The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1906)

THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. marvelous entertaining possibilities of to-day. Ttien, too, it may be said that all of the trade influences are not helpful to-day, for there are a good many poor records which are placed on the market by some of the concerns who are over-anxious to produce them in vast numbers each month and who invariably sacrifice quality to quantity. GOOD records are essential to the upbuilding of the trade, and the wide sale of poor records is a positive injury to the business. The process of the elimination of records cannot be studied too carefully by the record makers. Records which are correct in every musical attribute are the ones which help the talking machine business, and do much to entirely eliminate the false impression created by some writers. If the talking machine had been largely in evidence at the Madison Square Garden Show it would have been helpful to the business. Then, too, it would have been the means of attracting visiting music dealers to the talking machine as a business getter. Madison Square Garden has now become the headquarters of annual shows of nearly all sorts. The variety and scope of these affairs have been gradually amplified, until now, one after another, they make nearly a continuous sequence through the season. THE Music Show was the first of its kind, but it has come to stay as an annual feature, and it would not be surprising if within the very near future some enterprising manager should inaugurate a talking machine show at the Madison Square Garden. The show could be confined to automatically operated instruments, thus enlarging the scope to include piano players, and coin-operating machines as well as talking machines. It would certainly give the automatic music makers tremendous prominence, and it would give the talking machine a national prominence, and would show up its present attributes. The daily papers would comment upon the exhibition, thus calling the attention of the public to the talker. The universal appeal of music suggests opportunity for scope and bigness in a music show. There might be some misgivings as to the propriety of making a show in the public sense out of music or music producing inventions outside of those played upon by hand, but it is far more likely that public knowledge and taste will be benefited rather than harmed by an increased knowedge of automatically operated music producing instruments. Why not a national talking machine show? MANY of our people have in mind the talking machine of early days when it was, to a large degree, a scientific novelty, and they do not have the faintest conception that years of painstaking experiments and the expenditure of enormous sums of money have wrought a wonderful evolution in the talking machine which makes it a wholly different instrument, and one well fitted to occupy a prominent place in the musical creations of to-day. Dealers who sell the talking machine cannot emphasize its educational features too strongly. It is creating a love for music that cannot be gratified in any other way. It is acquainting thousands of people with the works of great composers and stimulating a regard for music which would be impossible for them to attain without tne medium of the talking machine. THERE is a note of good cheer in every report of trade conditions which comes to hand. Never before in our national history has the volume of business equalled that which is at present pouring through tne various channels of commerce. The restoration of normal conditions in the various lines consequent upon the ending of the vacation season, and the fact that there is unusual freedom from labor troubles have had the effect of giving the country the full benefit of its heaviest trading power at a time when probably its largest crops were being harvested. THE wave of prosperity does not appear to be confined to any particular section or sections. It is covering the entire land and varies only with the productive capacity of shops, mills and earth. The talking machine factories, running to their utmost capacity, some with day and night shifts, are still unable to keep up with the demand. We know of concerns that are over 100,000 instruments behind in their orders, and yet they have a producing capacity of over six thousand instruments per day. These figures furnish only an illustration of the enormous growth of the talking machine business. It has advanced by leaps and bounds, and as a well known traveler remarked the other day: "TheWorld was absolutely correct in its first editorial utterance when it stated that the talking machine business was only in its infancy." Of course, we were. It is going ahead all of the time, and men who three years ago figured that the business had reached its highest point are amazed when they find that this year is several times ahead of the output of three years ago. It is a comparatively new trade, and there is plenty of new, vigorous life in the business. There are plenty of young men who see an opportunity to win good results for their efforts and they do not hesitate to cast their lot with the talking machine industry. THIS fall certainly should be a most prosperous one for talking machine men everywhere, for all reports which reach The World offices are of the most optimistic character. Mercantile collections are reported prompter in spite of the recent tightness of the money market, and the fall distribution of goods is unusually heavy. There is really nothing but hopefulness in the future. As the man at The World masthead views the situation, it is full of hope and promise for the talking machine men, and this trade will well repay every effort which is placed upon it. There are a number of new concerns, in the business who have organized good business machinery for the sale of talking machines and accessories. ACCORDING to some reports which have reached The World office there will be some new factors in the business in the snow days. Well, it is competition which makes the business world hum, and it is impossible for men in any industry to long occupy exclusive preserves. THERE seems to be no dearth of legal complications in this line, and presumably troubles will multiply as the years roll on, for a number of inventive minds will constantly be at work on new patents and devices, with, of course, possibilities of infringement upon the rights of others. EDWARD LYMAN BILL, ■ Editor and Proprietor J. B. SPILLANE. Managing Editor. Trade Representatives: Geo. B. Keller. F. H. Thompson, W. N. Tyler, B. Brittain Wilson. Boston Office: Ernest L. Waitt, 278a Tremont St. Chica.^o Office: E. P. Van Harlingen, 195-197 Wabash Ave. Texephones: Central, 414; Automatic, 8643. Philadelphia Office: Minneapolis and St. Paul: W. H. Prescott. a . W. Shaw. St. Louis Office: San Francisco Office: Chas. N. Van Buren. Alfred Metzger, 40 Kearney St. Cleveland Office: G. F. Prescott. London, England, Office: 69 Basinghall St., E. C. W. Lionel Sturdy, Manager. Published the 15th of eveiy month at I Madiion Ave. N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION (including postage). United States, Mexico and Canada, One Dollar per year; all other countries, $1.25. England and her colonies, five shillings. ADVER.TISLMENTS. $2.00 per inch. sinRle column, per insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $60.00; special position, $75.00. REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill. t^lMPORTANT. Advertisements or changes should reach this office by the first ot each month. Advertisements arriving too late for insertion in the current issue will, in the absence of instructions, be inserted in the succeeding issue. Long DisiSLnce Telephon*— Numb r 1745 Gramercy. Cable Add.ess: ••Elbili." New York. NEW YOR.K. OCr. 15,1906. THE talking machine in its present stage of development is but little understood by the public and there was a splendid opportunity which was not embraced by manufacturers to illustrate its marvelous advance at the National Music Show which recently closed at the Madison Square Garden. Thousands of people could have been entertained *by the talking machines and would then form a correct idea of their present development to the exclusion of the "toy" theory. It seems that every now and then in the daily papers articles appear similar to the following, which is from a lengthy editorial in the New York Mail and Express. It shows that the average writer is not familiar with its musical powers: "There is a large and legitimate place for the phonograph in a business office, as a means of instruction in language, as a toy, in acquainting the music student with scores of classics; but it should not be forgotten that it is a toy, a curiosity, a piece of soulless mechanism, and not a musical instrument responsive to the singer or player." The man who penned the lines quoted above must have been closely perusing Sousa's knocking article, in which he contemptuously referred to the "canned music" of to-day. WHAT an opportunity the Music Show would have been to have exhibited the talking machine in its present remarkable state of development. Demonstrations could have been made there which would have clearly eliminated the false impression given by many writers in the daily press who seem over-fond of indulging in flings at the talldng machine. There are many people to-day who have not the faintest conception of the powers of the modern talking machine. They associate the creation of these days with the thin voiced, squeaky, scraping machine of years ago, and they have no knowledge of its