Music Trade Review
Issue: 1927 Vol. 85 N. 5 - Page 4
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The Music Trade Review
H. Edgar French on the Relation of
Repossessions to Ultimate Net Profits
President of the Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New Castle, Ind., Analyzes This Rela-
tion in Regard to Uprights, Grands. Players and Phonographs
t_T
EDGAR FRENCH, president of the
Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New-
castle, Ind., who has made a careful study of
the piano trade situation, from both the stand-
point of the manufacturer and the retailer, is
of the opinion that the cause of the present
slowing up of business is primarily to be found
in the fact that for years there has been a
tremendous amount of advertising of low
prices, low terms, nothing down and the like,
with a comparatively small amount of adver-
tising being given to the emphasizing of the
value of music in the home.
"A great deal of this false advertising," said
Mr. French, "has been used to exploit the
player-piano as something easy to buy and so
easy to play that a little baby could make you
think 'Paderewski was in the next room,' for-
getting entirely that the player-piano is really
a musical instrument and should be played for
the primary purpose of obtaining really musical
results. Furthermore, one of the greatest de-
lights in music is the ability to perform to suit
one's self.
"With this idea in mind, I checked over a
large amount of business and found that re-
possessions were on a much greater scale in
talking machines, where the machine did all
the work, than in player-pianos, where the
owner did some of the work, and that the
percentage was still less in upright pianos and
practically nil in the grand business, where the
instruments, or practically all of them, reach
real musicians. These facts were brought to
iight recently in checking up sales expenses
and general sales indications for the year 1926,
in connection with a large retail concern.
"The firm sold at retail approximately $25,000
worth of grand pianos during the year 1926,
and a little more than 1 per cent (not even \ l / 2
per cent) of that amount covered the reposses-
sions on grand pianos for the entire year. A
total of $60,000 of new upright piano business
had less than 10 per cent of this amount
charged against repossessions of uprights. The
firm, however, had $40,000 of player sales, and
of this amount 15 per cent came into the
repossession account. In the talking machine
department, with $100,000 of sales, 30 per cent
iif these sales were charged back as reposses-
sions.
"These arc actual figures. It is said, 'A
word to the wise is sufficient.' If any piano
City Officials Together With Musical, Civic and
Business Organizations to Co-operate With
Trade in Big Affair
H. Edgar French
man will total his figures and find a situation
such as this existing, i. e., 1 per cent of grand
sales, 10 per cent of upright sales, 15 per cent
of player sales and 30 per cent of phonograph
sales— (in dollars) to be repossessed, it is hard
lo understand how he can do anything else
but get behind his sales of straight uprights
and grands and push them ahead of everything
else, in fact, push them almost to the exclusion
of other business.
"This is rather harsh, perhaps, but as this
is the existing condition why not face it in
Stands First Among Pianos
m
Homes, Theatres, Churches, Schools
More Kimball pianos are in use in American
homes than any other name.
The Kimball is preeminent among the largest
Theatres and in thousands of Schools and
Colleges.
-
-
CHICAGO
-
DETROIT, MICH., July 25.—Plans have now been
completed for the second annual Detroit Music
Carnival which will be held along four blocks
i>f Washington boulevard on Tuesday and Wed-
nesday evenings, August 16 and 17, at the time
of the convention of the Michigan Music Mer-
chants Association, and immediately following
the grand finals of the second Detroit Piano
T'laying Contest to be held on Monday evening,
August 15, in the Belle Isle Symphony Bowl,
where it is expected that an audience of 20,000
will witness the selection of this year's cham-
pion pianist.
The music carnival will be a civic event and
on the opening night there will be held the
Mayor's Ball, which will be in the nature of a
reception to the piano-playing champion and to
the 430 youngsters who were selected as school
champions in the preliminary tests. Interest
in the event is indicated by the fact that some
$15,000 has been raised to cover the expenses.
The city will make liberal contribution of
material and labor and close to fifty of the
leading organizations of the city, including the
Automobile Club, the Hotel Association, vari-
ous fraternal orders, Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions,
Mercator, Optimist and other business clubs.
The program will provide music trade visi-
tors with an unusual opportunity on free eve-
nings to witness the success of the Detroit
contest method and music trade men from many
sections of the country, including C. J. Roberts,
president of the National Association of Music
Merchants, are expected to be present. Ossip
Gabrilowitsch, conductor of the Detroit Sym-
phony Orchestra, is honorary chairman; Frank
J. Bayley, general chairman; J. Lee Barrett,
secretary; R. A. Jacobs, treasurer, and Roy A.
Maypole, director general. Governor Fred W.
Green, of Michigan, and Mayor John W. Smith,
of Detroit, constitute the advisory committee,
and the various other committees are headed
by men and women of prominence both in and
out of the trade.
S. E. Clark, of Grinnell Bros., E. P. Andrews,
of the Hudson Music Store, and Clayton H.
Hoffman, of Grand Rapids, constitute the
speaker committee and will announce shortly
the list of those who will make addresses. The
entertainment program includes a conclave of
the Cheese Hounds to be held on Wednesday
evening following the carnival.
Ravel Uses Mason & Hamlin
W, W, KIMBALL CO.
*
the most plausible manner and push that which
delivers a profit and allows it to remain,
rather than push a business which has a back-
fire in the form of an overwhelming percentage
of repossessions. Used merchandise is always
a drug on the market, requiring special sales
and special effort to move it, not to mention
the percentage of prospects to whom this mer-
chandise must be sold who are really prospects
for new merchandise. Furthermore, the cost
of placing pianos in the hands of people who
will not pay for them is fast becoming alarm-
ing and too much care cannot be exercised in
selling that which stays sold. Try pushing
grands and straight pianos for a while and see
how the repossessions decrease!"
Plans Being Completed for
Detroit Music Carnival
The Ideal header
1857
JULY 30, 1927
1927
Maurice Ravel, celebrated French composer,
who will visit the United States on a nation-
wide tour in November of this year, will use
a Mason & Hamlin concert grand piano for
all of his engagements. The composer has
never visited this country before and the op-
portunity of hearing him play his own works
is eagerly awaited by concertgoers in all
musical communities.
The Music Trade Review
H. Edgar French on the Relation of
Repossessions to Ultimate Net Profits
President of the Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New Castle, Ind., Analyzes This Rela-
tion in Regard to Uprights, Grands. Players and Phonographs
t_T
EDGAR FRENCH, president of the
Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New-
castle, Ind., who has made a careful study of
the piano trade situation, from both the stand-
point of the manufacturer and the retailer, is
of the opinion that the cause of the present
slowing up of business is primarily to be found
in the fact that for years there has been a
tremendous amount of advertising of low
prices, low terms, nothing down and the like,
with a comparatively small amount of adver-
tising being given to the emphasizing of the
value of music in the home.
"A great deal of this false advertising," said
Mr. French, "has been used to exploit the
player-piano as something easy to buy and so
easy to play that a little baby could make you
think 'Paderewski was in the next room,' for-
getting entirely that the player-piano is really
a musical instrument and should be played for
the primary purpose of obtaining really musical
results. Furthermore, one of the greatest de-
lights in music is the ability to perform to suit
one's self.
"With this idea in mind, I checked over a
large amount of business and found that re-
possessions were on a much greater scale in
talking machines, where the machine did all
the work, than in player-pianos, where the
owner did some of the work, and that the
percentage was still less in upright pianos and
practically nil in the grand business, where the
instruments, or practically all of them, reach
real musicians. These facts were brought to
iight recently in checking up sales expenses
and general sales indications for the year 1926,
in connection with a large retail concern.
"The firm sold at retail approximately $25,000
worth of grand pianos during the year 1926,
and a little more than 1 per cent (not even \ l / 2
per cent) of that amount covered the reposses-
sions on grand pianos for the entire year. A
total of $60,000 of new upright piano business
had less than 10 per cent of this amount
charged against repossessions of uprights. The
firm, however, had $40,000 of player sales, and
of this amount 15 per cent came into the
repossession account. In the talking machine
department, with $100,000 of sales, 30 per cent
iif these sales were charged back as reposses-
sions.
"These arc actual figures. It is said, 'A
word to the wise is sufficient.' If any piano
City Officials Together With Musical, Civic and
Business Organizations to Co-operate With
Trade in Big Affair
H. Edgar French
man will total his figures and find a situation
such as this existing, i. e., 1 per cent of grand
sales, 10 per cent of upright sales, 15 per cent
of player sales and 30 per cent of phonograph
sales— (in dollars) to be repossessed, it is hard
lo understand how he can do anything else
but get behind his sales of straight uprights
and grands and push them ahead of everything
else, in fact, push them almost to the exclusion
of other business.
"This is rather harsh, perhaps, but as this
is the existing condition why not face it in
Stands First Among Pianos
m
Homes, Theatres, Churches, Schools
More Kimball pianos are in use in American
homes than any other name.
The Kimball is preeminent among the largest
Theatres and in thousands of Schools and
Colleges.
-
-
CHICAGO
-
DETROIT, MICH., July 25.—Plans have now been
completed for the second annual Detroit Music
Carnival which will be held along four blocks
i>f Washington boulevard on Tuesday and Wed-
nesday evenings, August 16 and 17, at the time
of the convention of the Michigan Music Mer-
chants Association, and immediately following
the grand finals of the second Detroit Piano
T'laying Contest to be held on Monday evening,
August 15, in the Belle Isle Symphony Bowl,
where it is expected that an audience of 20,000
will witness the selection of this year's cham-
pion pianist.
The music carnival will be a civic event and
on the opening night there will be held the
Mayor's Ball, which will be in the nature of a
reception to the piano-playing champion and to
the 430 youngsters who were selected as school
champions in the preliminary tests. Interest
in the event is indicated by the fact that some
$15,000 has been raised to cover the expenses.
The city will make liberal contribution of
material and labor and close to fifty of the
leading organizations of the city, including the
Automobile Club, the Hotel Association, vari-
ous fraternal orders, Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions,
Mercator, Optimist and other business clubs.
The program will provide music trade visi-
tors with an unusual opportunity on free eve-
nings to witness the success of the Detroit
contest method and music trade men from many
sections of the country, including C. J. Roberts,
president of the National Association of Music
Merchants, are expected to be present. Ossip
Gabrilowitsch, conductor of the Detroit Sym-
phony Orchestra, is honorary chairman; Frank
J. Bayley, general chairman; J. Lee Barrett,
secretary; R. A. Jacobs, treasurer, and Roy A.
Maypole, director general. Governor Fred W.
Green, of Michigan, and Mayor John W. Smith,
of Detroit, constitute the advisory committee,
and the various other committees are headed
by men and women of prominence both in and
out of the trade.
S. E. Clark, of Grinnell Bros., E. P. Andrews,
of the Hudson Music Store, and Clayton H.
Hoffman, of Grand Rapids, constitute the
speaker committee and will announce shortly
the list of those who will make addresses. The
entertainment program includes a conclave of
the Cheese Hounds to be held on Wednesday
evening following the carnival.
Ravel Uses Mason & Hamlin
W, W, KIMBALL CO.
*
the most plausible manner and push that which
delivers a profit and allows it to remain,
rather than push a business which has a back-
fire in the form of an overwhelming percentage
of repossessions. Used merchandise is always
a drug on the market, requiring special sales
and special effort to move it, not to mention
the percentage of prospects to whom this mer-
chandise must be sold who are really prospects
for new merchandise. Furthermore, the cost
of placing pianos in the hands of people who
will not pay for them is fast becoming alarm-
ing and too much care cannot be exercised in
selling that which stays sold. Try pushing
grands and straight pianos for a while and see
how the repossessions decrease!"
Plans Being Completed for
Detroit Music Carnival
The Ideal header
1857
JULY 30, 1927
1927
Maurice Ravel, celebrated French composer,
who will visit the United States on a nation-
wide tour in November of this year, will use
a Mason & Hamlin concert grand piano for
all of his engagements. The composer has
never visited this country before and the op-
portunity of hearing him play his own works
is eagerly awaited by concertgoers in all
musical communities.
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