Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JANUARY 12, 1924
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE POINT OF REVIEW
T
HIS year has not been marked with as many changes as is
usually the case among the traveling men of the manufac-
turers. Some years ago January 1 provided a regular flocking
hither and thither among these men, with any number of changes.
Which brings to mind the fact that travelers seem to remain with
manufacturers more regularly than they used to; perhaps because
piano distribution has changed considerably and the old type of
traveler who was a man independently in business to all intents
and purposes is not nearly as numerous to-day as he was then.
The passing of this type has had both its advantages and disad-
vantages, of course. One of the latter has been the gradual dis-
appearance of the traveler who not only sold pianos but who was
chief business adviser to the hundreds of dealers upon whom he
called and who was a star at establishing new outlets. For in-
stance, one of the old timers was responsible for the entry in the
retail piano field of what is now one of the biggest chains of re-
tail music stores in the trade. In those days this particular dealer
sold sewing machines. The traveler in question persuaded him to
take a shipment of pianos on consignment and spent much time
and trouble in aiding him to sell them. The dealer was business
man enough to see his opportunity and to follow good advice among
the pitfalls of distributing merchandise that was strange to him
with the result that from that one consignment shipment has
grown what is perhaps the greatest retail music house in the trade.
At least, it is the greatest in its own territory.
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*
PEAKING of the work of traveling men, the question of serv-
ice for the reproducing piano brings up a good many recol-
lections of what the travelers had to do in the old days when the
player-piano was first put on the market. In those days less was
known about the player-piano among dealers, tuners and repair-
men than is known about the reproducing piano to-day. Pneu-
matics were then a mystery to practically everyone in the trade,
save a few of the factory experts, and the travelers who sold
player-pianos to the dealers had to trust largely to luck, aided,
of course, by their own ingenuity. Get a man like "Billy" Heaton,
now the head of the Autopneumatic Action Co., of New York,
to tell some of his experiences in flitting back and forth between
dealers trying to solve their problems for them and to fix up the
kicks of their customers. Some of the expedients to which he
had to resort make choice listening, especially in these days when
the player-piano is trouble-proof to all intents and purposes. The
men who went out among the dealers and sold the first player-
pianos solved problems that would have quite overwhelmed the
younger travelers who have come into the industry since that time.
*
*
*
AXES, taxes everywhere and not a cent to pay. Paraphrasing
the lament of the Ancient Mariner just about explains the sit-
uation that business has found itself in since the war. Now along
comes Secretary Mellon, of the Treasury, with a plan for at least
an amelioration of this condition. And at the same time appear the
bold Congressmen, whose disregard of the taxpayer comes from
their usual inarticulate condition, and who always rush to get on
the band-wagon of the noisy minority which, in their high con-
sideration, will save them, from a Congressman's worst fate—that
of being a "lame duck." This type will oppose any decrease in
Federal taxes with a vast flow of oratory. The only way to shut
that flood of words off, which only clutters up the Congressional
Record" and costs the country large printing bills, is for those
who have been inarticulate to shout down the speech-makers. That
means that every man in business has got to get busy with his own
particular representative in Washington and show him once and
for all that his future depends on the way in which he decreases
taxes. So far as the music industries are concerned, their or-
ganized body, the Music Chamber of Commerce, is doing all it
can, but a letter from a man in his district carries far more weight
with the average Congressman than any representative of an or-
ganized bodv. The way to have a thing done right is to do it your-
S
T
self, and in the tax fight that means every individual affected must
get on the job and stay there until the fight is won.
*
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NE of the striking events of the past year, which has not re-
ceived the notice that has been due it, was the comparatively
large number of new retail music merchants who entered the field.
This is one sure sign of prosperity which the industry enjoyed
during the year and also one of the efficient selling methods
which the piano manufacturers, especially, are developing. The
monthly list of new dealers which appears in The Review gives
some inkling of how great this movement was. It is a good thing.
The number of retail piano merchants in the trade at the present
time is not so great that it could not be increased to the advan-
tage of all concerned. The field is large enough to support them
and a greater number means a more intensive degree of selling,
which is what the industry has always needed. New blood, further-
more, never hurt any industry yet. It brings a fresh point of view
and a new approach to old problems that is valuable to all con-
cerned. Of course, it makes competition for the dealers already
established, but then sharper competition makes for more sales.
What the retail music trade needs at the present time is the sort
of selling methods that will create new piano prospects, for in-
stance, the sort that will create the desire to own and possess.
O
*
*
•
S
O the retail sheet music merchant is at last going to have some
approach to a general catalog, a thing which has been dis-
cussed in that trade for a good many years. The enterprise shown
by the Richmond Music Supply Corp. in announcing the regular
publication of two catalogs of this type, one covering the standard
field and the other the popular, and to issue them at short enough
periods to keep them up-to-date, is to be commended. Properly
used with the sheet music customer these catalogs are going to be a
big aid to the dealer in his selling work. At the present time there
is no way in which a sheet music customer can get an idea of the
material available to suit his needs and, as a result, sales are either
lost or the dealer has to undertake a large work of detail that
runs his overhead expanse cff doing business far beyond what it
should be. The plan of the Richmond Music Supply Corp., as
it has been outlined in advance, will, in all probability, do much
to aid in the solution of this problem and, while in the embryo
as yet, has enough possibilities to deserve support.
*
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*
HE announcement that Moritz Rosenthal has been added to
the list of pianists who record exclusively foi» the Ampico
is a notable one. Rosenthal is one of the really big artists before
the public at the present day, and the fact that he has never pre-
viously recorded for a reproducing piano, makes his addition to
the Ampico library of rolls all the more notable. Rosenthal was a
pupil of Joseffy, who is widely remembered in this country where
he taught for some years. Later he studied with Liszt, under
whose auspices he made his debut and soon became one of the
great figures who were sent out from that famous studio in Wei-
mar. He has appeared in every country in Europe and this is
his fourth tour of this country. He is noted for the perfection of
his technique :>t the keyboard, a technique that is coupled with an
interpretative ability too often lacking in pianists who have attained
reputations on a similar basis. As an interpreter of Schubert, he
is held by many to be unsurpassed. The fact that Rosenthal could
never be induced to record his art by the medium of the repro-
ducing piano until he had heard the reproductions of the Ampico
and thoroughly convinced himself of their fidelity is, indeed, a
tribute to that instrument. The addition of Rosenthal to the
Ampico library which already contains such artists as Rachmaninoff,
Levitzki, Dohnanyi, Lhevinne, Ornstein, Schnabel, Moiseiwitsch,
Mimz, Germaine Schnitzer, Ellv Ney, Mirovitch, Leginska, and
many other internationally famous pianists, gives Ampico owners
the music of the world at their command at all times.
\
T
THE
REVIEWER.