Music Trade Review

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SPEAKING
in a frame of mind that will encourage him to give them all
his music business.
On the face of it the situation is discouraging, but how
much of the trouble is due to the dealers themselves? Read
the average radio advertisement and what does it say? Most
likely something as follows: "Fine seven-tube radios—screen-
grid and pentode tubes, dynamic speaker, walnut cabinet, only
$39." In short, it is the sort of advertisement that is cal-
culated to establish the price of a fine radio at $39 in the
public mind. Why does not that same dealer—in search of
large unit and profitable sales — advertise the higher-priced
models of the lines he handles, offering the cheaper types to
those who insist on buying them and cannot afford better?
He will argue, perhaps, that his low-priced competitor will
get all the business. Perhaps he will get all the cheaper run,
but if the music merchant is a salesman he should get his
full share, and more, of the sort of sales that count.
Grand pianos at a thousand dollars and more, banjos and
guitars at $250 and up, band and orchestra instruments at
well over $100 each are being sold regularly and in substantial
quantities and yet we know that there are many low-priced
products in all these lines. Why not a concentration on
quality radios in music stores? Let the other fellow get the
cheap trade with little or no profit.
SHEET MUSIC DEPARTMENTS
BRING PROSPECTS AND PROFITS
R
EPORTS from prominent wholesalers of sheet music
are to the effect that the advice given by President
Heaton of the National Association of Music Mer-
chants at the recent convention in Chicago, to the
effect that a sheet music department should be a feature in
every music store, is being widely heeded.
As a matter of cold fact a recent survey made by T H E
REVIEW indicated that approximately sixty-five per cent of
general music merchants—those handling pianos, musical mer-
chandise and other lines—already operate sheet music sections,
and the percentage is steadily on the increase. It has been
demonstrated that those who give proper attention to such
departments, carry representative stocks and provide compe-
tent staffs, find that the sheet music counters not only pro-
vide prospects for other departments in the store but prove
worthy profit producers in their own right.
It is no unusual thing for a sheet music department in a
general store to handle a volume of business amounting to
$40,000 or $50,000 or more annually, but this can be done
only when the department is operated as a business in itself
instead of as a necessary evil. As a means of contacting the
teachers and music students of a community, who are the
chief buyers of musical instruments or have much influence
on sales, the value of a sheet music department equipped to
give intelligent service cannot be denied. The stock, however,
must not simply consist of odds and ends but must be so com-
plete that at least ninety-five per cent of demands for stand-
ard and teaching pieces can be met on the spot. When the
dealer must send to the publisher for the bulk of request
numbers and the purchaser must wait for a lengthy period to
get the material, then failure is in the offing.
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
The same rule holds good in the matter of popular music.
Certainly there is a great mass of it published, good, bad
and indifferent, but the sheet-music buyer competent to handle
his or her job should be able to select those prints that are
likely to prove most salable. The service rendered by jobbers
makes it possible to stock small quantities of a variety of num-
bers at modest wholesale prices and the turnover is rapid.
The customer who buys a musical instrument in a store
should expect, logically, to be able to purchase music to go
with the instrument at the same store, for one is practically
useless without the other. It is the music that makes the
instruments worth while.
DON'T LET TELEVISION INTERFERE
WITH PRESENT-DAY SALES
T
HE announcement by the Radio Manufacturers' Asso-
ciation that there is no chance of television being seri-
ously considered by the members of that organization as
a commercial factor for at least two years and probably
longer is certainly a step in the right direction, for it should
serve to put an end to the persistent rumors that television
for the home is just around the corner.
There is no question but that great progress has been made
in the new art but it is still far from 'being commercially
feasible and although television receivers have been and are
being offered for the home owner they are chiefly in the
nature of experiments- and are to be considered from that
angle.
The many retailers who, handling radios, have been uncer-
tain of their position, fearing that the sudden introduction
of television sets would make their present receivers obsolete
and cause heavy losses in inventory, should find much satis-
faction in the statement of the radio manufacturers.
REVIEW'S CENSUS INFORMATION
IS HIGHLY COMMENDED
T
HE REVIEW has received a number of messages of com-
mendation on the presentation, last month, of the figures
compiled by the Government in the 1930 Census of
Distribution, as they apply to thirty-one of the leading
cities of the country. Requests for similar figures relating
to cities and towns not included in T H E REVIEW presenta-
tion have come in from various sections of the country and
have been answered by mail as fully as possible.
As was stated in the article on the Census, T H E REVIEW
has on file the figures covering several hundred cities and
towns, as well as a majority of the State figures, and we shall
be glad to forward to readers information regarding such
communities or States as they are particularly interested in.
This is a regular part of REVIEW service, this paper being the
only one to make such information directly available to the
industry.
September, 1931