The talking machine world (Jan-June 1928)

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34A u> โ€” ยป * c^or dealers ^ Wholesalerspmanufachrm of phonograph" t>rddio products (Registered in the U. S. Patent Office) FEDERATED BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS, Inc. President, Raymond Bill; Vice-Presidents, J. B. Spillane, Randolph Brown; Secretary and Treasurer, Edward Lyman Bill; Assistant Secretary, L. B. McDonald; Assistant Treasurer, Win. A. Low. RAYMOND BILL, Editor B. B. WILSON, BRAID WHITE, Associate Editors C. R. TIGHE, Managing Editor LEE ROBINSON, Business Manager FRANK L. AVERY, Circulation Manager Trade Representatives: E. B. Munch, Victor C. Gardner, V. E. MOYNAHAN, ROYCE CODY, A. J. NlCKLIN Western Division: Republic Building, 209 So. State Street, Chicago, 111. Telephone, Wabash 5242. Leonard P. Canty, Manager. Boston : John H. Wilson, 324 Washington Street. London, Eng;., Office: 68 Milton St. (Fore St.) EC. 2. Clerkenwell 1448. The Talking Machine World has regular correspondents located in all of the principal cities throughout America. Published the 15th of every month at 420 Lexington Ave., New York SUBSCRIPTION (including postage): United States, Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada, $3.00; all other countries, $4.00. Single copies, 25 cents. ADVERTISEMENTS: $6.50 per inch, single column, per insertion. Advertising pages, $172.00. On yearly contracts for display space a special discount is allowed. REMITTANCES should be made payable to The Talking Machine World by check or Post Office Money Order. IV NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS โ€” Advertising copy should reach this office before the first of each month. By following this rule clients will greatly facilitate work at the publication headquarters. Long Distance Telephone โ€” Number 1760 Lexington Cable Address: "Elbill," New York NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1928 Getting Refunds on Jewelry Tax ACCORDING to a report made by General Manager Smith, of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, the music merchants of the country are a generous lot. They are more or less quick to protest against the levying and collection of taxes that are deemed illegal, but when the Government officials agree with them, they hesitate about demanding the rebate of money that has been paid illegally and under duress. This idea of the music merchant's generosity may be a little exaggerated, but the fact remains that many of them apparently are unaware of the results of the recent test case of C. G. Conn, Ltd., vs. the United States in the matter of a so-called jewelry tax as applied to band instruments decorated with precious metals where it was held that the collection of such taxes on musical instruments was unlawful and not in keeping with the intentions of the Revenue Act. It is understood that the same ruling will apply to taxes paid some years ago on various types of high class talking machines wherein the exposed metal parts were gold plated, although manufacturers and dealers in collaboration managed to have such instruments exempted from the jewelry tax after a hard fight. As a result of the Conn decision it is held that some thousands of music merchants handling band instruments are entitled to a refund of taxes paid on such instruments under the jewelry clause of the Radio Act and they are urged by Mr. Smith to take immediate steps to have their attorneys act to the end of recovering such money. The Chamber of Commerce will be very glad to advise with the accountants or the attorneys of those who seek to make such tax recovery. An All-Embracing Market T^HE man who orders one of the $1,000 or $1,500 models of combined talking machine and radio instruments is likely to wait a week or two more for delivery, not that he may be impressed with the importance of the deal, but because the demand for such instruments is keeping up with the supply and in some cases a little bit ahead of it. At the same time one manufacturer The Talking Machine World, New York, February, 1928 of portable phonographs is credited with having manufactured and sold over a quarter of a million of those instruments last year. These facts are significant because they emphasize the widespread character of the present market for the modern phonographs of various types, wherein the dealer has the opportunity for developing a big unit business and rapid turnover. The dealer who looks upon his talking machine business in the same light he did ten or even five years ago cannot have the proper conception of the opportunities that are his to-day. Then sales averaged something like $100 or less, while to-day instruments ranging in retail price from $500 to $1,500 or more can be sold with surprising ease if the market is properly studied and suitable effort made. The public is evidently educated to paying substantial sums for what it really desires, and for those not in a position naturally to gratify their desires in $500 or $1,000 chunks there still remains the large assortment of models ranging above and below $100. 5 The sale of the big units is in no sense automatic. It requires first, as a well-known sales manager puts it, the confidence of the dealer m the value of a product and in his ability to demonstrate it before the right people and to sell it. If he thinks in terms of $50 and $100 sales he is not going to force factory production on the $1,000 models, but if he thinks in terms of $500 or $1 000 and devotes himself to the field that can absorb those instruments, he is going to be rewarded in like proportion. Big unit sales represent the cream of the business and there still remain the thousands and hundreds of thousands 'of sales of the more moderate priced models that appeal to the man on the street, so to speak. Never in the history of the industry has there been such an opportunity to get in for big money in the talking machine business, while still profiting in the general market. Strengthening Public Confidence T-HK move of the Engineering Division of the Radio Manu1 factum's' Association in defining the terms "socket power" and "electric" as applied to radio receivers for the information and protection of both the trade and the public, is distinctly in the right direction, for within the past year or so there has developed much general confusion relative to the actual meaning of these terms. In defining what may be referred to as a "socket" power set or "electric" set the manufacturers have not only given the legitimate dealer a sound basis upon which to work, but have also opened the way for checking the activities of that element of the trade which is inclined to be a bit careless, to say the least, in advertised statements. The definitions offered by the engineers may be accepted as authoritative and final, and in the hands of the authorities should prove effective weapons in the prosecution of misleading advertisers. It represents another step in the development of public confidence in radio. Specializing in Home Entertainment THE announcement made recently by Sherman, Clay & Co., the prominent music house of the Pacific Coast, of the establishment of motion picture camera departments in all the stores of the company's extensive chain, is particularly significant, for the reason that the company explains the move as being logical from the standpoint that it is in the business of providing home entertainment, and that the motion picture camera and projector for the use of the amateur comes under that general head. In short, the new departments have not been installed to offset deficiencies in the music business, but rather as a means for extending the company's sphere of usefulness and service. If the new policy is carried out by the music dealers generally, or even by a fair percentage of them, it should lead to the development of a new type of emporium handling all those things which have to do with entertainment in the home. We have seen the original piano store branch out and handle phonographs, with the majority of them going further and installing stocks of wind and stringed instruments and sheet music. Then came radio and a majority of the so-called general music stores began the retailing of radio apparatus, which at the present time represents the last word in musical entertainment in the home. The amateur motion picture outfit distinctly fits into the family circle as a means of enter