Music Trade Review

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EDITORIALLY SPEAKING
MANUFACTURING TRADE ADJUSTS
ITS AFFAIRS TO CURRENT CONDITIONS
W
H A T are the manufacturers in the industry do-
ing to meet the business situation as it exists and
promises to develop during the present year ? The
majority are not predicting anything; they have
gotten well beyond that point and are devoting their energies
to a continued adjustment of their affairs in order to meet
any new problems that may come before them. The situation
is particularly well summed up by one manufacturer who says:
"We have stopped looking for the return of a 'normal' year
and have gotten ourselves on a basis of expense both in manu-
facturing and selling where a comparatively slight improve-
ment over 1932 will give us a very much brighter outlook."
This seems to be the consensus of opinion among a majority
of the manufacturers. They have sailed into the new year
close hauled and ready for a continuance of stormy weather
but are quite prepared to take advantage of any general im-
provement. In most cases they are working with skeleton
staffs in order to cut overhead down as much as possible and
thus produce instruments at a unit cost in keeping with today's
price requirements.
It is significant that the couple of manufacturers who last
year showed sufficient courage to revamp their lines and
introduce new and economical manufacturing methods have
been rewarded with a sufficiently large share of existing busi-
ness to compensate them in some measure at least for their
foresight. It is proven that although marking time may pre-
serve assets to a certain extent a careful investment in new
equipment and new products has the added advantage of
increasing sales and keeping the manufacturer well in the
forefront.
NEW MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION
CAMPAIGN HAS REAL TEETH
F
OR several years now there has been considerable agi-
tation against those manufacturers and wholesalers of
band and orchestra instruments who make a practice of
selling to schools and other institutions in competition
with the local dealer and at discounts with which he is unable
to compete. The majority of the manufacturers and whole-
salers have disclaimed responsibility and have placed the
burden on the dealer, claiming that he refused to carry an
adequate stock of merchandise to take care of the normal
requirements of his territory. That is the excuse for the direct
competition, yet in a goodly number oi cases it is found that
dealers who are well stocked and competent to furnish first
class service find the business taken from them by the manu-
facturer or wholesaler who is greedy for all the profit.
The problem has been threshed out repeatedly in conven-
tions and at other trade gatherings but evidently these vari-
ous discussions have had no serious effect in remedying the
condition. Now comes the National Association of Music
Merchants in an effort to protect the dealer against the direct
selling of the manufacturer and wholesaler. The preliminary
gun was fired in T H E REVIEW last month but the article
presented only the highlights. The Association officials are
distinctly in earnest. They have gathered facts and figures
and have come before the manufacturers and wholesalers with
definite charges that will prove hard to deny. An effort is
being made to place the manufacturers on record as op-
posed to the direct selling practice, and it is significant that
in most cases those who protest most bitterly about the asso-
ciation activities have been found to be those concerns most
complained about by dealers.
The campaign launched by the Music Merchants' Asso-
ciation is not simply a gesture, for, although earnest attempts
are being made to meet the situation through friendly con-
ferences, steps have also been taken to enlist the assistance
of the authorities in Washington if other means fail. With
business conditions as they are today in the music trade and
with the importance of adequate retail outlets more strongly
emphasized than ever before there should be no effort made
to force final action and the consequent publicity, till all other
measures have been tried. However, the outcome of the
whole matter will be watched with much interest from all
sides, the dealers being particularly energetic in the support
of the association's activities.
It is unfortunate that the movement is necessary, but a
final decision must be made some time, so why not now? Is
the dealer going to do the bulk of the business in his territory
or are the plums to be grabbed by the manufacturer and
wholesaler? The decision has an important bearing on the
future distributing activities of the trade.
GREAT BRITAIN SHOWS THE WAY
IN KEEPING UP PIANO BUSINESS
A
CCORDING to the best available figures regarding
piano production in the United States and Great
Britain for the year 1932 this country has little
to be proud of. With a population of considerably
less than half that of the United States to offer a market,
the actual production of pianos, including a goodly number
of players, was approximately twice as great in England as
in this country.
It might be well for piano men still interested in the indus-
try and its future to study the situation with a view of deter-
mining the reason for the difference. Certainly Great Britain
is not prosperous, having been on the dole for some years
before 1929 when the cyclone hit this country. Taxes in
England are higher and money not so plentiful, as a rule,
yet her new piano figures for the past year top ours by two
to one.
If every rated piano dealer in the United States sold one
more new piano each month in 1933 than in 1932 the result
would mean a practical doubling of last year's factory out-
put, which was exceeded some years ago, as a matter of fact,
by the production of each of several individual factories. An
average of one new piano for a thousand homes in the nation
during a year is certainly not a very high record. This, of
course, does not take into consideration the sale of many
thousands of used pianos, either repossessed or purchased out-
nVht for resale. It is estimated that between four and five
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
January,
1933