The talking machine world (Jan-June 1928)

Sales Possibilities in the Finest Records Phonograph Record Dealers Not Keeping Pace With Manufacturers in Their Efforts to Bring the Music of the Masters to the Masses THE ending of another year sees the talking machine trade in a condition which the most pessimistic would be obliged to call healthy. No one will think of denying that the phonograph staged a complete comeback two years since, nor that the wise, farsighted and courageous policy of the manufacturers has been thoroughly justified. Retail merchants — or such of them as think beyond the needs or the exigencies of the moment — are quite commonly willing to admit all this; and to that extent it may be said that all parties are in agreement. When, however, we come to deal with the big questions of salesmanship we are obliged to say that the practice of retailing still lags far behind the principles on which the manufacturers acted when they scrapped the old machines and the old methods of recording, adopted revolutionary new methods, and set out to conquer their territories afresh. For, strange as it may seem to the outsider, there is every good reason for' saying that many retail merchants in the phonograph trade have as yet shown little sign that they understand the principles on which rests their future prosperity. When the manufacturers acted so drastically and courageously three years ago, this was because they realized clearly what had happened. The merchants in their turn must come to this realization and then acquire the courage to act upon it. What They Learned What was it that the manufacturers realized? Why, simply that the talking machine as an individual piece of salable material could only withstand competition by giving something that other instruments could not give, and giving it actually in a more satisfactory way. In other words, if the phonograph could be made to excel in the matter of reproduction, while preserving its unique ability to record the finest of performances and store them up for use whenever and wherever wanted, then the phonograph could continue to exist, and even to become By W. Braid White steadily a greater factor in the entertainment of the nation. Failing this, the phonograph was doomed. Now the phonograph has been brought to the point where its reproduction is evidently perfect. This has been accomplished mainly through the development of electrical recording systems which have by now become universal, for the reproducing mechanism contained in the machine needed only incidental and not fundamental alteration. Even the electrical pick-up is of far less importance than the electrical record. It is this latter which to-day actually dominates the phonograph situation. The wise merchant will be he who can see this, and act accordingly. The Deliberate Policy The manufacturers indeed have seen this. They have seen clearly that no development of reproducing machinery would be worth talking about so long as the recording was not brought up to date. While recognizing the demand for dance and popular music generally, it is clear that manufacturers have deliberately begun a policy of building up a library of high-class recordings so splendid in choice of title and in reproduction as to bring the phonograph, in the ears of music lovers everywhere, to a position of exaltation which five years ago could never have been anticipated. In a word, the record rules the roost; and the manufacturers know it, For that very reason it is absolutely necessary that phonograph merchants should make up their minds to take the high-class electrically-recorded record, study its possibilities of sale in the community, and develop those possibilities up to a point of profitability. All this is neither difficult nor unpractical. It is merely a matter of recognizing that the high-class record is to-day the basis on which phonograph recording willy-nilly must stand. The Stock Objection I am well acquainted with the stock answer to any such statement. It will be said that the record buyer who wants a piece of dance music will come in, say what he wants, pay for his purchase and leave within ten minutes; whereas the prospective buyer of a high-class record demands attention, personal time of a salesman for demonstrating, and the trying of half a dozen pieces. The objection is sound enough so far as it goes, but it does not alter the facts of the situation. If buyers of high-class records do not know what they want and must be attended to assiduously and at much expenditure of valuable time, that is because the phonograph merchants are not yet reaching those who do know what they want. And that is the only rebuttal needed. Many Lovers of Music At least it is the only one needed if and when its implications are grasped. For the fact is that the music-loving population of this country is already very large, if we include within the classification all those men and women who are interested directly and indirectly in good music, who go to concerts, who play some musical instrument or who sing. There are some millions of these people; yet one would make not the least mistake in saying that the vastly greater number of them are simply not aware that modern phonograph recording is able to give the very best of orchestral, ensemble and solo music, vocal and instrumental, into their possession, at very low cost, and that the modern machine reproduces this music with all the beauty and power of the original. I wonder how many of the music lovers of this country know that the nine symphonies of Beethoven are available in the new recording or the piano quintet of Brahms, the B flat piano trio of Schubert, and a whole stack of string quartets, piano and violin sonatas, piano and violin concertos with orchestra, and even specimens of out-of-the-way delightful music hardly ever performed in public? How many know that it is possible to have at home enough music of every kind to provide a musical atmosphere such as hardly a professional musician can dream of enjoying? In fact, how many dealers know anything about these things? And if dealers don't know, how can it be expected that they shall sell good high-class records in large quantities? If the blind lead the blind . . . A Program It is quite evident to me that a lot of workneeds to be done to bring before the dealers the existing facts, especially in the way of removing the absurd notion that there is something exotic, hard to understand, indeed almost foreign (hateful thought) and un-American about trying to become interested in pushing good music? It is evident that the phonograph dealers have a lot to learn about high-class records, and especially have to be taught to overcome their apparent reluctance to make themselves personally acquainted with these things. And to these ends I propose to go forward during 1928 with considerably more emphasis than ever before, in the work of bringing before dealers month by month all that I can find out about the best classes of record, about how to handle them, how to demonstrate them, how to sell them at a profit and how to build a business in them. If I can succeed to any extent in building up dealer interest in these matters, I shall be doing the best service I can do for all concerned. The 1928 program, so far as I am concerned, then, is to run along these lines. And I think that some good for all concerned is likely to be accomplished. Dealers find our service profit-able. For the products we represent are fully guaranteed. Our terms are right. And we offer helpful selling suggest tions plus merchandising aid. Write today for catalogshowing Allen Portables — the finest complete line ever presented to the trade, 'and nationally advertised. SOUTHERN ALUMINUM COMPANY 515 Conti Street New Orleans, La. 22