worth taking.
A merchant may, or may not, growl about increasing wholesale
prices for pianos and then regulate his retail price in proportion to
that straight wholesale increase, but that policy does not protect the
retailer as he should be protected. While piano costs have gone
up, his overhead has likewise jumped. Every factor entering into
the conduct of his establishment is costing him more and it means
capital invested upon which a definite profit must be shown.
The dealer who does not get the proper perspective on his busi-
ness right now and who does not arrange for an income that will
not only pay for his stock, but cover the increases in his overhead,
is going to get into a ticklish position before he realizes it. It is
not a question of what the public can, or will, pay for pianos. It is
a question of what the retailer must get to protect himself not only
in covering his expenses, but in realizing a profit commensurate with
the increased amount of capital he must tie up.
THE HOUCK MUSIC FOUNDATION
HE annual crop of trade rumors has sprung up and one by
HILE music men in various localities have talked loud and
T
one the stories are being run to ground, generally proving with- W long of the necessity of inaugurating campaigns for the ad-
out foundation. We have heard of capitalists of national standing
vancement of music, and the development of interest in the art,
entering the piano trade, as they have worked their way into the
talking machine trade. We hear of talking machine manufacturers
about to engage in the production of music rolls and of big com-
binations of music publishers who are to invade the same field that
they may combine the profits of mechanical reproductions with the
original profits of sheet music sales. And we hear of big ten cent
store syndicates becoming music publishers.
The peculiar part of it is that a few of the rumors have, or have
had, some foundation. Talking machine record companies are look-
ing over the music roll field. Music publishers have gone so far
O. K. Houck, of the O. K. Houck Piano Co., than whom there
are few more popular men in the trade, has shown the way by
organizing the O. K. Houck Music Foundation in his home town
and organizing it in a way that should insure its permanence. His
own personal subscription of $5,000 to the Foundation should en-
courage other music lovers in and about Memphis to make quick
response to the call for funds and insure the Foundation becoming
a distinct power for good in the field of music. Certainly it will
be a monument of which any man may well feel proud, particularly
if he is himself a member of the music industry.