Music Trade Review

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The Reproducer
Is Appealing to a Wider Market
Advent of Lower Price Reproducing Pianos, Such as the
Baby Ampico, Foot-power Welte (Licensee), and Foot-
Impelled Duo-Art Creates New Selling Field for Dealers
F late there have been two very inter-
esting happenings in the world of the
reproducing piano. The foot-power
Welte (Licensee), the Baby Ampico and the
foot-impelled Duo-Art are their embodiments.
They portend, these new instruments, a change
in the alignment of the reproducing piano busi-
ness; and one may discern in their coming
some almost inevitable refraction of the aim
and direction of the whole player business.
We may, in fact, be entering again upon a new
era. This is worth considering.
For one thing, the arrival of these new in-
struments tends to bring reproducing pianos
within the reach of a larger circle of potential
buyers. Obvious as this is, the fact remains,
nevertheless, that we have first to discover
whether the appeal of the reproducer will be
as strong among these larger circles as it has
been, in its larger and more elaborate and
beautiful forms, among the richer and more
exclusive classes. The answer is not so simple
as it might appear, upon superficial examination,
to be.
The reproducing piano, in fact, is not at all
like the player-piano. Even the foot-played
reproducer is not the same as a regular player-
piano. For the reproducer abolishes the human
element entirely so far as the exercise of will
power is concerned. Whether electrically or
pedally driven, the part taken in its operation
by the human owner is purely mechanical, and
in the one case momentary as well. The in-
strument plays and the owner listens. That is
the point.
The Real Question
Now the real question is how far the existing
musical tastes of the American public can be
expected to respond to the appeal of a lower-
priced instrument able to give it the best in
piano playing. The musical tastes of the ma-
jority are not highly cultivated; they are, in
fact, not yet cultivated at all. They are capable
of cultivation, nevertheless, and it is evident
that if these new and less expensive repro-
ducers are introduced by intelligent salesman-
ship, they will do a lot to stimulate interest in
piano music, which indeed will help us all.
On the contrary, if they are sold merely on
their price, with only indirect stressing of the
details of what they do open to the owner in
terms of fine piano playing—if, in fact, the
aspirational side, as it were, is wholly or mainly
neglected—there will probably be a disappoint-
ing public response.
This is just another of these cases where
the manner of selling will be everything. So
far the reproducing piano has been sold mainly
to those who can afford a relatively high price
for something superlatively fine. It has, in
consequence, gone into the homes mainly of
those who have some musical appreciation,
active or passive. For in the United States it
happens to be true that culture and riches
move together. At least, this is nearly enough
a law of our social nature to be a practical
guide. But in opening up the reproducer to
larger circles of prospective buyers this social
law must not be overlooked. For if it be
overlooked we are likely to find that the re-
producer will not sell so well among the masses.
O
"If millionaires buy this stuff and use it, why
should not you also?"
A principle like to this lies behind any in-
telligent exploitation of the popular-priced re-
producer. The first point is that the new
instrument uses the same music as the other
and higher-priced instruments use. Hence, it
becomes the same thing in a smaller package.
Hence, again, the magnificence of music which
Mr. Millionaire can have has become also avail-
able to Mr. Plain Smith and still more to Mrs.
l'lain Smith. The name value is there in both
cases and what has been built up in the way
of name value is not sacrificed.
Plain Common Sense
N developing a market for this new type
So much is powerful enough, but at that the
of reproducing piano, the fundamental merchant must realize that unless he can
/
question is essentially one of intelligeni capitalize on the name value he is no better
demonstration.
Intelligent
demonstration off for having a lower-priced reproducer. He
in this case is essentially a question of de- must be able to get his new army of prospec-
tive buyers to take an interest in the musical
veloping
further
musical
appreciation product which the reproducer of any kind
among the masses of the people, for without offers. If the buying public, to whose purses
a development of this kind, the reproducing the reproducer becomes attractive, does not take,
piano, no matter its type or its price, uili and will not take, any interest in fine piano
not sell. A hit-or-miss merchandising policy playing, then there is not much use in offering
with these new instruments is likely to do in- reproducing pianos for sale, at any price, to
them. And that seems to be plain common
calculable harm to their selling possibilities sense.
Thus it all comes back again to intelligent
demonstration. What the reproducing piano,
iike the player-piano, above all needs is intel-
This is a point which the dealers will do well ligent demonstration. What it is not getting
to heed.
is just this. These things simply will not sell
Nor should there be any preliminary shudder- themselves, at least in quantities large enough
ing at the awful thought that dealers may have to make the business of selling profitable. The
to do some educational work. Every dealer lower-priced ones, on any hit-and-miss policy,
in every other new line has to do much the are likely to be less salable than the high-
same thing, even though it be the manufacturer priced ones. For the latter will always be
who stages the demonstrations and does all the bought by some who will buy because they
real hard preliminary work. What has sold have the money and because another rich man
the reproducer so far among those who are down the street has one. Again, the bulk of
willing to pay good money for the very best the music appreciation is among the richer
has been nothing more or less than the ex- classes, that is, the bulk of the active apprecia-
traordinarily clever and shrewd, high-class tion. The others have plenty of it latent, but
exploitation which has been done by the great the merchants who expect to sell reproducing
manufacturers. And what has been done in pianos to these masses will have to foster the
this way must also be done with lower-priced bud into bloom. If they don't they will be
popular reproducers, in another way, in a way out of luck. And that is the secret of the whole
different in degree but not different in kind.
.situation.
In other words, the masses are not very
musical. Now, to care about owning a repro-
ducing piano one must have some desire to
listen to piano music. Nor will it do to say
that dance music and arrangements of popular
songs will take the place of other appreciations.
The piano by itself cannot take the place of
the electric phonograph or of the radio receiving
set as a dispenser of dance music. If it be
dance music only which is wanted, then the
reproducer will not be much better off among
the masses than is the manual piano to-day.
The Appeal Oblique
Some time ago a lecturer on advertising
spoke of the publicity methods used by a manu-
facturer of a sort of substitute for linoleum,
which consists apparently merely of builders'
paper backed and surface-finished, the finish in-
cluding cleverly designed decorative patterns.
Wherever one goes among the pages of those
magazines and periodicals which circulate among
the masses, one finds beautiful pictures of these
products adorning the floors of lovely living,
dining and bed rooms in lovely houses. But
do the inhabitants of houses like these really
adorn their floors with such coverings? One
may venture to doubt it. Yet the advertising
pays. Why? Because to those who are in ihe
market potentially for floor coverings of this
kind the copy suggests that the "rugs" look
well in high-class, House-and-Garden, Home-
Beautiful-like rooms, and, therefore, a fortiori
will look well in your humble room. Or again,
Government Buys Spruce
WASHINGTON, D. C, January 24.—Negotiations
are being made for the acquisition of the larg-
est Eastern stand of spruce timber that is avail-
able for purchase by the Government. The tract
under consideration lies in the White Mountain
National Forest area and comprises 22,533
acres of spruce timber. The Waterville tract
changed hands a year ago, the purchase price
being given as $1,000,000. The present own-
ers expect to begin logging operations this year,
but have offered to sell the land and timber to
the Government at cost plus interest and taxes.
Take Over Business
E. R. Palmer and Jerome Truesdale have
taken over the business of the Standard Piano
Co., of Bridgeton, N. J.