Presto

PR£STO-tIMES
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
PRESTO P U B L I S H I N G CO., Publishers.
F R A N K D. ABBOTT - - - - - - - - - -
(C. A. DAN I ELL—1904-1927.)
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
_ _ _ _ _ Managing
Editor
Editor
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 0234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 189C, at the
Post Office, Chicago, 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.
choice in piano dimensions, is a good prospect
for a fine grand of full or medium size. But
anyway, the grand is something he is easily in-
terested in, and it is in the pretentious homes
that the splendid Period models have their
greatest assurances of sale. But the piano
owner who lives in a rented apartment is also
considered a good prospect for the purchase of
a baby grand and the allurements of the little
upright tastefully decorated to match color
schemes are powerful in effecting sales.
A GUIDE TO PIANOS
The sale of pianos is the hoped for culmi-
nation of all piano promotion and anything
that facilitates sales is a potent aid to selling
results. Anything that inspires the salesman
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if of
general interest to the music trade will be paid for at increases his energy. Giving him a better un-
space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen in the derstanding of the fundamentals of his work
smaller cities are the best occasional correspondents, and
their assistance is invited.
induces greater ease in closing sales. Know-
Payment is not accepted for matter printed in the edi- ing the piano he presents is a first essential
torial or news columns of Presto-Times.
Where half-tones are made the actual cost of produc- towards impressing the prospect. So that any
tion will be charged if of commercial character or other means that makes the piano salesman more
than strictly news interest.
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is re-
quested that their subjects and senders be carefully indi- familiar with his line is a desirable one. And
cated.
when the piano information useful to himself
Forms close at noon on Thursday. Late news matter can be extended to the prospect, the source
should be in not later than 11 o'clock on that day. Ad-
vertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, 5 p. m., of it is of increased value.
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1.25; Foreign, $4.
Payable in advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
application.
should be in hand by Tuesday noon preceding publication
day. Want advertisements for current week, to insure
classification, should be in by Wednesday noon.
An inexhaustible source of piano informa-
tion useful to the piano dealer and salesman is
Address all communicn tions for the editorial or business Presto Buyers Guide, the 1928 edition of which
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
is out this week. It has been published for
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
thirty-one years and effectively used by the
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 25, 1928.
trade in every section of the country, so that
it needs no introduction to Presto-Times read-
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press ers. And not onh has it proved of incalculable
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring value to the retail sellers of pianos but also has
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur-
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that been relied upon by thousands of intelligent
is not strictly news of importance can have buyers. The best testimony for the useful
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they character of Presto Buyers Guide is presented
concern the interests of manufacturers or by the large number of piano merchants who
dealers such items will appear the week follow- employ it for reassuring their customers by
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the sustaining just claims set forth by their sales-
current issue must reach the office not later
men. The greatest merit of the book is its
(ban Wednesday noon of each week.
reliability. Every statement in Presto Buyers
Guide is sincere and estimates of the qualities
PROSPECTS AND CUSTOMERS
of the pianos, playerpianos and reproducing
Alert piano sales managers distinguish the pianos, are based on the personal knowledge
piano prospect from the piano customer, but of experts in the piano industry.
the differences are not so great. The pros-
pect is a prospective buyer until he actually
HOW TUNERS COOPERATE
pays his full price or his first installment on
The National Association of Piano Tuners
his chosen instrument ; the customer never
ceases to be a prospect. In fact, observant gives practical aid to piano promotion in its
managers have learned that many piano own- organized efforts to create and preserve the
ers are the most likely prospects for further interest of piano owners in the tunefulness of
their pianos. In every division of the associa-
sales
A cheap or moderately-priced piano, consid- tion the spirit of cooperation with the purposes
ered by parents as good enough while the chil- of the national organization is made clear in
dren are taking their earlier lessons, no longer ways most potent for results. Through the
fills the requirements when the youthful pu- spread of the local divisions the broad and
pils arrive at a more advanced stage in their helpful principles of the national association
musical education. Then, to the ambitious have been disseminated and thereby the dig-
students and their sympathetic parents, the nity and standing of the individual tuners have
been made manifest.
best piano is not too good for practice.
Man\' successful managers in piano depart-
ments now recognize the Truth of the fore-
going and their salesmen find valuable use of
their time in systematically interviewing the
old customers with a view to immediate or
future sales. The changes in the character of
the pianos within recent years suggest a new
mode of procedure to the salesmen in their
pleas to the old piano owners. Whether the
owners are fixtures in their dwelling places or
whether they are of the kind who annually
change their abodes, the ingenious piano sales-
man is equipped with arguments that interest.
The home owner, who usually has not the
detriment or cramped quarters to limit his
To inculcate a feeling of pride in their pianos
among piano owners is considered an object
worth striving for by the practical tuners. But
the necessity for funds to create and. support
an advertising campaign is recognized. At a
recent meeting the Chicago Division recom-
mended a fund that would be national in its
effects, and pledges to support it were
recorded.
Last week sixteen members of the Los An-
geles Division of the National Association of
Piano Tuners also pledged their support of the
campaign recommended by their Chicago
brothers and accepted the assessment of $50
each per year for three years, an equivalent of
February 25, 1928
$2,400 towards a national fund for advertising
purposes. It is another eloquent evidence of
tuner cooperation.
"In business," it was reported to the Na-
tional Wholesale Conference, recently held
under the auspices of the Chamber of Com-
merce of the United States, "as it is being
conducted today there is a pronounced ten -
dency to sell terms instead of goods and serv-
ices. Competition in certain lines appears to
have resolved itself into a free-for-all fight.
with prizes to the concern which will wait
longest for its money. Some observers are
disposed to lay the blame for this condition at
the door of the recent phenomenal expansion
of installment selling. It is, however, more
reasonable to suppose that it is due rather to
the wild scramble for volume, in which the
basic purpose of business—the making of
profits—has almost disappeared from the
picture."
* * *
A news item in Presto-Times this week an-
nounces the joyous fact that the Oregon Music
Trade Association has "come to life." That, of
course, is an exaggeration. In its condition for
a year there had been no signs of decay or
dissolution ; merely evidences of a torpid state
that seemed like death. Air. G. F. Johnson, the
president, frankly blames himself for neglect-
ing to set the alarm clock of association duty
and for failure to bring the members together
at frequent intervals. He says that at the elec-
tion meeting next month unmistakable signs
of resuscitation will be in evidence.
* * *
She who holds the purse strings rules the
world. Experts at New York declare that sta-
tistics show that 41 per cent of all the checking-
accounts in the country are women's, and they
give credit for this information to figures col-
lected by the Woman's Home Companion. In
the Eastern states 80 per cent of all savings
accounts are in the hands of women. In the
New York Telephone Company $680,000,000
worth of stock is held by women. Here is a
suggestion to piano men—to go after the
women harder for trade.
* * *
There is an encouraging significance in the
statement published last week that there were
less bank failures in the United States last year
than within the last five years on the basis of
Federal Reserve figures. Failures last year
were given as 294 less than in 1926. Of the
total of 662 failures, 124 were members of the
Federal Reserve system against a total of 956
failures in 1926 of which 160 were Reserve
Bank members.
* * *
"The Romantic Musical History of Cali-
fornia," from 1849 to 1928, recording facts of
musical interest "from mining camp to metrop-
olis," should be both interesting and instruc-
tive to people generally. And Alfred Metzger,
editor of the Pacific Coast Review, is an his-
torian particularly well fitted to write a book
of this character. The book will be published
soon.
* * *
The radio patent situation is being brought
to light before the Senate Committee on Pat-
ents. That body is trying to determine whether
the pooling of patents or their combination is
serving to create a giant monopoly in the radio
industry. A bitter fight apparently has opened
on the issue, delayed only temporarily by post-
ponement of the hearings on Senator Dill's
patent bill until some day this week.
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