Music Trade Review
Issue: 1926 Vol. 82 N. 9 - Page 9
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
FEBRUARY 27, 1926
THE MUSIC TRADE
9
REVIEW
Survival Value of the Player-Piano
Shows Its Sales Appeals
The Player-Piano a Positive Dynamic Thing With the Double Sales Appeal to the Prospective Buyer Who
Simply Wishes to Listen to Music and the Prospective Buyer Who Wishes to Create
Music for Himself — An Instrument Unique in That Double Appeal
LJITE by accident, as such things some-
times happen, a text comes to hand upon
which to build some thoughts about
player-piano merchandising, at a moment when
good and clear thinking is very much needed.
A musician, a violinist in fact, wrote the other
day to the technical editor of The Review ask-
ing some information as to the makers of a
certain player-piano which he possesses and
which requires some replacements. After mak-
ing his simple inquiry this musician goes on
to say that he is now deaf and that, for this
reason (to use his own words) "it is through
the player-piano that I get the most pleasure in
music. Of all the mechanical instruments, I
think the player-piano is the greatest."
These words are quoted verbatim and were
certainly written by one who had no idea that
they might ever form the text of an article in a
trade paper. They are, in fact, the unpremeditated
and perfectly sincere utterance of a member of
the great public, of that public which buys our
goods, which uses them and which determines
ultimately how much profit we shall make, if
any, and whether indeed we stay in business
at all.
In our trade paper discussions we are always
tending to forget this buying public and to be-
come highly technical and doctrinaire, as if the
people existed rather for the industry than the
industry for the people.
One testimony does not go very far; but one
single positive testimony in any direction is
always of more value than a dozen indications
of a negative character. Whenever one hears
the owner of a player-piano say that he or she
derives pleasure from playing it, then one knows
that the claims made for the player-piano are
to that extent sound and well founded.
The New Dogma
There seems to be a belief throughout the re-
tail end of the industry to the effect that buyers
do not learn, indeed either cannot, or will not,
learn, to make any rational use of the player-
piano. This seems to have become almost a
dogma among merchants, especially those mer-
chants who have neve|£mgfcle a success of player-
piano merchandising.*'t&tf the other hand, it is
impossible to withstand the force of the evi-
dence which p|les up on the positive side, so
soon as one Hilces the trouble to look for it.
Merchants may; be j§fejsimistic if they please,
and may say that J l is absurd and impractical
to suppose that the buying public possesses any-
thing in the nature of good sense or intelligence;
but the facts contradict them every time.
Survival Value
O
For instance, it is a well-known fact that the
player-piano of simple design and moderate
price has survived every crisis, every storm,
every change of fashion. The player-piano
industry long sir^ce touched bottom, long since
became virtually "standardized, long since showed
itself the best organized and the steadiest
department of all the greater industry to which
it belongs. Manufacturers during last year,
when the grand piano market was considerably
disorganized and price competition was only too
common among factories, had no trouble in
keeping up their player production. The straight
player-piano, in fact, is being sold right along,
and in a volume which remains remarkably
steady despite every kind of competition bo'th
inside and outside the piano field. There must
be a reason for this,
•-•_ - - - .
There is a reason, and a very good reason.
It is to be found in the simple fact that the
player-piano gives its owner something that
every human being likes and wants; the oppor-
tunity to take part in a game.
The argument of course is old and has been
made a thousand times. It may be expressed
by the statements that a self-driving automobile
would not be popular with the masses of the
people, that half the fun of radio listening-in is
in the twiddling of dials, that dancing on the
floor is more popular than sitting on the side
lines and watching others dance. The player-
piano, in a word, enables its owner to take part
in, nay, to control, the production of his own
music. The player-piano gives a man or a
woman the sense of directing, controlling and
expressing something (music) which is deeply
rooted in the nature of every normal being.
And that is why the player-piano survives,
despite unintelligent handling, despite unskilled
salesmanship, despite the decline of good
demonstration, despite every possible obstacle
that misdirected ingenuity has been able to pul
in front of it.
No Wonder!
No wonder our unknown musician says that
"of all automatic instruments the player-piano
is the greatest!" He knows what he means.
He knows that the player-piano is a positive
dynamic thing, that through its mechanism he,
a violinist, can play the piano, and play it
tolerably at least, if not more than tolerably
well. He gets a living dynamic pleasure out of
its use. And he does not stand alone.
No indeed! There are hundreds of thousands
like him. And those merchants who realize
this truth and build on it, who know both that
these men and women do in their thousands
like the player-piano, and why they like it, are
making good to-day and have been making
good for twenty years past, at the distribution
of this instrument in the communities which
they serve.
Let those who would set this aside as all
mere enthusiasm ponder the simple fact that
no tuner, no service man to-day dares to under-
take a general community practice unless he is
competent to undertake the repair and main-
tenance of player-pianos. The reproducing
piano indeed is becoming just as important to
the service man, but the fact remains that the
straight player-piano furnishes the mass of his
pneumatic work, which work he dare not ignore
or even neglect, if he would occupy a sure place
in his community. Let those who would deny
the living power in the industry of the player-
piano of simple design, moderate price and
pedal control, look back over the records of
manufacturers and see how this instrument has
held its place. Facts are stubborn, and in this
case their stubbornness is not to be argued or
laughed away, but to be respected and inves-
tigated. For, as the late, lamented Post grew
rich by saying, "There's a reason."
And the Answer!
And there is also an answer. Piano mer-
chants have been paying scant attention to the
player-piano since they have had other things
to think of, since they have had low-priced
small grands, reproducing pianos and miniature
uprights. But wisdom never cares for past
mistakes if future errors may be avoided. In
this case they may, for it is only necessary to
go to first principles once more. The way to
sell more player-pianos is to sell the game of
playing the player-piano. That and that only
is the secret, at once the simplest and the most
subtle the piano industry ever had to hold
within itself. Sell the game of playing the
player-piano, and you will sell more player-
pianos than your store will hold!
Manufacturers want to make and sell more
player-pianos, merchants want more profits
from the effort of selling. The desire of each
may be realized. The player-piano will never
die of itself; it will have to be killed, if it is
to die at all.
Plan New Music Department
YOUNGSTOWN, O., February 23.—Musical mer-
chandise, pianos and talking machines will be
the regular lines with the new department store
to be opened here late this year by the newly
formed Goldsmith Corp., I. G. Goldsmith, for-
merly manager of the Strouss-Hirshberg Co.,
well-known local department store. This store
will open about August. A location has been
secured in East Federal street.
Pratt Read
Products
P i a n o Ivory
Piano Keys
P i a n o Actions
Player Actions
Established in
1806
at Deep River, Conn.
Still There
Standard Service and Highest
Quality
Special Repair Departments
Maintained for Convenience
of Dealers
PRATT, READ & CO.
THE PRATT READ
PLAYER ACTION CO.
Oldest and Best
FEBRUARY 27, 1926
THE MUSIC TRADE
9
REVIEW
Survival Value of the Player-Piano
Shows Its Sales Appeals
The Player-Piano a Positive Dynamic Thing With the Double Sales Appeal to the Prospective Buyer Who
Simply Wishes to Listen to Music and the Prospective Buyer Who Wishes to Create
Music for Himself — An Instrument Unique in That Double Appeal
LJITE by accident, as such things some-
times happen, a text comes to hand upon
which to build some thoughts about
player-piano merchandising, at a moment when
good and clear thinking is very much needed.
A musician, a violinist in fact, wrote the other
day to the technical editor of The Review ask-
ing some information as to the makers of a
certain player-piano which he possesses and
which requires some replacements. After mak-
ing his simple inquiry this musician goes on
to say that he is now deaf and that, for this
reason (to use his own words) "it is through
the player-piano that I get the most pleasure in
music. Of all the mechanical instruments, I
think the player-piano is the greatest."
These words are quoted verbatim and were
certainly written by one who had no idea that
they might ever form the text of an article in a
trade paper. They are, in fact, the unpremeditated
and perfectly sincere utterance of a member of
the great public, of that public which buys our
goods, which uses them and which determines
ultimately how much profit we shall make, if
any, and whether indeed we stay in business
at all.
In our trade paper discussions we are always
tending to forget this buying public and to be-
come highly technical and doctrinaire, as if the
people existed rather for the industry than the
industry for the people.
One testimony does not go very far; but one
single positive testimony in any direction is
always of more value than a dozen indications
of a negative character. Whenever one hears
the owner of a player-piano say that he or she
derives pleasure from playing it, then one knows
that the claims made for the player-piano are
to that extent sound and well founded.
The New Dogma
There seems to be a belief throughout the re-
tail end of the industry to the effect that buyers
do not learn, indeed either cannot, or will not,
learn, to make any rational use of the player-
piano. This seems to have become almost a
dogma among merchants, especially those mer-
chants who have neve|£mgfcle a success of player-
piano merchandising.*'t&tf the other hand, it is
impossible to withstand the force of the evi-
dence which p|les up on the positive side, so
soon as one Hilces the trouble to look for it.
Merchants may; be j§fejsimistic if they please,
and may say that J l is absurd and impractical
to suppose that the buying public possesses any-
thing in the nature of good sense or intelligence;
but the facts contradict them every time.
Survival Value
O
For instance, it is a well-known fact that the
player-piano of simple design and moderate
price has survived every crisis, every storm,
every change of fashion. The player-piano
industry long sir^ce touched bottom, long since
became virtually "standardized, long since showed
itself the best organized and the steadiest
department of all the greater industry to which
it belongs. Manufacturers during last year,
when the grand piano market was considerably
disorganized and price competition was only too
common among factories, had no trouble in
keeping up their player production. The straight
player-piano, in fact, is being sold right along,
and in a volume which remains remarkably
steady despite every kind of competition bo'th
inside and outside the piano field. There must
be a reason for this,
•-•_ - - - .
There is a reason, and a very good reason.
It is to be found in the simple fact that the
player-piano gives its owner something that
every human being likes and wants; the oppor-
tunity to take part in a game.
The argument of course is old and has been
made a thousand times. It may be expressed
by the statements that a self-driving automobile
would not be popular with the masses of the
people, that half the fun of radio listening-in is
in the twiddling of dials, that dancing on the
floor is more popular than sitting on the side
lines and watching others dance. The player-
piano, in a word, enables its owner to take part
in, nay, to control, the production of his own
music. The player-piano gives a man or a
woman the sense of directing, controlling and
expressing something (music) which is deeply
rooted in the nature of every normal being.
And that is why the player-piano survives,
despite unintelligent handling, despite unskilled
salesmanship, despite the decline of good
demonstration, despite every possible obstacle
that misdirected ingenuity has been able to pul
in front of it.
No Wonder!
No wonder our unknown musician says that
"of all automatic instruments the player-piano
is the greatest!" He knows what he means.
He knows that the player-piano is a positive
dynamic thing, that through its mechanism he,
a violinist, can play the piano, and play it
tolerably at least, if not more than tolerably
well. He gets a living dynamic pleasure out of
its use. And he does not stand alone.
No indeed! There are hundreds of thousands
like him. And those merchants who realize
this truth and build on it, who know both that
these men and women do in their thousands
like the player-piano, and why they like it, are
making good to-day and have been making
good for twenty years past, at the distribution
of this instrument in the communities which
they serve.
Let those who would set this aside as all
mere enthusiasm ponder the simple fact that
no tuner, no service man to-day dares to under-
take a general community practice unless he is
competent to undertake the repair and main-
tenance of player-pianos. The reproducing
piano indeed is becoming just as important to
the service man, but the fact remains that the
straight player-piano furnishes the mass of his
pneumatic work, which work he dare not ignore
or even neglect, if he would occupy a sure place
in his community. Let those who would deny
the living power in the industry of the player-
piano of simple design, moderate price and
pedal control, look back over the records of
manufacturers and see how this instrument has
held its place. Facts are stubborn, and in this
case their stubbornness is not to be argued or
laughed away, but to be respected and inves-
tigated. For, as the late, lamented Post grew
rich by saying, "There's a reason."
And the Answer!
And there is also an answer. Piano mer-
chants have been paying scant attention to the
player-piano since they have had other things
to think of, since they have had low-priced
small grands, reproducing pianos and miniature
uprights. But wisdom never cares for past
mistakes if future errors may be avoided. In
this case they may, for it is only necessary to
go to first principles once more. The way to
sell more player-pianos is to sell the game of
playing the player-piano. That and that only
is the secret, at once the simplest and the most
subtle the piano industry ever had to hold
within itself. Sell the game of playing the
player-piano, and you will sell more player-
pianos than your store will hold!
Manufacturers want to make and sell more
player-pianos, merchants want more profits
from the effort of selling. The desire of each
may be realized. The player-piano will never
die of itself; it will have to be killed, if it is
to die at all.
Plan New Music Department
YOUNGSTOWN, O., February 23.—Musical mer-
chandise, pianos and talking machines will be
the regular lines with the new department store
to be opened here late this year by the newly
formed Goldsmith Corp., I. G. Goldsmith, for-
merly manager of the Strouss-Hirshberg Co.,
well-known local department store. This store
will open about August. A location has been
secured in East Federal street.
Pratt Read
Products
P i a n o Ivory
Piano Keys
P i a n o Actions
Player Actions
Established in
1806
at Deep River, Conn.
Still There
Standard Service and Highest
Quality
Special Repair Departments
Maintained for Convenience
of Dealers
PRATT, READ & CO.
THE PRATT READ
PLAYER ACTION CO.
Oldest and Best
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