Music Trade Review

4
THE
MUS IC
TRADE
(Reltlltered in tbe U. S , Patent Ufhcej
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
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T ELEP H 0 N ES-V AN DERnILT 2642-264.8-2644-2645-2647-2648
Cable Addre t!i!!l; "Elbill, New 'York"
Vol. LXXVII
NEW YORK, JULY 14, 1923
No.2
UPRIGHT PIANOS FOR OLD SQUARES
HEX the p ublic at la rge conceives the idea that the piano busi­
ness is in such shape that reta ilers are gla d to exchange
modern upright instruments f or old squares on an even basis it is
hig h time to give even more earnest and se rious cons ider ation to th e
problems of the tracie- in and particularly to the question of
all owances.
In The Review last week was published a letter from a
woman in New York S tate who made just such a propos ition
to a dealer, namely, that he give her an upright f or her old square
witho ut the payment of extra money, on the plea tha t sh e found no
room for the square in her home. Perhaps th is is an exceptiona l
instance, but, judging from the attitude taken by many indiv idu al
piano buyers who have inst rum ents to offe r in exchange, the situa­
tion has reached a point where the retailer is expected to be doing a
stra ight replacement bu siness without profit.
No all owance sch edule in the world wi ll serve to protect all re­
tai lers. T here will always be so me w ho forget va lues and profits
in th eir anxiety ton1ake sales. But a definite allowance schedule
bearing the endorsement of the trad e should prove a powerful
weapon in the hands of th e dealer in persuading the prospective
custome r that an in strument fifteen or twenty years old is not con­
sid ered by the dea ler as posses~ing its original purchase valu e.
The question of fair ane! eq uitable allowances is a lead ing one
before the trade to-dav, and it is unfortuna te th at some members
of the ind ustry fail apparently to real ize its full importance.
W
JUNE SHATTERED THE TRADE'S TRADITIONS
NCE again have trade traditions been shatte red , Mu sic me r­
chan ts entered th e month of June in t he expectation of
marking on their books greatly reduced sa les total s. Th ere was a
touch of h ot weather, and tb e statem ent was heard fr eq uentl y that
Summer ha d c0l11e, and with it the usua l Summer du ll ness. HO\v­
ever, so mething we nt w rong with the sched ule and the result has
been that in pract ica ll y every secti on of the cou ntry retail mer­
chants, and particu lar ly piano deale rs, report one of the best Jun es
in hi story fr om th e standpoint of sales volume. With some dealers
the spurt lasted right thro ugh the month; with others th e big results
O
REVIE'V
JULY
14, 1923
ca me during the last tw o weeks. T he ma in thing W;JS that the June
totals were practicall y I".ithout exception sati~factory. One retailer
even declared that when look ing over his boo ks on July 1 be thou ght
h e had mad e a mistake a nd picked up th e ba lance sheets for la st
~ ovembe r.
It is to be hoped that t.h e psycho logical effect of thi s good Jun c
busin6'; will be to stimul ate re ta il trade right throu g h the S umm er
months. It is too ea rly, of course, to report ju st what is happe ning
in Jul y. Ce rtain 'it i" that the trade enters the second S umm er
month w ith rene-i,ved optimism.
T here are a Dumber of reasons advanced for the good bu si ness
in June. One is . that th e Summer seasol). vvas somewhat back,"ar<.l
arid people stayed home, A nother is that high prices charged by
vacation reso rts c1iscouraged people hom leav ing h ome. B ut what­
' e~e r the reason , the fact remains that the mu sic merchants ga th e red
'. "lrl:,:the shekels. It is significant, .too, that in most sec tions of the
' couhtry th is good S umm er business is accepted as an excell en t
augtli'y fora prospe rous Fall, particularly as the industrial condi ­
tions are act'ive and show little sign of slow in g up production for
the next fevv months at -least. ,_
I MAKING SALES~ANSRl'ip, SCHOOLS SUCCESSFUL I
"THE
idea of. sc~oo l s for pi"ano sal~sma~ship in the vario us large
. ,cen ters , wh ich developecl .!O such a pomt last year that a ' course
was actua ll y launched in N ~w York and ca rried th ro ugh success­
fully, appears to have c1i ed,~ inasmuch as there has been no atte mpt
in th e past tw elve months to organize any such school or even to.
suggest a course o f trainin g which the indi ,·idual dea ler him self
might follow in bringing hi s organization to a point of effici en cy.
In the school held in :,r ew York last September some of the
best minds in the trade from the angle of practical piano sales ma n­
ship add ressed the studen ts anel gave th em first-hand information
as to ways and means o f going after business, devel oping prospects
and finally closin g sales. Even some veteran salesmen who took the
interest and sufficient time to attend the sessions conceded the fact
that despite some years of experience ba ck of them they nev erthe­
less received knowledge of new ways of increasing their ability.
It is to be understood, however, that any plan for conducting a
school in pian o selling wi ll not succeed unl ess dealers themselves are
whole-h eartedly for it and are willin g to suppo rt their salesmen in
taking the course by a llow ing them sufficient time to attend the ses­
sions and by encouraging them to attend. The f act.is that the
attendance at the New York sc hool- -the first and it is to be hoped
not the last school of its kind to be in augurated- wo uld have been
much large r had the local dealers taken a proper vie\-\! o f th e im­
po rtance of the movement.
The t im e wi ll probably come wh en retai lers who are bewailing
the lack of train ed salesmen w ill 'real ize that, next to securing the
ser vices of men already trained, the best answer to their problem
is to p rov ide members of their permanent organization with the
in str uction that will in crease their effici ency and perm it th em to
get greate r results per uni t.
ELIMINATING SUBSIDIES TO THE MUSICIANS
T
H E Band In stru ment 1Tanufactu rers' :\ ssociation is to be con­
gratu lated upon the stand it took at the recent conventi on in
Ch icago to elimi nate the practice of subsidizing band leaders and
th e band s themselves to use certain makes of in strum ents eith er
through gifts of in str uments. or payments of cash. This move
a lone proves th e va lue of organi{:ation, for with the lea ding band
instrument makers of the co un~r y a lig ned against the practice there
is a strong possibility of its being defi nitely k illed.
The dec ision to stop g; anting subsidies follows a sim il ar move
on th e part of th e popular mus ic publishers so me years ago, In that
fi eld it was found that the direct and ind irect pa yment of singe rs
for featuring certain songs dev eloped an ann ual expense .for the
publi shers run nin g into several hundred th o u,;and do llars: \ Vhen
the p ractice was stopped by defi nite agreement the money thus
saved, o r at least a pa rt o f it, was put into genera l exploitation
wor k and that has placed the popu lar sheet mus ic tracle on a very
sound basis ,
Granting subsidies, no matter how we ll intenti oned, is bound
to. dev elop into cut-throat competition, with the recipi ents play ing
one manufacturer again st the ot her with th e aim of getting'a bigger
share for them se lves.