Music Trade Review

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IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC PUBLISHING
Popular Music Is Popular Subject of
MORE PROFIT \ll DEALER
Comment in the Metropolitan Press
OUR NEW RETAIL PRICE OF
Nothing Seems to Be Going Stronger at Present Time With Newspaper Columnists
and Poets Than the Products of the Popular Music Publishers
'"jpHERE has probably never been a season
*• in which current popular songs have re-
ceived more gratuitous comment in the met-
ropolitan press. Columnists, dramatic reviewers
and even straight news writers seem to go out
of their way to mention the characteristics of
new songs that please them. Much of this
comment takes the form of generous praise, a
small portion, of course, has a slight touch of
sarcasm, but it is all valuable publicity for the
publishing world and should give the out-of-
town dealer much to think about in the way
of tie-up.
This wave of interest on the part of those
who supply the public with reading matter
can in all probability be attributed to the radio.
The song hits of the present time are heard
in nearly every home and even the so-called
"high-brows" are now conversant with the best
dance tunes of the day. It is natural that com-
ment on popular music has crept into the
many radio-review columns of the large dailies.
This being the case, the spread to other columns
of the papers has followed in turn.
Even the national magazines are showing
their interest in dance tune. Such humorous
weeklies as the New Yorker and Judge have
regular columns listing popular music rolls and
records and the "best steppers" of the month.
Here is much valuable material for the music
clerk to work with and we are informed that
one chain music concern is instructing its man-
agers to clip out the lists of best steppers and
paste them on the show windows. Streamers
asking "What Are the New Hits of the Day?"
coupled with colored arrows pointing to the
clippings on the window ought to build busi-
ness for this concern and any other which
makes use of the tie-up.
In general, the
younger generation and popular music fans are
also interested in the smarter humorous mag-
azines and are willing to accept them as an
authority.
In the case of newspaper clippings, the larger
publishers often take advantage of the free
publicity and distribute facsimile copies of the
comment to the trade. Early last month, in
fact, Leo Feist, Inc., New York, reprinted
several thousand enlarged copies of the column
entitled "Manhattan Madness," conducted by
PAUL WHITEMAN
presents a
Modern Masterpiece
For The Piano
STUDY IN BLUE
by
D. SAVINO
Now Being Featured by
PAUL WHITEMAN AND HIS
CONCERT ORCHESTRA
ROBBINS Music CORPORATION
799 Seventh Avenue. New York
•XT=
•
Robert Coleman in the New York Daily Mir-
ror, in which the new %eist hit, "Blue Heaven,"
was praised to the skies. In distributing these
to the trade an excellent opportunity for a
window tie-up was offered.
Below is a bit of humorous verse by James
J. Montague, appearing last week on the
editorial page of the New York Herald-Tribune
in that writer's column, "More Truth Than
Poetry," and which serves as a concrete ex-
ample of the type of remarks being made about
dance music:
The Musical Trend
TWENTY CENTS PER COPY
Shows a Profit of
Nearly 2 0 0 % !
OUR LINE GROWS BETTER AND SELLS
BETTER EACH YEAR!
SEND IN YOUR ORDER FOR 50 NEW
I am told that the musical classics
Are coming back into their own,
And that Haydn and Grieg do not irk and fatigue
The folks in the radio zone.
The works of the grand old composers
Are more in demand than they were,
And the palpitant tones of cornets and trombones
Are not what the people prefer.
Rut the tune I most hear is a plaintive refrain
About a poor butterfly, caught in the rain.
I am told that the jazz craze is dying—
That most of the people insist
On the marvelous st.rains that were born in the brains
Of Wagner, Beethoven and Liszt.
Syncopation has worn out its welcome
And it now has been nearly replaced
With airs of a kind that are surer to find
An echo in classical taste.
Hut the tunes that the orchestras oftenest play
Is "What do we do on a dew dewy day?"
It may be that jazz is departing;
It may—as asserted—be true
That the riotous songs played witli woodwinds and gongs
Are not pleasing to me or to you.
It may be that Mozart and Handel,
Whose future at one time looked black,
And whose work didn't sell for a rather long spell.
Are presently due to come back.
But I hear them much less than the galloping lays
Indited to hroadcast one Barbara's praise.
A mild but none-the-less real plug was af-
forded in each respective stanza to "Just Like a
Butterfly," published by Jerome H. Remick &
Co.; "Dew-Dew-Dewy Day," of Irving Berlin,
Inc., and "Barbara," of the Harms, Inc., catalog.
British Publishers Discuss
Reductions in Prices
Considerable Difference of Opinion as to
Whether Certain Price Reductions Will
Prove Beneficial to the Industry at Large
Speculation is now rife among certain British
music publishers as to whether or not the sheet
music trade will be benefited by certain reduc-
tions in prices. The question was opened with
the announcement of Ascherberg, Hopwood &
Crew that, commencing with September, new
issues of the house will be priced,at Is. 6d. in-
stead of two shillings. Some interesting edi-
torial comment on the situation is made in the
current issue of the London Music and Art
Trade Journal, throwing considerable light on
the attitude of the trade toward popular num-
bers.
"Many reasons have been given for the slump
in sheet music," states the Journal, "and the
blame has been attributed not only to price but
to wireless and the gramophone. In our opinion
all these reasons are wide of the mark. The
public do not mind paying 2s. for a piece of
music, providing it is worth that amount, but
36
SKINLEY
• 5 0 E MUSIC
CO.CZ]
A s T
s r C H I C A G O
there is much music (and otherwise) that is
published at the present time which is decidedly
dear at that price. We are not surprised that
the public refuse to pay two shillings for some
of the ephemeral stuff which we see published
month by month, and which often consists of
but four, or sometimes even only three, pages of
music, to which is added other pages (advertis-
ing more numbers of the same class) for the
purpose of bulking it out to eight pages.
"The trouble is that there are so few really
good numbers published. Jazz and syncopation,
in spite of their present-day vogue, are not
everything. The man-in-thc-street, even though
he may not be a musician, has a very good ear
for melody, and it is in this feature that so
many of the new publications are lacking. One
has only to look back, say, over the past twelve
months, and it will be noticed that the popular
'hits,' in practically every case, have been num-
bers in which there is real melody. A false
boom in a piece may be created by the super-
boosting now resorted to by some modern pub-
lishers, but it is very short-lived unless it con-
tains real melodious music."
Two New Berlin Numbers
Two fresh releases of Irving Berlin, Inc., New
York, are receiving a first-rate introductory
"plug" in Brooklyn, N. Y., this week, where
Billy Jones and Ernest Hare, the celebrated
Happiness Boys, are appearing in a comedy-
singing act at the Mark Strand Theatre. The
numbers arc "There Must Be Somebody Else"
and "I Love to Throw Brass Rings on the
Merry-Go-Round."
Both numbers have been
received exceptionally enthusiastically and con-
stitute an integral part of the act.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. I n it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.