Music Trade Review

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Radio and Records
Real Sales Aids to Each Other
Increased Phonograph Record Sales Can Be Traced to Interest
Aroused by the Radio Set—How A. H. Mayers Develops the Sale
of the Record With the Customer Who Has a Radio Set at Home
T is by no means uncommon these days to few who have season boxes at the opera or con-
find music merchants reporting marked in- servatory educations.
creases in their sales of phonograph records
"It is for this reason that we feel that radio
as compared with corresponding periods of re- has helped and will continue to help the record
cent years. Many firms, in fact, have d6ubled
trade and our task is simply to show the music-
or tripled the amount of record business done in lover that he need only to name his preferences
the two or three years preceding the advent of
electrical recording. A boost in record business,
and a big one, was to be expected with the in-
r
troduction of improved new phonograph units
i *HERE are many retail music stores
and modern recording methods on the part
**• which trace the development in their
of the large manufacturers, but many dealers
claim that the present activity of their record talking machine record sales directly to the
departments exceeds their most optimistic ex- interest aroused in music through radio
pectations.
broadcast programs. On this page is told
One New York concern in particular, the A. the story of a New York firm which has
H. Mayers organization, operating a chain of
steadily utilized this condition and as a re-
four music stores in the metropolitan area, has sult reports that thus far this year its record
been keeping accurate statistics of its record
sales and reports that in the first four months sales have shown an increase of 25 per cent
of this year the record departments have shown over the same period for the previous year.
a 25 per cent increase over 1926. This is note-
worthy in that last year the department showed
a consistent profit, that being the first full year
after the development of the new type of
and we can give him what he wants. First of
records.
all, of course, we must get him into the store.
"It has been our experience that nearly half
Executives of the Mayers company state that
they are not sitting idly by and waiting for the of the customers who patronize our radio acces-
business to grow as a matter of course. On the sory counter are potential record-buyers, be-
contrary, they attribute much of the present cause they are radio fans. Our salesmen are
growth of record business to the efforts they trained to ask the customer if he owns a phono-
are making to hold customers and create new graph in such a way as to be inoffensive. Many
ones. Many of their ideas are worthy of con- persons will answer that they have not used
their phonograph for years or have put it in the
sideration and represent a careful study of
attic or storeroom. To this the salesman will
present-day conditions.
"A year or two ago," said William Mayers, say that he doesn't understand how any real
manager of the company's store at 861 Eighth radio fan can afford to be without a phonograph
avenue, "we grew aware that a new class of these days, because most of the radio stars arc
record buyers was coming into our store. I am recording.
"The salesman will ask the customer if he has
referring to a newly created group of music-
lovers, whose interest in various types of music any radio favorites, such as the Happiness
has been stimulated by the radio. It would be Boys, Wendell Hall, Art Gillham, Radio Franks,
safe, I think, to estimate that this class aver- etc., and is certain to find that some of these
ages several hundred to each thousand of radio are among them. The salesman will then ask
the patron if he is aware that most of the
fans.
"Every one knows of dozens of people who celebrities of the air are now making records
had little if any interest in music a few years and will add, 'You know why the phonograph
ago, but who now listen in nightly to pro- people have secured these artists, don't you?
grams by the very best orchestras in the coun- Simply because they wanted to meet the de-
try. Not every listener but the true music- mand of the radio public, who became ac-
lovers among them have developed definite quainted and drawn to them over the air.'
"So saying, the salesman has withdrawn a
preferences for certain compositions and a will-
ingness to hear any selection of good music Brunswick record made by Wendell Hall, and
at least once. Their who*le attitude toward invites the customer to a demonstration booth.
music has changed and thev now realize that 'You probably realize that Wendell Hall doesn't
musical enjoyment is not relegated to the select sing in New York every night or even every
I
ESTABLISHED 1862
month,' he will say, placing the record on a
Panatrope. 'In fact, he may be in California this
very minute, but I can tune him in any time at
all with a talking machine. When you finish
with that record, let me play one made by the
Radio Franks, you can't get them on your radio
any more, because they don't sing together
nowadays.'
"These tactics may sound cut-and-dried, but
they actually work," continued Mr. Mayers.
"Of course, occasionally the procedure is dif-
ferent; a man may be interested only in dance
music. This is an easy class to interest in
records, in fact, they come into the store fre-
quently to ask the name of a jazz selection be-
ing played on a record through the sidewalk
demonstrator. Anyone coming into the store in
this way is invited to a booth to hear the record
privately with no obligation to buy, but we have
found that he generally docs buy the record.
"The richest field is in interesting the lover of
symphonic or operatic music, who has gained
his insight through his radio experience. There
will be plenty of selections by his favorite com-
poser that he has never heard because he never
happened to tune in at the right time. His eyes
will light up when he hears a full symphony
over the improved phonograph, free of static
and reproducing perfectly the tone of each in-
strument. You understand that our salesmen
never talk against the radio, because it is an in-
tegral part of our business. We simply point
out that the radio can't do everything and that
there are distinct advantages in owning a
phonograph as well."
Another point brought out by Mr. Mayers
applies to inducing record buyers to vary their
selections occasionally and thus widen their
range of musical enjoyment. He classifies the
record-buying public as follows: 1. Buyers of
classical music. 2. Buyers of semi-classical and
ballad music. 3. Buyers of dance music and
popular songs. He states that it is surprising
how many of the firm's customers are inter-
ested only in records of a certain taste. En-
thusiasts of popular music rarely listen to a
classical or semi-classical selection and vice-
versa.
"We have found by experiment," he stated,
"that it is an easy matter to switch a man's in-
terest from class to class, and often, by playing
a tuneful ballad for a person mainly interested
in operatic records, we create a new buyer for
that class of records. In the same way, we can
get a buyer of these classes to become inter-
(Continued on page 9)
L'A.UTER
NEWARK, N. J
ONE OF AMERICA'S FINE PIANOS
GRANDS
UPRIGHTS
THE LAUTER-HUMANA