Presto
Issue: 1924 1957 - Page 6
January 26, 1924.
PRESTO
COMPILING A LIST
OF "SILENT" PIANOS
As the Owners of the Silent Instruments Are
Prospects for Playerpianos Sales, the
Benefits of Locating Them Are
Obvious to Alert Dealers.
THE CORPS OF SEARCHERS
Successful Plan of Midwest Dealer Told in Detail
and Similar Opportunities Made Plain to Music
Merchants Everywhere.
What are the playerpiano sales possibilities in my
community? The question may be put to himself by
any dealer in the country. And if he tries to find out
and systematizes his investigations he will make a
brave effort to locate the silent pianos and the silent
playerpianos. Every silent piano in the home is
taking up the space that should be filled by a player-
piano or a reproducing piano. Every silent player-
piano is a reproach to some dealer or all the dealers.
Its silence spells indifference in the joys possible in its
possession on the part of the owner and points to
criminal neglect of the plain opportunity by the dealer
who sold it.
The majority of playerpiano buyers are owners of
pianos. Some are parents who have married off their
sons and daughters and continue to live in the old
home. They love music perhaps, but the piano is
silent because all the young folks who could play it
are gone. Such buyers may have responded to the
spontaneous prompting to exchange the silent piano
for a player with which they can renew the old pleas-
ures. Then, again, they may have been discovered
by an investigating dealer or salesman and the desire
for a player created in that way. Anyway the dis-
covery by the dealer of a home with a silent piano is
often tantamount to a playerpiano sale.
The Dealer's Duty.
In every city and town are silent pianos and silent
playerpianos and on the discovery of such depends a
great measure of the success of the dealers. The
dealers may send out questionnaires and get some
names of owners of silent pianos, but there are more
effective ways to find them. Last summer a dealer in
a mid-west city employed a flock of high school boys
with excellent effect to do the necessary sleuthing.
They were provided with a simple form to fill in with
the collected information and they performed the as-
signed tasks honestly and with spirit. They did not
cost much either when the valuable information they
gathered is considered.
the rough places quicker than the man with a flivver.
The mid-west dealer who organized the boy corps
last year is high in praise of their service. Their
work has saved time for the salesmen, who were en-
abled to go direct to the probable buyer—the family
with a silent piano. Excellent results followed the
use of a prospect list that was up-to-date and free
from "deadwood."
Also the Silent Player.
Of course equally important for the dealer to dis-
cover are the silent playerpianos in his territory. The
danger of the silent player is more imminent than that
of the "silent" phonograph, for the average dealer is
more energetic in promoting record sales than he is
in exploiting the' player roll. It is unaccountable and
surprising when it is considered that the means for
propaganda supplied by the roll manufacturers is as
generous in proportion and as potent for effects as
the publicity matter supplied by the record makers.
The Dealers' Data.
Immediately after a playerpiano sale is made the
dealers do a little toward counteracting the tendency
in some families to tire of the playerpiano after the
first period of enthusiasm. In a complete file of
playerpiano owners the tastes of the family are set
down. Sometimes the actual preferences in kinds of
music are set down when gathered from some mem-
ber of the family at the time of the player sale.
Often the tastes set down are only guessed from a
knowledge of the family, the nationality of the old
folks, for instance, the degree of culture in the family,
the musical desires of the young people and other
plausible estimates.
Where the dealer has sold the playerpiano there is
no reason why he should not get an accurate descrip-
tion of the tastes in music of the family to which he
sells.
The roll prospects in this case are easy to
reach, and it all depends on the dealer whether the
player continues to be owned with enthusiasm or
whether it becomes one of the silent players that are
a detriment to both roll sales and player sales.
Job Is Cut Out.
No matter how the existence of a silent player is
discovered, it at once becomes the duty of the dealer
to bring the player back to usefulness. Literature,
while admittedly effective in creating and perpetuating
new roll desire, is not always productive of the de-
sired effects. There are occasions when the personal
effort of the dealer and his staff are required. The
owners may have become merely indifferent, a feeling
natural to people who have at one time become tired
of hearing a small assortment of rolls repeated too
many times. The main thing is to induce the player-
piano owners to become regular buyers from the new
monthly bulletins. Once the indifferent family is re-
deemed and begins to buy new rolls it all depends on
the dealer's system whether it relapses and allows its
player to become that sad object—a silent player-
piano.
Cincinnati Factories of The Baldwin Piano Company
SUCCESS
is assured the dealer who takes advantage o?
THE BALDWIN CO-OPERATION PLAN
which offers every opportunity to represent
under the most favorable conditions a com-
plete line of high grade pianos, players and
reproducers.
F»r Information lerlli
$iano Company
CINCINNATI
INDIANAPOL.II*
L
Incorporated d
CHICAGO
ST. LOUIS
DALLAS
N E W YOBK
DBNTIB
SAN FRANCISCO
The Heppe. Marcellus and Edouard Jftiles Plaao
manufactured by the
HEPPE PIANO COMPANY
are the only pianos In the world with
Three Sounding Boards.
£acented In the United States, Great Britain
France, Germany and Canada.
Liberal arrangements to responsible agents only.
Main Office, 1117 Chestnut St.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
CHAMBER A WINNER
BEFORE HOUSE COMMITTEE
The Boy Piano Scouts.
In every town are many bright, ambitious boys
who would be glad of the opportunity to spend the
vacation out of doors with pay. Now is the time to
prepare the census forms and to pick and enroll the Arguments Presented by Alfred L. Smith Result in
staff of boys. The boys will need some drilling and
Elimination of Tax.
it would be best to have them ready to start out on
the first day of vacation. If the dealer waits until
Advice which has just been received from Washing-
vacation time is actually here he will find the boys ton indicates that argument presented by Alfred L.
have made other plans. A boy scouting among the
Smith, general manager of the Music Industries
farms can get more information than a grown-up. Chamber of Commerce before the Ways and Means
He can cover more ground on a bicycle and get over
Committee, for the elimination of the 5 per cent tax
on silver-plated musical instruments, has been suc-
cessful. The Washington Herald, in a recent issue,
publishes the following statement:
"Representatives of three out of eleven industries
appearing before the Ways and Means Committee to-
day apparently won their pleas for specific tax reduc-
tions on their products.
These three were candy
manufacturers, garment workers and musical instru-
ment manufacturers."
Alfred L. Smith, general manager of the Music In-
in Name and in Fact
dustries Chamber of Commerce, last week appeared
before the ways and means committee of the House
TONE, MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION,
and presented a formal brief of the Chamber's argu-
WORKMANSHIP, DESIGN—all in ac-
ments against the proposed tax on 5 per cent at retail
cord with the broadest experience—are
on
musical instruments plated with silver. At the
the elements which give character to
same
hearing and also presenting protests were Carl
Bush & Lane Products.
E. Droop, of the National Association of Music Mer-
chants and A. L. Hagen of the American Federation
of Musicians.
In addition to setting forth orally his protests
BUSH & LANE CECILIAH PLAYER PIANOS
against the tax, Mr. Smith wrote to Secretary Mellon
and gave the convincing arguments of the Music In-
take high place, therefore, in any com-
dustries Chamber of Commerce against the proposed
parison of high grade pianos because of
tax.
the individuality of character which dis-
QUALITY
Grand Piano
One of the old, reli-
able m a k e s . For
terms and territory
write.
Lester Piano Co.
1306 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia
BUSH&LANE PIANOS
tinguishes them in all essentials of merit
and value.
BUSH & LANE PIANO CO.
Holland, Mich.
Alfred C. Danz, proprietor of the Crescent Music
House, First and Spring strets, Los Angeles, this
week announced his intention to open a new store on
Broadway.
When in doubt refer to
PRESTO BUYERS GUIDE
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
PRESTO
COMPILING A LIST
OF "SILENT" PIANOS
As the Owners of the Silent Instruments Are
Prospects for Playerpianos Sales, the
Benefits of Locating Them Are
Obvious to Alert Dealers.
THE CORPS OF SEARCHERS
Successful Plan of Midwest Dealer Told in Detail
and Similar Opportunities Made Plain to Music
Merchants Everywhere.
What are the playerpiano sales possibilities in my
community? The question may be put to himself by
any dealer in the country. And if he tries to find out
and systematizes his investigations he will make a
brave effort to locate the silent pianos and the silent
playerpianos. Every silent piano in the home is
taking up the space that should be filled by a player-
piano or a reproducing piano. Every silent player-
piano is a reproach to some dealer or all the dealers.
Its silence spells indifference in the joys possible in its
possession on the part of the owner and points to
criminal neglect of the plain opportunity by the dealer
who sold it.
The majority of playerpiano buyers are owners of
pianos. Some are parents who have married off their
sons and daughters and continue to live in the old
home. They love music perhaps, but the piano is
silent because all the young folks who could play it
are gone. Such buyers may have responded to the
spontaneous prompting to exchange the silent piano
for a player with which they can renew the old pleas-
ures. Then, again, they may have been discovered
by an investigating dealer or salesman and the desire
for a player created in that way. Anyway the dis-
covery by the dealer of a home with a silent piano is
often tantamount to a playerpiano sale.
The Dealer's Duty.
In every city and town are silent pianos and silent
playerpianos and on the discovery of such depends a
great measure of the success of the dealers. The
dealers may send out questionnaires and get some
names of owners of silent pianos, but there are more
effective ways to find them. Last summer a dealer in
a mid-west city employed a flock of high school boys
with excellent effect to do the necessary sleuthing.
They were provided with a simple form to fill in with
the collected information and they performed the as-
signed tasks honestly and with spirit. They did not
cost much either when the valuable information they
gathered is considered.
the rough places quicker than the man with a flivver.
The mid-west dealer who organized the boy corps
last year is high in praise of their service. Their
work has saved time for the salesmen, who were en-
abled to go direct to the probable buyer—the family
with a silent piano. Excellent results followed the
use of a prospect list that was up-to-date and free
from "deadwood."
Also the Silent Player.
Of course equally important for the dealer to dis-
cover are the silent playerpianos in his territory. The
danger of the silent player is more imminent than that
of the "silent" phonograph, for the average dealer is
more energetic in promoting record sales than he is
in exploiting the' player roll. It is unaccountable and
surprising when it is considered that the means for
propaganda supplied by the roll manufacturers is as
generous in proportion and as potent for effects as
the publicity matter supplied by the record makers.
The Dealers' Data.
Immediately after a playerpiano sale is made the
dealers do a little toward counteracting the tendency
in some families to tire of the playerpiano after the
first period of enthusiasm. In a complete file of
playerpiano owners the tastes of the family are set
down. Sometimes the actual preferences in kinds of
music are set down when gathered from some mem-
ber of the family at the time of the player sale.
Often the tastes set down are only guessed from a
knowledge of the family, the nationality of the old
folks, for instance, the degree of culture in the family,
the musical desires of the young people and other
plausible estimates.
Where the dealer has sold the playerpiano there is
no reason why he should not get an accurate descrip-
tion of the tastes in music of the family to which he
sells.
The roll prospects in this case are easy to
reach, and it all depends on the dealer whether the
player continues to be owned with enthusiasm or
whether it becomes one of the silent players that are
a detriment to both roll sales and player sales.
Job Is Cut Out.
No matter how the existence of a silent player is
discovered, it at once becomes the duty of the dealer
to bring the player back to usefulness. Literature,
while admittedly effective in creating and perpetuating
new roll desire, is not always productive of the de-
sired effects. There are occasions when the personal
effort of the dealer and his staff are required. The
owners may have become merely indifferent, a feeling
natural to people who have at one time become tired
of hearing a small assortment of rolls repeated too
many times. The main thing is to induce the player-
piano owners to become regular buyers from the new
monthly bulletins. Once the indifferent family is re-
deemed and begins to buy new rolls it all depends on
the dealer's system whether it relapses and allows its
player to become that sad object—a silent player-
piano.
Cincinnati Factories of The Baldwin Piano Company
SUCCESS
is assured the dealer who takes advantage o?
THE BALDWIN CO-OPERATION PLAN
which offers every opportunity to represent
under the most favorable conditions a com-
plete line of high grade pianos, players and
reproducers.
F»r Information lerlli
$iano Company
CINCINNATI
INDIANAPOL.II*
L
Incorporated d
CHICAGO
ST. LOUIS
DALLAS
N E W YOBK
DBNTIB
SAN FRANCISCO
The Heppe. Marcellus and Edouard Jftiles Plaao
manufactured by the
HEPPE PIANO COMPANY
are the only pianos In the world with
Three Sounding Boards.
£acented In the United States, Great Britain
France, Germany and Canada.
Liberal arrangements to responsible agents only.
Main Office, 1117 Chestnut St.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
CHAMBER A WINNER
BEFORE HOUSE COMMITTEE
The Boy Piano Scouts.
In every town are many bright, ambitious boys
who would be glad of the opportunity to spend the
vacation out of doors with pay. Now is the time to
prepare the census forms and to pick and enroll the Arguments Presented by Alfred L. Smith Result in
staff of boys. The boys will need some drilling and
Elimination of Tax.
it would be best to have them ready to start out on
the first day of vacation. If the dealer waits until
Advice which has just been received from Washing-
vacation time is actually here he will find the boys ton indicates that argument presented by Alfred L.
have made other plans. A boy scouting among the
Smith, general manager of the Music Industries
farms can get more information than a grown-up. Chamber of Commerce before the Ways and Means
He can cover more ground on a bicycle and get over
Committee, for the elimination of the 5 per cent tax
on silver-plated musical instruments, has been suc-
cessful. The Washington Herald, in a recent issue,
publishes the following statement:
"Representatives of three out of eleven industries
appearing before the Ways and Means Committee to-
day apparently won their pleas for specific tax reduc-
tions on their products.
These three were candy
manufacturers, garment workers and musical instru-
ment manufacturers."
Alfred L. Smith, general manager of the Music In-
in Name and in Fact
dustries Chamber of Commerce, last week appeared
before the ways and means committee of the House
TONE, MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION,
and presented a formal brief of the Chamber's argu-
WORKMANSHIP, DESIGN—all in ac-
ments against the proposed tax on 5 per cent at retail
cord with the broadest experience—are
on
musical instruments plated with silver. At the
the elements which give character to
same
hearing and also presenting protests were Carl
Bush & Lane Products.
E. Droop, of the National Association of Music Mer-
chants and A. L. Hagen of the American Federation
of Musicians.
In addition to setting forth orally his protests
BUSH & LANE CECILIAH PLAYER PIANOS
against the tax, Mr. Smith wrote to Secretary Mellon
and gave the convincing arguments of the Music In-
take high place, therefore, in any com-
dustries Chamber of Commerce against the proposed
parison of high grade pianos because of
tax.
the individuality of character which dis-
QUALITY
Grand Piano
One of the old, reli-
able m a k e s . For
terms and territory
write.
Lester Piano Co.
1306 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia
BUSH&LANE PIANOS
tinguishes them in all essentials of merit
and value.
BUSH & LANE PIANO CO.
Holland, Mich.
Alfred C. Danz, proprietor of the Crescent Music
House, First and Spring strets, Los Angeles, this
week announced his intention to open a new store on
Broadway.
When in doubt refer to
PRESTO BUYERS GUIDE
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).