The talking machine world (Jan-June 1920)

June 15, 1920 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 15 miiniiiiiiiiiiiiiti iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHM iPiiniiiiiiiii The Value of "Music Memory Contests" to Talking Machine Dealers By A. Longaker § Hill Talking machine dealers throughout the country are beginning to appreciate the indirect advertising value of the various community music movements • that have recently been launched in the various cities. One of the most interesting of these movements, and one that is probably of the most direct value to talking machine dealers, is the "Music Memory Contest" that was held in Madison, Wis., during May. Its direct aim was to familiarize the people of the community with good music, some of the simpler melodies such as Cadman's "From the Land of the Sky Blue Water," and Rubinstein's "Melody in F." The music stores worked in direct co-operation. They furnished $100 worth of records as prizes, the various pieces could be heard in their stores, and the pieces selected for each week were posted in their windows. The committee in charge of the movement selected twenty-eight pieces, which they considered worth knowing. One piece was designated for each day of the four weeks of the contest. On that day it was played in the schools, in the homes, in the movies, in the churches, and in the music stores. At the end of the twenty-eight days, contests were held to which anyone living in Madison was eligible. Those who succeeded in identifying the names of the twenty-eight pieces and their composers received a talking machine record, which had been contributed by the music stores, as a prize. Much publicity was given to the pieces which had been selected for the day. As already has been mentioned a list of the pieces for the week was posted in all the music stores and in various other places throughout the city. In all the newspapers of the city an account of the piece of the day, which described it and gave something of its history, was published. In this way, as the following example shows, publicity was given to the music stores that could not have been bought for many dollars: "Music Memory Contest, Ninth of the twentyeight daily selection. Unfinished Symphony by Franz Peter Schubert. "In adding to our list a movement of a symphony, we have entered into the field of the most advanced musical composition. But any person with slight musical education who has been frightened by the rather forbidding title of today's selection can soon have his fears dispelled. lillllllillUIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM Many persons have learned to like olives by refusing to heed the reports of their sense of taste until they have eaten seven. Any person who will show as much consideration to his sense of hearing, and will listen to the first movement of the Schubert Unfinished Symphony seven times before passing judgment, can hereafter count himself as a lover of this beautiful music. The Unfinished Symphony, so-called because only two of the usual four parts or movements were completed, seems to be a chain of attractive nun How People in Madi ■ son, Wis., Heard ■ H Good Music Through the Aid of Talking ■ Machine Records ■ songs. The first movement opens with a mysterious strain in the bass, followed by a shimmering figure in the strings. Another theme soon appears which in the orchestra is played by the 'cellos, and has often been called the loveliest melody ever written. "The orchestral color is so essential in all symphonic works that phonograph records are practically indispensable. Fortunately all the Madison dealers have expressed their willingness to allow the public to hear these records." These daily contents were usually boxed in and given a strong position in the newspaper. Mr. Hook, of the Hook Bros.' music store, in speaking of the contest said: "The Music Memory Contest has had many results. It will help make a larger number of Madison people know good music, and I feel that this will make Madison a better place in which to live. It was this rather than any sense of commercial value of the movement that led me to co-operate in the pl?.:i by giving some of our records as prizes. The contest, however, has an indirect advertising value. It brings some people into the store to hear the pieces played. It tends to create a desire for a talking machine. Most of all it creates in an innumerable number of school children a new interest in music. "This interest of the children in music is of indirect value, but it bears fruits. Most families want to create in children a love for music. Probably nothing would influence them more to think of buying a talking machine than this sudden, and probably rather unexpected, interest of children in the 'Ave Maria,' instead of in the latest popular song." Albert E. Smith, of the Wisconsin Music Co., cast a different light on the value of the contest. He said: "I think the contest was a corking good thing. Of course, the value that has come to us is indirect, but in the long run an indirect method may prove the most direct. "The people in whose lives music means much are not those who buy the popular jazzy records, but those who have an appreciation of good music. It is those people who continue to love music. And certainly talking machines are the pioneers in interesting people in good music. "I have a theory that people who buy popular records, though for the time being they may buy many, eventually tire of them and cease to buy at all. On the other hand people who buy chiefly good music in their records appreciate these records. They do not buy as many records as those who buy popular records, but they do not fall away after one or two years' time. They are constant. The Music Memory Contest is training this kind of customers. "It's but another form of that statement which has been proved true so often that it's almost axiomatic, 'the advancement of music means the advancement of the music trade, though, perforce, indirectly.' " MAYER IS EASTERN UNICO MANAGER A. C. Mayer, who has for some time been district manager in Cleveland for the Unit Construction Co., of Philadelphia, has been appointed Eastern sales manager, with headquarters in New York. William Richards, former Southern representative, has been appointed to take charge of the Cleveland district, succeeding Mr. Mayer.