Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JUNE 24, 1922
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Wherein the Editor of This Player Section Indulges in His Monthly Habit
of Setting Forth His Personal Impressions of Various Subjects of More or
Less Importance to the Trade, Hoping They May Prove Worth Considering
one is much better or much worse than the other
is simply to show that we do not grasp the mean-
ing of the pneumatic development in music. A
The talk which went around the lobbies and musical instrument, if it is to live, must have
rooms of the Hotel Commodore during the music some positive value. It will not survive if it is
industries convention showed plainly enough that
some retailers and manufacturers are temporarily put forward just because it is like something else,
obsessed with the idea that in the electric player- or a supposed substitute for something else.
piano is the only salvation of the player business. Now, the foot-player has certain values which
To hear some men talk one might suppose that are positive. The true reproducing piano has
red ruin would immediately follow every mer- values which are also positive. The first is pri-
chant who does not instantly begin to devote all marily a creator of new musical voices, the sec-
his energies to these instruments. We decline to ond primarily a preserver of interpretations. We
join in the excitement. We have seen this sort want to see both of these instruments developed
of thing before. Some men in the music trade to the utmost efficiency. To throw either one
are always running after any new thing, and this away would be the height of folly and though we
mainly because they do not pursue salesmanship do not expect the retail trade to show much
in a scientific manner or with a sound technique. wisdom in the premises it is to be hoped that the
It is not a question with them of "How shall we manufacturers will show themselves far-sighted
sell this thing?" but rather of "Will this thing and conservative.
sell itself?" Now, of course, the fact is that it
is just as hard to sell an automatic-expression
The Radio Reaction
piano as to sell a foot-player. Each calls for
It is being gradually noticed throughout the
demonstration. In the one case that demon-
strator is wisest who gets the customer on the music industries that the recent state of terrific
bench at the pedals and lets him or her play with excitement regarding radio broadcasting is be-
the instrument till the sale has been made— ginning to die down. The radio men themselves
automatically. In the other case, the demon- are becoming decidedly conservative in their
strator's business is just as much to-be self- statements, although perhaps it would be fairer to
effacing, for he must let the instrument do its say that the authorities have always been cau-
own demonstrating. But equal intelligence is tious and have said very little to excite public
needed in each case, nor will the one sell itself if expectations. The radio engineer of the Ameri-
unintelligently presented any more readily than can Telephone & Telegraph Co., Mr. Robert
the other. The spokesmen for the American King, has been talking in the columns of the In-
Piano Co. and the Auto-Pneumatic Action Co., ternational Interpreter abput broadcasting, and
representing mechanisms which have a right to he says: "Radiophone broadcasting is an experi-
the description "reproducing," who talked before ment. . . . Personally, I believe that broadcasting,
the dealers at the convention, were equally insist- as it is now conducted, is ephemeral; it will pass
ent upon the need for careful, even elaborate, when the novelty has passed. . . . Entertain-
preparation for selling the reproducing piano. ments may possibly be broadcasted to rural
Let that point be kept in mind, then: it is not go- homes, but I think it will die out in the cities.
ing to be a bit easier to sell a player-piano merely The music would have to be of a very different
character and both transmitting and receiving
because it requires no human operation.
would have to be vastly improved before the gen-
eral public would accept it at its face value."
Creators and Preservers
Mr. King has much to say in the course of the
We say frankly that we do not want to see the same statement about the commercial and news
loot-player reduced to the second rank. Our rea- value of broadcasting, but he is undoubtedly
son is not a sentimental reason. In the first right about the entertainment aspect of the case.
place, the foot-player is neither better nor worse We have contended from the start that it would
than any other player-piano. The electric piano be foolish for the music industries to worry about
is neither better nor worse than the foot-player. any inroads that radio broadcasting could pos-
To confuse this truth with the idea that we can- sibly make into their legitimate territory. To
not consider the two types without insisting that such extent as radio equipment can legitimately
Plain Thinking
be sold by music merchants let it be sold, but let
us not waste any time in worrying about what it
may do to us in the future.
The Selling of Music Rolls
It is always time to say a word about selling
music rolls, because it seems that the retailers
are slower to grasp the relation of the roll to
the player-piano from the merchandising stand-
point than they are to comprehend any other
element in the entire music business. On more
than one occasion we have talked about one sim-
ple scheme which some merchants adopted long
ago and which all merchants could adopt without
any change in their general methods. When any
kind or type of player-piano is being sold the
question of music must come up sooner or later.
The prospect will ask about music, even if the
salesman does not mention the word. Now, the
careless salesman will wait for the prospect to
introduce the subject and thus will be put on
the defensive, having to explain that music costs
money and invariably leaving the impression that
while the store will supply music it really does
not care much about that sort of business, being
interested mainly in signing up an instrument-
buying contract. The wise salesman, however,
talks music from the start and keeps the pros-
pect wholly interested in this, that or the other
piece of music, which the instrument is render-
ing during the sales demonstration. The pros-
pect is then ready to understand that he must plan
to buy his collection of music as part of his pur-
chase from the start, and will be ready to appre-
ciate the fact that fifty dollars' worth of rolls, sold
as part of the whole purchase and payable in the
same way, is not only necessary but the most
enjoyable part of the transaction. Once get a
prospect to buy, knowing the value of music, and
that a music roll is something which has a value
both in money and in utility, . . . and the problem
of maintaining his live interest is solved. The
sale of a player-piano begins at the musical, not
at the mechanical, end.
W. B. ROBERTS PASSES AWAY
KANSAS CITY, MO., June 19.—William B. Roberts,
for many years engaged in the piano business here
and well known to the music fraternity of the
city, passed away recently at his home, at the
age of seventy-four years. Mr. Roberts had been
engaged in the piano business since his youth.
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