Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MARCH 27,
1926
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Individuality Versus Solidarity in the
Development of an Industry
Rampant Individuality in Industry, Involving a Denial of the Obligation and Responsibility of Each Member
of It for Its General Welfare, Destructive of Public Confidence, the Greatest of Its Assets—
The Application of These Statements to the Music Industries
W
HAT makes an industry? Is there a community, in fact to identify himself by some-
sort of personality which may gradu- thing else than mere cold-blooded self-interest
ally be assumed by an industry, as with the industry as a whole
apart from and beyond the individual personali-
That is the point. In our deliberate opinion,
ties of the men who compose it?
such an obligation does exist. Not only does it
The questions are not merely academic. exist, we are convinced, but it is essential to
They are provoked by very practical considera- the very existence of the whole industry. The
tions. The particular reference in this case is moment that the majority of retailers abandon
to the player-piano industry and the specific it the industry will be on its death-bed.
question with regard to it which now arises is
This is only another way of saying that a
whether its manufacturers, dealers, salesmen man not only ought to be proud of his industry
and tuners have any duty or obligation towards but is under a direct moral obligation to do his
it as a sort of super-personality to which they own part in making it something to be proud
owe some sort of allegiance.
of. It is only another way of saying that the
For in truth there is very much of a doubt industry is bigger than the individual and that
in the minds of many as to whether there is he who goes into it places himself, upon his
any sense at all in preaching to, say, the retail- entrance, in a position of direct and definite
ers about the best way to promote the interests moral obligation to hold up its standards.
of the industry and thus the volume of sales.
Those Who Don't "Belong"
It is urged by some thinkers that in reality the
Those who think that this sort of thing is all
retail merchant is not, and in the nature of the nonsense may be excellent persons in all sorts
case cannot be, interested in any relation he of ways, but they do not belong in the player
may conceivably hold to the industry, save that business, or indeed in any business which de-
of a cold-blooded and impartial distributor for pends in any way upon the confidence reposed
profit.
in it by the public. There are industries per-
If this belief be well founded, then of course haps, or at least there are lines of business,
there is no such thing as demanding that the where such obligations do not exist. For in-
retailer do this or that about the business of sell- stance, there is the business of playing the races;
ing players and reproducers. The retailer, on this yet even here one finds that the bookmaker
view, is merely a distributor whose sole interest must hold the confidence of his clients if he is
is to seek the quickest and easiest seller, quite to succeed. And one hears that even among
regardless whether a certain type or class or bootleggers there are gradations of respecta-
item of sale be advantageous to the industry, bility, so that a man who voluntarily takes no
or on the contrary totally destructive in its care to assure himself that his clients are get-
effects. In a word, if the view we are discuss- ting non-poisonous liquid to drink, is regarded
ing be well founded, the dealer need not, will by his colleagues as out of the company of the
not, and perhaps should not care what he sells high-class.
so long as he sells something that yields a
In fact it is really very hard, when one be-
profit. If the thing in question is of such a gins to investigate, to find any sort of a busi-
nature as by its cheapness, its bad quality, or ness which is so utterly soulless as to impose
other defect, its continued sale would in upon its devotees nothing in the way of a moral
time break down the industry entirely, that is obligation. And if there be any business or
no business of the retailer. His sole business industry which completely depends upon that
is to sell whatever he can sell most easily, confidence on the part of the public of which
leaving the responsibility up to the manufac- we have spoken, and which therefore most
turer of supplying what will best build up the powerfully ought to impose upon the recipients
latter's -interests.
of that confidence a heavy duty of obligation, it
is the music industry.
Brutal and Even Foolish
Selling Music is Selling Confidence
It is a cold-blooded view and one which, set
Indeed, the music industries impose obliga-
down on paper, looks unbelievably brutal. Yet
it is held by many, perhaps not by a majority tions of a weight and imperiousness hardly to
in our industry, but certainly by a respectable be equaled. For the selling of music is the
minority, as is evidenced by the very facts of selling of confidence more than of anything
the case, facts notorious and openly discussed else. What does the average buyer know about
a piano, a player-piano or a reproducing piano?
among merchants and in the trade papers.
Now, there is a good deal of talk going on Nothing, or next to nothing. What has been
about sales promotion. A great deal is be- the principal motive behind the permanent poli-
ing said about the need to build up sales cies of the great manufacturing houses for so
by building up love for music among the many years past? The erection of a structure
buying public. All of it is good talk, for as to of public confidence and good will, on the
the needs of the case there is no divergence strength of which a merchant can safely plan
of opinion. Every one is agreed that some- his own retail business edifice, knowing that it
thing'must be done. The great and only diffi- will not fail him. What then is to be said of
culty is to discover what that thing should be. men who deliberately lend themselves to dis-
Which again brings before us this question: creditable, destructive and morally indefensible
Has an industry, has our industry, a sort of sales methods? Nothing, save that they are
personality, as it were, a sort of existence apart traitors, who care nothing for obligation and
from our individual selves, to which we, indi- nothing for the industry which supports and
vidually, owe allegiance? Is the fact that Smith sometimes enriches them.
Nevertheless, even such men (and a few of
or Brown is a piano merchant selling a line of
players and reproducers in itself tantamount to them there are) must be interested in sales. The
an obligation upon that gentleman to hold up argument for sales is the most potent of busi-
a certain standard, to take precautions to as- ness arguments and what provokes a decline in
sure the standing of these instruments in the sales is always feared when once it has been
recognized. Well, if any one thing is certain
it is that unintelligent devotion to the "cold-
blooded" method does not sell player-pianos.
Must Love Music
The man who is to sell player-pianos suc-
cessfully must love music, even though he be
no musician. He must possess genuine enthusi-
asm for his work and genuine desire to do only
good things in it. He must hate to think of
selling a cheap and unreliable intrument when
by better salesmanship he could have sold a
good and reliable one. He must be able to dis-
tinguish between the truth and the falsehood of
the popular gospel of "giving the public what
the public wants." He must, in short, realize
that he is a member of an honorable industry,
and that to fool the public, even tf the public
likes to be fooled, is neither honorable nor
even practically wise. For an industry has a
personality and those who belong to it have an
obligation to keep it clean.
Texas Dealers Receive
Panatropes by Airplane
Corsicana Merchant Receives First Instrument
From Dallas Via the Aerial Route
When the first shipment of Brunswick
Panatropes arrived at the Brunswick branch
offices at Dallas, Tex., Reese & Sons, Brunswick
Shipping Panatrope by Airplane
representatives at Corsicana, Tex., became im-
patient to have one of the new instruments.
Scorning the conventional means of transporta-
tion, arrangement was made with Pilot Charles
Pedley, popular aviator of that vicinity, to fly
to Dallas for the purpose of picking up the in-
strument.
In addition to the quick delivery, the novelty
of the idea of a musical instrument being de-
livered via air created a great deal of interest
in Corsicana and resulted in considerable front-
page publicity. The accompanying illustration
shows Pilot Pedley delivering the Panatrope to
Mr. Reese.
Fine Brunswick Department
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA., March 19.—Among the
features of the new $400,000 building of the
Harbour, Longmeyer Co., which will be occu-
pied in the near future by this successful furni-
ture house, is the completely equipped Bruns-
wick department on the ground floor. The com-
pany has recently contracted to handle the
Brunswick line and has outlined an extensive
promotional campaign on the Panatrope as part
of its opening.
The store of Chickering & Sons in Boston
has sold to Wellesley College a new Chickering
Style F grand for use by the T. Z. E. Society
of that college.