Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
RE™
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
President and Treasurer. C. L. Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Vice-President,
J. B. Spillane, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Second Vice-President, Raymond Bill, 373
Fourth Ave., New York; Secretary, Edward Lyman Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York;
Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
RAY BILL, B. B. WILSON, BRAID WHITE, Associate Editors
WILSON D. BUSH, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
•••>•'-> •" • L. E. BOWERS, Circulation Manager
Executive and Reportorlal Staff
EDWARD VAM HARLINGEN, V. D. WALSH, E. B. MUNCH, LEE ROBINSON, C. R. TIGHK,
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, SCOTT KINGWILL, THOS. W. BKESNAHAN, A. J. NICKLIN.
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Lyman Bill, Inc.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
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tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning,
IW>nartniPnfc regulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos
C
U C | f a l UHxlllS 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.
The question is not the number of people who reside in a section,
but rather what proportion of that number, by education, desire
and financial ability, can qualify as prospects for a given article of
known value.
FIGHTING THE CANCELATION EVIL
T
H E efforts of the members of the Musical Supply Association
through a special committee to draft up some form of contract
that will prevent the unwarranted and improper cancellation of
orders again call attention to a condition that has existed since last
year and which it is said by a number of supply men appears to be
growing worse instead of improving.
The music trade is not the only line of industry that has suffered
through the fact that retailers and manufacturers have both tried to
pass the burden of the business slump on to their supply sources
through the simple expedient of canceling orders that had originally
been placed and likewise accepted in good faith. There are times, of
course, when there is offered a legitimate excuse for canceling orders.
Such occasions are not frequent enough to warrant any general pro-
gram of cancelation such as prevails in some divisions of this and
other trades.
It is about time that business men learned that the only way to
hold and develop trade is for each individual to do his share—to
bear a fair proportion of the stock and financial burdens, as well as
put forth additional selling effort. If what are termed orders simply
represent options, as some buyers seem to think, then there is little
excuse of talking of possible reductions in price or a quick return to
normal. The supply men in their fight on cancelations should have
the support of those manufacturers who place their orders in good
faith and should enjoy whatever benefits accrue from doing business
in a straightforward manner.
STEADY ADVANCE OF THE SMALL GRAND
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal
Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma...•.Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal—Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS B982—6983 MADISON 8Q.
Connecting all Departments
Cable Address: "Elblll, New York"
Vol. LXX1II
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 1, 1921
No. 14
THE BUYING POWER OF THE PUBLIC
HE average music merchant who is in business to stay and wants
to know what his prospects are for developing his trade in a given
territory makes it a point to-day to analyze, so far as is possible, the
buying power of the public in his section. It was long ago realized
that the buying power of a community cannot in any sense be based
upon population, but must be carefully figured out from the character
of the population.
We find manufacturers who, after careful investigation, fix mini-
mum limits on the sales possibilities of their products based upon
national figures. In other words, an article may be expected to sell
at the rate of 100 to 1,000 of population, another 10 to 1,000, and at
least one prominent piano manufacturer has fixed as a minimum of
sales possibilities for his instruments one to every fifteen thousand
of population each year.
In the fixing of these minimum sales possibilities it is held that,
even in the worst territories where a minimum of buying power
exists, these figures must be met, and that as the caliber of the inhabi-
tants in various sections improves the percentage of sales in propor-
tion to population increases automatically.
Many grave mistakes are made in this and other industries
through basing-buying power upon the size of population rather than
upon the financial ability and responsibility of the majority of that
population. The story is told of a German of the old school who
visited China with a line of cheap spectacles selling at twenty-five
cents per pair, or the equivalent. Being of a systematic turn of mind
he-investigated and found that China had a population of 400,000,-
000. He finally determined that at least 100,000,000 of .these were
adults or at least were old enough to need and buy his spectacles. He
figured in his mind that with a fifteen-cent profit on each pair of
specs he had before him a fortune of $15,000,000, and was dis-
appointed when his plan did not work out, because, with a wage of
ten cents a day, the Chinaman's buying power was limited.
It might be well for members of the music industry in determin-
ing the buying power of the country at large, or a single section
thereof, to take a lesson from this experience of our German friend.
T
OCTOBER 1, 1921
T
H E R E is every indication that the small grand piano is not only
continuing to hold the position in the trade that it has won for
itself during the past few years, but promises to make still further
advances in the future. Practical evidence that this fact is impressed
on the minds of the manufacturers is found in the attention given
to the manufacture and improvement of the small grand and the
increase in the number of factories that are devoted exclusively or
almost exclusively to that type of instrument.
One well-informed member of the trade has expressed the
opinion that the time is coming when the small grand, owing to its
constant improvement in the matter of tonal quality, will supersede
the upright piano just as the upright several decades ago superseded
the square. Meanwhile it is very probable that the upright piano
will stay with us indefinitely despite prophecies, but it is also quite
evident that if the small grand continues to be exploited as strongly
as it is at present, and merits the claims made for it, it will come
to be the dominating instrument among pianos.
Another factor that is calculated to emphasize the growing impor-
tance of the small grand is the announcement last week by the
Aeolian company of a new and broader policy in the matter of pro-
viding retail distribution for the Weber and Steck grands, a policy
brought about, it is admitted, as a-result of the demand for that type
of instrument that has actually made itself evident.
PROGRESS IN THE TAX FIGHT
A
NOTHER bright spot in the Federal tax fight is found in the
announcement by the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce
last week that, through the efforts of that body and the organizations
and individuals affiliated with it, the Senate Finance Committee had
been moved to reinsert in the bill the so-called wholesale and retail
ruling whereby a manufacturer who sells at retail is taxed on his
retail sales on the basis of the wholesale price.
This ruling has long been a sore point with Internal Revenue
Department officials, who have seen in the wiping out thereof an
opportunity to secure from the music industry a very substantial
increase in revenue. Inasmuch as the War Excise Tax has been, and
is, a tax based on the manufacturer's selling price it is only logical
to assume that it should be paid only upon the wholesale price of the
instrument whether it is sold through the manufacturer's own retail
store or through an outside dealer. Unfortunately in the interpreta-
tion of the excise and other laws, the "experts" appear to work
solely with a view to getting all the traffic will bear.