The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1914)

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12 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. ^TALKING <^ EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Editor and Proprietor. J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor. Trade Representatives : Glad. Henderson, C. Chace, L. E. Bowers, B. Brittain Wilson, A. J. Nicklin, August J. Timpe, L. M. Robinson. Boston: John H. Wilson, 324 Washington Street. Chicago ©like : E. P. Van Harlingen, ?.7 So. Wabash Ave. Henry S. Kingwill, Associate. Philadelphia: R. W. Kauffman. Minneapolis and St. Paul : Adolf Edsten. San Francisco : S. H. Gray, 88 First St. I leveland : G. F. Prescott. St. Louis : Clyde Jennings. Cincinnati: Jacob W. Walter. London. Eng., Office : 2 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St. W. Lionel Sturdy, Manager. Representatives for Germany and *us ria : Verlag Nec Sinit, Berlin C. 19, Ross-Strasse 6, Germany. Geo. Rothgeiber, Director. Published the 15th of every month at 373 Fourth Ave., New York. SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States, Mexico, $1.00 per Year; Canada, $1.25; all other countries, $1.75. ADVERTISEMENTS: $3.00 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages, $100.00. REMITTANCES: should be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill by check or Post Office Money Order. *3T NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS. — Advertising copy should reach this office by the first of each month. By following this rule clients will greatly facilitate work at the publication headquarters. Long Distance Telephones — Numbers 5982-5983 Madison Sq. Cable Address: "Elbill," New York. NEW YORK, JANUARY 15, 1914. AT the beginning of the year most of us are apt to indulge in a little retrospective and prospective thought, and it is the aim of every business man to remedy certain policies which have been pursued in the past which have not proven their usefulness in a -business sense. What policy can be best adopted to make the talking machine business better for 1914? Have our practices and methods been thoroughly up-to-date? Are there any weaknesses which are discoverable when we analyze our various policies and systems ? These and other queries along similar lines will be considered by talking machine men everywhere. The industry has great possibilities and are we all making the ; most of them? That is the question! That the present position of the talking machine has advanced commercially, artistically and nationally, cannot be too strongly emphasized, for this broadening out in every department of life ■ means greater expansion of business for those whose financial interests are interlocked with the industry. The growing importance of the talking machine everywhere makes necessarily for the business advance of the men who are interested in disposing of these popular creations. Sometimes we feel that some of the talking machine dealers : throughout the country do not realize the importance of the product which they sell as an educational and instructive factor. For quite a period a large proportion of our population viewed the talking machine as a product the existence of which would be ephemeral. They did not take it seriously, but all that is changed. Artists internationally famous, in both the vocal and instrumental field, are now being heard through the aid of the talking machine in the homes of people who never without its mediumship would have become acquainted with good music. IT means the best in music has been carried from the concert stage to the parlor, and that our great singers and instrumentalists and our great orchestral organizations are now heard in every home, thus aiding the musical education of the people : helping to a keener appreciation of good music, and teaching them how to I enjoy music in the home in a manner never before possible. Then, if we consider the manufacturing department, it must be admited that the output has been vastly increased, for year by > year the manufacturing facilities have been greatly augmented. 1 In fact, the increase in the manufacturing department has been as : rapid as we could reasonably expect. It is impossible to create a great factory over night, and when we view the great plants, limited in number, but vast in space, it must be admitted that the manufacturers of talking machines have made every reasonable provision to take care of their trade with promptness and despatch. But notwithstanding these great plants involving the outlay of vast capital, they have been unable to keep up with the demand because by the aid of advertising running into colossal figures, the public has been more and more educated to the possibilities of the talking machine, its entertaining powers and its value as a home entertainer. Hence, the demand has been increased in a phenomenal manner. THEN another point which is of vital importance is the stability which has surrounded the trade through price maintenance. Every man in the talking machine trade has had the advantage of nationally advertised products and has had a price protection which has been of infinite value. A condition of price cutting and business disturbances have thus been happily and wisely avoided. And yet notwithstanding these unusual conditions of strength and stability there are retailers who, by their public exploitation, are doing things which would seem to us are not warranted by the conditions which surround the talking machine industry. Take, for instance, a public exploitation in which talking machines are offered on terms which are not in accordance with sound busines methods, and which seem to us to be superfluous and uncalled for. According to the advertising announcements of a department store, one dollar will place a $15 machine and $9 worth of records in the homes of purchasers. Future payments' can be made at the rate of fifty cents. A $5 payment will place a $100 machine and $10 worth of records in the home of the user, and a $10 note puts a $200 machine and $10 worth of records in the same place. Do not merchants who sell on such a basis strike a blow at the stability of the business everywhere? Why pay cash, even if you have it, when such terms are thrust at you? The men who put out pianos at nothing down and a dollar a week have long ago become convinced of the ruinous pace they were traveling, and the talking machine business which has to-day but three producing houses and no such competition as exists in the piano industry, yet some of the merchants deliberately violate all rules of business soundness in their evident anxiety to do business. We should bear in mind, too, the fact that such offerings affect the entire trade. They establish a standard of selling terms which is liable to be put up to talking machine men in every city and every hamlet throughout the land. What in the name of common sense, when there are not enough goods to go around, is the use of offering a man a machine worth $200 and $10 worth of records for a ten dollar note? The buyer can use the machine a month with the records and then return it. The returned machines are sold again as new. Is this right? What is the machine but a used product, and how much are the records depreciated? Furthermore, does anyone believe for a moment that there are not many people who would take advantage of such terms who do not, at the time they order the machine, expect to keep it beyond a very limited time? Again the advertisers deliberately turn a cash business from their own establishments by such offerings. Why should a man pay cash for a talking machine when he can get one for a few dollars per month? Why not run over a period of a couple of years in his payments when it costs him, no more ? Such advertising hurts in more ways than one, for it creates a long time small payment credit business out of what otherwise might prove a near cash transaction, and it tells the man who has the cash that he need not pay it save in homeopathic doses over a long period. Is that good business? What is the advantage of offering a hundred dollar machine for $5 a month and a bunch of records included? Under those conditions the purchaser who desired to have a talking machine in his home during the holidays could secure a good machine and a few records before Christmas, and after a month's use decide that he does not desire the machine, return it with the records, and gets his money back. Can you beat it? Not very well — machine, records, music for a month at no cost.