Music Trade Review

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The Music Trade Review
REVIEW
(Registered in the U. S. Patent Office)
Published Every Saturday by
Federated Business Publications, Inc.
at 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
President, Raymond Hill; Vice-Presidents, J. B. Spillane, Randolph Rrown; Secretary
and Treasurer, Edward Lyman Bill; Assistant Secretary, L. B. McDonald; Assistant
Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
B. BRITTAIN WILSON, Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
WM. J. DOUCHERTY, Managing Editor
RAY BILL, Associate Editor
F. L. AVERY, Circulation Manager
E. B. MUNCH, Eastern Representative
WESTERN DIVISION:
FRANK W. KIRK, Manager
E. J. NEALY
333 No. Michigan Ave., Chicago
Telephone: State 1266
BOSTON OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Telephone: Main 6950
Telephone: Lexington 1760-71
Vol. 88
B
Cable: Elbill New York
May 4, 1929
No. 18
National Music Week
Y the time this issue of The Review reaches the majority
of its readers the National Music Week observance of
1929 will be well under way and every indication points
to a celebration, both official and unofficial, that will surpass any-
thing heretofore recorded.
From President Hoover, who has accepted the Honorary
Chairmanship of the Honorary Committee of Governors support-
ing the observance, right down the line to the small-town mayor,
ihere is displayed a spirit of interest and co-operation that insures
thorough official sanction of the Music Week celebration and makes
it distinctly a matter of art rather than of commerce. The de-
velopment of the movement has / been a little short of phenomenal,
for, within a few years, it has grown from rather an ambitious
experiment to a point where the annual observance is participated
in officially by well over 2,000 communities throughout the country
and has the active support of churches, clubs, schools and all types
of organizations directly or indirectly interested in music and its
development.
Those who will take a personal part in the observance will
run into the hundreds of thousands and this year those who will
be permitted to participate indirectly through the medium of radio
will number incalculable millions. The Radio Manufacturers'
Association has officially endorsed National Music Week and urges
that its members arrange wherever possible to broadcast programs
during the week that will tie up directly with the observance
Outstanding among those who will aid in this work will be the
Atwater Kent Mfg. Co., which will devote its entire program over
the National Rroadcasting chain on May 5 to Music Week.
Through the Atwater Kent foundation, too, various cities and
towns have arranged for local auditions in connection with the
National Radio Audition sponsored by the foundation. Other radio
manufacturers, including the Grigsby-Grunow Co., have also an-
nounced special plans for Music Week observance, which means
that the important message will he carried through the air to
millions who would not be brought in contact with it by other
means.
It is to be hoped that the other factors in the music industry
will prove equally alive to the opportunity for increasing the music
consciousness of the general public. There is no retailer so small
but that he can find some way for tying up with his local music
week committee, and where there is no such committee there are
still abundant opportunities for dealers themselves to support the
movement on their own account. The matter is entirely too im-
portant from every angle to be treated casually.
M
MAY 4, 1929
Value of Associations
EMBERS of the industry are inclined at times to
comment more or less cautiously upon the effort
of various trade associations to eliminate evil and
improve business ethics by resolution. They point out that no
organization in which membership is voluntary can effectively
legislate for its members, for if the regulations are too drastic
they may prove contrary to law and if they are mild they are likely
to be ignored.
It may be taken for granted that the average trade association
cannot force its members to observe fixed rules of business conduct.
Yet the very fact that several hundred men in the same line oi
trade can get together and agree upon definite policies has a moral
value that cannot be ignored. The music trade itself has witnessed
The Magazine Number of
KMFW
now published on the second Saturday of each
month will, after the issue of June 8, 1929,
appear on the first of each month.
The Magazine Number of The Review,
launched in January, 1928, was the first music
trade publication to provide a sound and prac- (
tical monthly merchandising service for all
branches of the Music Industry and it has
proven an outstanding success, warranting plans
for developing the publication on an even
higher plane as a service to the trade it rep-
resents.
Simultaneously with the change in publication
date of the Magazine number, the weekly Neivs
number will be discontinued.
The Music Trade Review
Established 1879
Published by
Federated Business Publications, Inc.
420 Lexington Ave., New York
numerous examples of improving trade conditions by resolution.
It is easy, of course, to point to the black sheep and backsliders
who have ignored the suggestions of the majority, but even without
the power of enforcement a resolution designed to check a business
evil has a moral weight that often proves surprisingly effective.
Associations should be encouraged to face trade problems and
evils and to take such action as seems fitting to overcome the dif-
ficulties. More than one dealer has indulged in poor advertising,
over-allowances and excessive terms because he did not know of
better ways. If it can do no more, the association can at least
point out the right road and leave it to the intelligence of the
individual member whether or not he will follow it.
.i