Presto

PRESTO
The American Music Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DAN I ELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Bntered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago, Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable In advance. No extra
charge in United States possessions, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per Inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing In the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be Indicated by the word "advertisement" In accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Photographs of general trade interest are always welcome, and when used, if of
special concern, a charge will be made to cover cost of the engravings.
., -.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
cited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1923
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
IT IS NOT CUSTOMARY WITH THIS PAPER TO PUBLISH REGU-
LAR CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANY POINTS. WE, HOWEVER,
HAVE RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN NEW YORK, BOSTON,
SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, MIL-
WAUKEE AND OTHER LEADING MUSIC TRADE CENTERS, WHO
KEEP THIS PAPER INFORMED OF TRADE EVENTS AS THEY HAP-
PEN. AND PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE REAL NEWS
OF THE TRADE FROM WHATEVER SOURCES ANYWHERE AND
MATTER FROM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS, IF USED, WILL BE
PAID FOR AT SPACE RATES. USUALLY PJANO MERCHANTS OR
SALESMEN IN THE SMALLER CITIES, ARE THE BEST OCCA-
SIONAL CORRESPONDENTS. AND THEIR ASSISTANCE IS INVITED.
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Forms close promptly at noon every Thursday. News matter for
publication should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the same
day. Advertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, five p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy should be in
hand by Monday noon preceding publication day. Want advs. for cur-
rent week, to insure classification, must be at office of publication not
later than Wednesday noon.
PIANO PROMOTION
The little local piano dealer is the real publicity man of the aver-
age piano that is worth selling. The little local piano man makes
his living by promoting the pianos he represents. This is an item
which not all piano manufacturers seem to understand or fully realize.
Only the man, whether a piano manufacturer, piano editor or
piano salesman, who has been in the field in a small city, or in the
country town, can know just how far the little local piano dealer goes
to advertise the instruments in which he is interested because from
its sale he makes his living, and sometimes a little more.
There are piano manufacturers who will invest $7,000 in a single
page display in a publication of wide circulation, and who will so
treat the little local dealer as to lose his good will on the slightest
pretext. The paper of wide circulation probably has no piano adver-
tising influence to more than one-half-of-one-per cent of its readers.
The little local dealer has direct, and very forceful, influence upon
every possible piano buyer within a radius of fifty miles of his home
town. Figure it out.
If the costly advertising is—as it often certainly is—designed
to start a campaign of broadcast fame for a really exceptional piano,
it is good and a wise investment. If it is designed to sell pianos at
retail, it is an expensive experiment. The little local dealer will sell
more pianos than the costly story paper advertising. The little local
dealer wears out his shoe leather going around among the people of
his vicinity, telling enthusiastically of the matchless merits of the
May 12, 1923
particular piano he is trying to sell. He is never too tired to tell the
story and to explain why. no other instrument has such tone, or. is
constructed upon principles so absolutely perfect. It would require
every page and every line in the great story paper to tell what the
little local dealer knows about that particular piano, and then it
would not be half told, because the personality of the dealer and the
faith his friends have in him and his piano knowledge would still be
lacking.
The little local dealer is more of a power as an advertiser than he
is credited with being. It is because of his work that there are towns
and communities in which some particular piano is prized above all
others, whereas in most other places the same piano may not be
known at all. The piano with the live representatives scattered about
over the country, are the best advertised pianos. And this applies,
with a few notable exceptions, to the piano business the world over.
How can a piano win the kind of promotion to which reference
has been made? In only one way, and that is by liberal use of the
established and well read trade papers. No question about it, as there
are a number of living, thriving examples. And that certain means
to piano success is not expensive. It doesn't cost seven thousand a
page—not quite !
>*••-•
A BETTER DAY
A notable change may be seen in the style of retail piano adver-
tising. It is not often that we find big display lines in the newspapers
telling about cut prices; and even the "dollar down" has seemingly
disappeared. The old-time printed attacks upon local competitors
have entirely disappeared. As a rule, the retail piano advertising is
clean. It would surprise anyone today to be confronted by a strange,
ugly head, urging that the beholder "find the faces." It would be
cause for a police call to find a portrait of Washington, or Lincoln,
with several warts on their noses, designed to depict other faces.
Those things have passed away, with the coupon and the near-check,
the gold watch and the string of imitation pearls, to be given to the
bringer-in of a live "prospect."
In the place of such atrocities, the piano advertising in the news-
papers is of almost inspiring kind. It has a tendency to help the pos-
sible buyer, and to encourage the thought that pianos are really
worth having, and paying fair prices for. The investment side of it is
again presented, and the better pianos are promoted. Such happy
and suggestive ideas as the "instrument of the immortals" as applied
to the Steinway, is often used to give strength to the retailers' ad-
vertisements. And the high-toned Mason & Hamlin publicity is equal-
ly self-sustaining—"just as the connoisseur of precious stones finds
deepest satisfaction in a flawless jewel, so the lover of music finds his
keenest contentment in a Mason & Hamlin."
"No little stuff" there. Only direct and forceful word pictures
of a great instrument. And the Lyon & Healy methods, too, in mak-
ing the Apartment Grand known for just what it is. There is equally
the dignified style of advertising that leaves desire with readers for
fine instruments. No suggestion that other pianos are poorer, and no
least intimation of the desire to build up by pulling down. It is high-
class advertising, perfectly befitting a high-class business.
And even the second-hands are treated right in these better
days. The old "was and now" has faded out. There is a new day
for the piano trade. And it promises to be a big day and a fair one.
A FRENCH MUSIC SHOW
The French National Federation of Music Industries, correspond-
ing to our own Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, has just
closed a great music trade exposition in Paris. The card of invita-
tion which came to Presto says that "all instruments of music, music
publications, talking machines and radiophones" were to be displayed,
and that the exposition was to be confined exclusively to articles
manufactured in France. And this fine stipulation, or arrangement,
is made : Admission by card only, no entrance charge being made, the
cards being supplied only to visitors interested in the things on exhi-
bition, who may inspect them without the annoyance of a rabble of
curiosity seekers, with no special concern beyond being entertained.
It is thus exclusively the enterprise of the Federation, and of direct
interest to the French industries and trades.
The mistake of the American music expositions has been in the
effort to interest the general public. Pianos are no longer objects of
public curiosity. They do not attract the amusement loving public
in great numbers as to justify the thought that admission receipts
may pay any considerable share of the expenses. The music shows
in this country have been devised and promoted by interests outside
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