Music Trade Review

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The Music Trade Review
REVIEW
(Registered in the U. S. Patent Office)
Published by Federated Business Publications, Inc.
at 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
President, Raymond Bill; Vice-presidents, J. B. Spillane, Randolph Brown; Secre-
tary and Treasurer, Edward Lyman Bill; Assistant Secretary, L. B. McDonald;
Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
B. BRITTAIN WILSON, Editor
RAY BILL, Associate Editor
WM. H. McCLEARY, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
FRANK L. AVERY, Circulation Manager
Executive and Reportorial Staff
£ . B. M U N C H , EDWARD VAN HARLINGEH, TIIOS. \V. BKESNAHAN, V.. J. NEALV,
FKF.MF.RKK; 15. D I E I I L , A. J. NICKLEN
WE8TKRN DIVISION:
FRANK W. KIRK, Manayct
BOSTON
OFFICE
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Republic Bldg., 209 So. State St., Chicago
Telephone, Main 6950
Telephone, Wabash 5242-5243
LONDON, ENGLAND:
1 Gresham Buildings, Basing},all, St., I). C.
NEWS SERVICE IS 81PPIJKI) WEEKLY BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN THE LEADING CITIKS THROUGHOUT AMERICA
Published Every Saturday at 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
other activity having to do with the promotion of the piano, has
not been permitted to develop possibilities to the-full unless after
the initial excitement is over some plan is devised for keeping the
public permanently interested.
There have been many movements in and out of industry
that have won immediate and striking success, but which have
failed to accomplish a definite purpose, because after the move-
ment itself had been'completed no direct effort was made to profit
by the momentum created. The same will hold good of piano
promotion work, regardless of how skillfully carried out or how
impressive the immediate results. Having started the ball rolling,
it is up to the trade to keep it rolling. The Philadelphia idea of
a permanent studio is only one of the many that should be de-
veloped in this industry of ours for the purpose of enjoying the
full reward of the extensive promotion work that has been carried
on or is at the moment being carried on or planned. A year or
two of promotion and then a long rest will mean that the industry
will simply slip back into the position it occupied before the strenu-
ous efforts to revive it were launched.
It is obviously impossible to maintain in any given locality a
concerted series of high pressure movements for the purpose of
arousing interest in the piano or of maintaining that interest. The
cost in time and money would be prohibitive and the public would
soon accept the movements as a matter of fact. What is needed
is an unsensational plan that will maintain over a period the mo-
mentum established by the more active promotion features.
Entered as second-class matter September 10, 1892, at the post office at New York, N. Y'.,
under the Act of March 3, 1879.
United State and Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada, $3.50; all other
countries, $5.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, rates on rtqtiest.
REMITTANCES, should be made payable to Music Trade Review.
Roberts to the Radio Makers
SUBSCRIPTION,
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal. . Charleston Exposition, l"02
Diploma. . ..Pan American Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal. . . . St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal—Lewis Clark Exposition, 1905
TELEPHONES—LEXINGTON 1760-1771
Cable Add re**: "Elbill, New York"
Vol. 85
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 24, 1927
Christmas
No. 26
Greetings
ITH Christmas at hand and the New Year in the offing,
The Review takes this opportunity of extending to the trade
cordial greetings for the holiday season and good wishes for a
successful and profitable New Year to come.
$
% v&
W
Permanency the Essence of Success
HE suggestion now before the Philadelphia Piano Dealers'
T
Association for action after the holiday season has passed,
namely, that a permanent Melody Way Studio for giving ele-
mentary instruction in piano playing by the group method be
established in that city under the auspices of the association, is
one that should appeal to the trade in every city where the group
instruction idea has been carried out, for it promises to provide
a means for making permanent the interest in piano playing cre-
ated by one course in group instruction, or several courses held
at intervals.
The question is not so much that of establishing a permanent
group instruction studio such as that proposed in Philadelphia,
but rather hinges on the possibilities of creating some permanent
promotion plan that will keep alive the interest in the piano con-
stantly. Just how it is done is not so important as whether it will
or can be done, for some such plan would seem necessary if pro-
motion work is to be kept up indefinitely.
Much enthusiasm has been aroused in various parts of the
country over piano-playing contests, drawing thousands of entrants,
and of group instruction classes that have not only appealed to
thousands of participants, but have, through the medium of radio,
reached other thousands who took their instruction at home. The
results in many cases have justified this enthusiasm, but the prob-
lem that now arises is how to make the interest thus aroused
permanent instead of merely a flash in the pan.
The piano trade must come to realize that the public is fickle
—in fact, so fickle that a substantial portion of it abandoned the
piano in favor of other attractions and is now being coaxed back
.nto tb« fold. The big sensation to-day is stale news to-morrow,
and -9 -contest, tournament, group instruction movement, or any
\ DECEMBER 24, 1927
N addressing the Radio Manufacturers' Association on the im-
portance and desirability of the music store as a retail outlet
for radio-receiving apparatus, President C. J. Roberts, of the
National Association of Music Merchants, took the opportunity
of speaking frankly on a number of questions that have developed
.nto what may be termed points of interest between the radio men
and the music merchants. But he was fair in his analysis of the
situation as it existed and does exist and offered much food for
thought for both the music dealer and the radio man.
The radio manufacturer and jobber have on occasion been
inclined to argue that the music merchants, being accustomed to
dealing in units of rather high value and in products that required
very little servicing after once having been placed in the customers'
hands, were not inclined to push radio aggressively, but handled
it simply as a protective sideline. Yet, as has been pointed out
by Mr. Roberts and has previously been emphasized by others,
there have been many changes for better in the radio situation
during the past couple of years with the growth and stabilization
of the industry. In the first place, the service problem has been
curtailed materially, and in the second place radio manufacturers
are producing instruments that in value and general artistic ap-
pearance measure up with many of the products handled in the
average music store. Then, too, there have been eliminated in a
large measure various evils, such as the violation of territorial
agreements, the selling at wholesale to every Tom, Dick and Harry,
and the changing of prices and models on an overnight basis. In
other words, radio has ceased to be an unorganized fad and has
developed into a sound business.
It has been pointed out, too, that the music merchant is par-
ticularly well equipped to handle radio to particular advantage.
In the first place he has an establishment already devoted to music,
and the appeal of radio is primarily musical. Secondly, he has,
or should have, a substantial following among the music lovers of
his community, which means that his field is already prepared.
And third, he has long and successful experience in handling in-
stalment accounts successfully and profitably, which is of particular
advantage in handling the more elaborate radio receivers on the
market to-day.
There have been several efforts made to bring about a better
understanding and perhaps a closer relationship between the radio
trade and the other branches of the music industry. Frank talks,
such as that given by Mr. Roberts before the radio manufacturers
last week, are designed to aid materially in bringing about this
better understanding, and it is to be hoped that at the next annual
convention of the music industries some part of the program at
least will be given over to a discussion of radio matters.
I