Music Trade Review
Issue: 1924 Vol. 79 N. 13 - Page 9
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
SEPTEMBER 27,
1924
THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
9
Demonstrations That Result in Sales
Buying Public Still Unaware of the Great Musical Possibilities of the Player-Piano—Every Prospect That Can
Be Taught the Self-Expression Possibilities of the Player-Piano Is at Once a Convinced
Prospect—"Get the Prospect on the Bench" and Let It Sell
I
T is time to put in a word again for public
demonstration as a factor in retail player
selling. There was a time when the dem-
onstration method was rightly regarded as
forming the very keystone of player merchan-
dising; but that day is long since past and
gone, at least so far as concerns the foot-player
piano. It has been revived to a certain extent
and with much success for the purposes of the
reproducing piano, which indeed could never
have obtained its present hold if this sound
method had not been made the basis of the
selling plans for it. On the other hand, for
general player-piano selling, public recitals and
public demonstrations appear to have gone com-
pletely out of fashion.
It is a pity. Grant if one will that, after the
early enthusiasm had worn off, the thing degen-
erated into something very often farcical. Grant
that some of the public demonstrators came to
think of themselves as artists instead of mere
transmitters of the good news, and so fright-
ened away more people than they attracted,
through making the whole thing seem so very,
very difficult. Granted that dealers began to
shout for something which would "sell itself,"
even though this indicated a veritable contradic-
tion in terniSi Grant all this and still we have
every reason for restoring, upon a right basis
and after a scientific manner, the old method of
demonstration on the public scale as a means
for merchandising player-pianos.
Still a Mystery
For the fact of the matter is thai the player-
piano, despite twenty-five years of display be-
fore the people of the country, is as yet almost
as much of a mystery as it was during its first
years. Thousands of men and women indeed
do now push pedals up and down and take
music rolls in and out; but the number of
those who can actually play it tolerably well
is so small as to be almost negligible. Now,
if one thing is more certain than another it is
that the popularity of the player-piano varies
directly with public interest in the art of play-
ing it. It should no longer be necessary to
argue elaborately the self-evident truth that
those who own player-pianos without having
the ability to play them tolerably well, do not
display any special enthusiasm for their posses-
sion, nor do anything to assist others who
might have leanings in the direction of owner-
ship to turn that interest into action. No one
will deny, one thinks, that the noise created by
most owners of player-pianos in their efforts
to produce music from their instruments is
sufficiently horrible to spoil any enthusiasm on
the subject any normal man or woman hearing
it may ever have had.
Evidence in Point
That this is so is amply evidenced by the
efforts which are made even now by manufac-
turers to teach salesmen how to sell player-
pianos, by teaching them how, first of all, to
play those instruments tolerably well. The mer-
chandising of the player-piano is, in fact, based
upon the principle that every prospect who can
be taught, even partly and imperfectly, to ex-
press something of his or her own ideas, is
ipso facto a convinced prospect ready to buy.
The whole secret of selling the player-piano is
found in this simple principle: teach the pros-
pect enough about playing to secure his or her
interest in personally producing music; and the
player-pianos will do the rest. Or, as it was
put even more briefly by a distinguished sales-
man, "get the prospect on the bench at the
player-piano and leave him (or her) alone."
Well, that is all perfectly true, and yet the
sale of player-pianos lags. It lags simply be-
cause salesmen do not understand and apply the
principles which seem so self-evident when they
are set down on paper. Salesmen do not apply
these principles because they do not know how
to apply them; nor does it seem possible to
carry out any big nation-wide scheme of train-
ing salesmen to this end. No manufacturing
house can do it alone, nor does there seem to
be any way of getting all manufacturers to-
gether for the same purpose. Meanwhile the
retail trade lags and the question "what to do"
ceases to be funny and becomes serious.
How the Point Was Lost
Then let us take thought of the old days and
see if there be not something good about them
which we can use for our own purposes. Dur-
ing those first years every merchant of any
importance—under the auspices and at the in
stigation of some manufacturer—carried on
during each season periodical recitals at which
the powers of the player-piano were dem-
onstrated. Unfortunately these affairs became
Hat, stale and unprofitable because they were
allowed to go on mechanically after the spirit
had departed from them. They became dry
concert a if airs, formal and unedifying, and the
whole point of them was lost. This point, of
course, was that to produce music satisfactorily
and well by means of the player-piano is a task
not one-quarter so hard as to learn to make
l;alI a dozen good strokes at golf, and that it is
the best of fun all the way along. Probably at
the beginning of things, when the whole affair
was an absolute novelty to all concerned, public
and trade alike, the formal concert-stage recital
had its uses by giving the player a dignity it
might otherwise not have been able to acquire.
On the other hand, this condition no longer
exists and what is now needed is a method of
bringing to the public in fairly small and con-
trollable groups this message: "Here is how
you can learn easily and amusingly to play
your own music and thus get a bigger kick out
of life than you have been getting." That is
the job, to put across that particular message;
which certainly cannot be done by any formal
concert-stage recital.
Sugar-coatings
Yet it can be done as it ought to be done.
The first thing, of course, is to get the public
to come. That means that there rriust be other
attractions to act as a sort of sugar-coating.
Now, good singers or instrumentalists will al-
ways attract the crowd, and in every community
of any size there are some such artists well
known and liked, whose names will draw groups
of admirers. It might be remembered in this
very connection that the persons whom we want
to see taking an interest in the player-piano
are music lovers, not musicians, but music lovers.
They are .the people who, when they under-
stand the player-piano, will buy it gladly. The
present difficulty is just that they do not under-
stand it.
Singers and instrumentalists sometimes shy
off from appearing with the reproducing piano
because of distrust of its suitability as an accom-
panying instrument. This is true in so far as
careful rehearsing is needed to make the joint
work a success. The artist in this case has to
follow the accompanist, which most artists do
not like to do. On the other hand, no artist
will object to a paid appearance when the player-
pianist in charge says, "I will accompany you and
you may follow your own inclinations." This
indeed may be even better done very often with
the player-piano handled by a skilled performer
than it could be done by an ordinary accom-
panist using the keyboard. Certainly the writer,
after much experience, can say that no artist
who has once tried the experiment need com-
plain of poor accompanying.
Away With the Platform
Given the artists, who may be singers or
players, or both, the next thing is to abolish
the stage entirely, and also get rid of the hard
seats in rows. Let the instrument be placed
in the middle of a circle of comfortable seats,
let it be an instrument of the sort which is
likely to sell most readily, and let the dem-
onstrator be a man able both to play and to talk
about what he is doing, so that the layman or
woman shall understand. This is not a con-
cert of which we are speaking, but a sales
demonstration, stressing music and how John
Smith and Mary Jones may play it.
Soloists will not object to appearing in such
surroundings, but rather will welcome the nov-
elty; provided there is throughout musical sin-
cerity. Fake performances or poorly prepared
programs are not wanted. On the other hand,
weekly gatherings, by invitation, of small, se-
lected groups during the season of musical
activity, can be used, if rightly conducted, not
only to build up prospect lists but to create
good-will among customers, actual and poten-
tial, towards the whole idea of player-piano
music. That indeed is what we really want in
this trade of ours, a mass of public interest and
good-will. It is the absence of this intelligent
interest which livs at the root of most of our
selling difficulties.
LAUTER-
HUMANA
The
Player
Piano
That
Is
Different
from
All
Others !
LAUTER GO.
NEWARK, N. J.
SEPTEMBER 27,
1924
THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
9
Demonstrations That Result in Sales
Buying Public Still Unaware of the Great Musical Possibilities of the Player-Piano—Every Prospect That Can
Be Taught the Self-Expression Possibilities of the Player-Piano Is at Once a Convinced
Prospect—"Get the Prospect on the Bench" and Let It Sell
I
T is time to put in a word again for public
demonstration as a factor in retail player
selling. There was a time when the dem-
onstration method was rightly regarded as
forming the very keystone of player merchan-
dising; but that day is long since past and
gone, at least so far as concerns the foot-player
piano. It has been revived to a certain extent
and with much success for the purposes of the
reproducing piano, which indeed could never
have obtained its present hold if this sound
method had not been made the basis of the
selling plans for it. On the other hand, for
general player-piano selling, public recitals and
public demonstrations appear to have gone com-
pletely out of fashion.
It is a pity. Grant if one will that, after the
early enthusiasm had worn off, the thing degen-
erated into something very often farcical. Grant
that some of the public demonstrators came to
think of themselves as artists instead of mere
transmitters of the good news, and so fright-
ened away more people than they attracted,
through making the whole thing seem so very,
very difficult. Granted that dealers began to
shout for something which would "sell itself,"
even though this indicated a veritable contradic-
tion in terniSi Grant all this and still we have
every reason for restoring, upon a right basis
and after a scientific manner, the old method of
demonstration on the public scale as a means
for merchandising player-pianos.
Still a Mystery
For the fact of the matter is thai the player-
piano, despite twenty-five years of display be-
fore the people of the country, is as yet almost
as much of a mystery as it was during its first
years. Thousands of men and women indeed
do now push pedals up and down and take
music rolls in and out; but the number of
those who can actually play it tolerably well
is so small as to be almost negligible. Now,
if one thing is more certain than another it is
that the popularity of the player-piano varies
directly with public interest in the art of play-
ing it. It should no longer be necessary to
argue elaborately the self-evident truth that
those who own player-pianos without having
the ability to play them tolerably well, do not
display any special enthusiasm for their posses-
sion, nor do anything to assist others who
might have leanings in the direction of owner-
ship to turn that interest into action. No one
will deny, one thinks, that the noise created by
most owners of player-pianos in their efforts
to produce music from their instruments is
sufficiently horrible to spoil any enthusiasm on
the subject any normal man or woman hearing
it may ever have had.
Evidence in Point
That this is so is amply evidenced by the
efforts which are made even now by manufac-
turers to teach salesmen how to sell player-
pianos, by teaching them how, first of all, to
play those instruments tolerably well. The mer-
chandising of the player-piano is, in fact, based
upon the principle that every prospect who can
be taught, even partly and imperfectly, to ex-
press something of his or her own ideas, is
ipso facto a convinced prospect ready to buy.
The whole secret of selling the player-piano is
found in this simple principle: teach the pros-
pect enough about playing to secure his or her
interest in personally producing music; and the
player-pianos will do the rest. Or, as it was
put even more briefly by a distinguished sales-
man, "get the prospect on the bench at the
player-piano and leave him (or her) alone."
Well, that is all perfectly true, and yet the
sale of player-pianos lags. It lags simply be-
cause salesmen do not understand and apply the
principles which seem so self-evident when they
are set down on paper. Salesmen do not apply
these principles because they do not know how
to apply them; nor does it seem possible to
carry out any big nation-wide scheme of train-
ing salesmen to this end. No manufacturing
house can do it alone, nor does there seem to
be any way of getting all manufacturers to-
gether for the same purpose. Meanwhile the
retail trade lags and the question "what to do"
ceases to be funny and becomes serious.
How the Point Was Lost
Then let us take thought of the old days and
see if there be not something good about them
which we can use for our own purposes. Dur-
ing those first years every merchant of any
importance—under the auspices and at the in
stigation of some manufacturer—carried on
during each season periodical recitals at which
the powers of the player-piano were dem-
onstrated. Unfortunately these affairs became
Hat, stale and unprofitable because they were
allowed to go on mechanically after the spirit
had departed from them. They became dry
concert a if airs, formal and unedifying, and the
whole point of them was lost. This point, of
course, was that to produce music satisfactorily
and well by means of the player-piano is a task
not one-quarter so hard as to learn to make
l;alI a dozen good strokes at golf, and that it is
the best of fun all the way along. Probably at
the beginning of things, when the whole affair
was an absolute novelty to all concerned, public
and trade alike, the formal concert-stage recital
had its uses by giving the player a dignity it
might otherwise not have been able to acquire.
On the other hand, this condition no longer
exists and what is now needed is a method of
bringing to the public in fairly small and con-
trollable groups this message: "Here is how
you can learn easily and amusingly to play
your own music and thus get a bigger kick out
of life than you have been getting." That is
the job, to put across that particular message;
which certainly cannot be done by any formal
concert-stage recital.
Sugar-coatings
Yet it can be done as it ought to be done.
The first thing, of course, is to get the public
to come. That means that there rriust be other
attractions to act as a sort of sugar-coating.
Now, good singers or instrumentalists will al-
ways attract the crowd, and in every community
of any size there are some such artists well
known and liked, whose names will draw groups
of admirers. It might be remembered in this
very connection that the persons whom we want
to see taking an interest in the player-piano
are music lovers, not musicians, but music lovers.
They are .the people who, when they under-
stand the player-piano, will buy it gladly. The
present difficulty is just that they do not under-
stand it.
Singers and instrumentalists sometimes shy
off from appearing with the reproducing piano
because of distrust of its suitability as an accom-
panying instrument. This is true in so far as
careful rehearsing is needed to make the joint
work a success. The artist in this case has to
follow the accompanist, which most artists do
not like to do. On the other hand, no artist
will object to a paid appearance when the player-
pianist in charge says, "I will accompany you and
you may follow your own inclinations." This
indeed may be even better done very often with
the player-piano handled by a skilled performer
than it could be done by an ordinary accom-
panist using the keyboard. Certainly the writer,
after much experience, can say that no artist
who has once tried the experiment need com-
plain of poor accompanying.
Away With the Platform
Given the artists, who may be singers or
players, or both, the next thing is to abolish
the stage entirely, and also get rid of the hard
seats in rows. Let the instrument be placed
in the middle of a circle of comfortable seats,
let it be an instrument of the sort which is
likely to sell most readily, and let the dem-
onstrator be a man able both to play and to talk
about what he is doing, so that the layman or
woman shall understand. This is not a con-
cert of which we are speaking, but a sales
demonstration, stressing music and how John
Smith and Mary Jones may play it.
Soloists will not object to appearing in such
surroundings, but rather will welcome the nov-
elty; provided there is throughout musical sin-
cerity. Fake performances or poorly prepared
programs are not wanted. On the other hand,
weekly gatherings, by invitation, of small, se-
lected groups during the season of musical
activity, can be used, if rightly conducted, not
only to build up prospect lists but to create
good-will among customers, actual and poten-
tial, towards the whole idea of player-piano
music. That indeed is what we really want in
this trade of ours, a mass of public interest and
good-will. It is the absence of this intelligent
interest which livs at the root of most of our
selling difficulties.
LAUTER-
HUMANA
The
Player
Piano
That
Is
Different
from
All
Others !
LAUTER GO.
NEWARK, N. J.
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).