The talking machine world (Jan-June 1920)

June 15, 1920 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 201 L&\N!N<3S HANDSOME MUSIC TITLE PAGES HELP WINDOWJDISPLAYS Attractive Lithograph Titles Tend to Draw Public Attention and Give a Much-desired Touch of Color to the Ordinary Talking Machine Window — Makes Music Selling Profitable Talking machine dealers handling sheet music find the modern title pages of the popular music of the present day a most important adjunct in planning their window displays. Some of the publishers are turning out lithographed title pages carrying from six to nine colors, and very few popular numbers are issued in less than three colors. Music publishers during the past few years have planned their title pages with great care, many of them are the work of our best artists, and it is not infrequent to see a Harrison Fisher cr Henry Hutt title page. While the price of title pages has soared like all other products during the past two seasons, the fact that the retail price of practically all the present day successes is thirty cents, has added somewhat to the revenue of the publishers, so they have not stinted in their appropriations for that purpose. The publishers and music jobbers state that since the majority of the popular houses have inaugurated thirty cent catalogs, the number of sheet music dealers that have added such departments to their stores, has greatly increased. In the old days when the majority of the popular numbers retailed at ten cents, the profits accruing to the retailer hardly justified the space allowed for such purposes. To-day the dealer stocking the "hit" numbers gets a quick turnover and a very good profit. It is apparently the custom with the majority of talking machine dealers to confine their stock of songs to the "hits" of the day. In this manner they do not find from time to time dead material on their hands. In addition to the title pages, which readily lend themselves to record publicity, the publishers issue much expensive display material which can also be used to good advantage. The .talking machine dealer who adds a line of sheet music to his business will find that he will receive the best co-operation from the publishers. They look with pleasure on any move of such dealers to add sheet music to their business. They, of course, feel they need new outlets, and under more normal conditions the move would be a welcome one as far as they are concerned. But with the advance of the retail price of popular numbers from ten cents to thirty cents, they have lost a means of distribution formerly given them by one of the largest syndicates having over 1,000 stores, but who have a definite rule to confine their individual sales to ten cents as a maximum. In handling "hit" songs, the dealer will find that with a conspicuous display of the goods he hardly need put further energy in developing sales. Such numbers practically sell themselves, and as they are invariably recorded numbers, the record does its share to create a demand in the dealer's locality. In addition, such numbers are constantly being played by the orchestras and in the case of a song are sung frequently in vaudeville. The fact that one syndicate having close to a thousand stores formerly averaged in sales from 300,000 to 500,000 copies of the prevailing successes, shows that any dealer with a proper display and sales and merchandising methods can, with such numbers selling at thirty cents, readily add to his revenue. Formerly when popular sheet music sold at ten cents, dealers were wary of stocking sheet music, as they did not feel that they could compete with the syndicate stores, and of course the profit on each sheet of music was so small that it deterred them from making such an investment. Now, with the retail price of thirty cents firmly established, the profit justifies such an investment, and in addition competition from syndicate stores has been cut to a great extent, and those syndicates which have departments that can handle thirty cent music have an established policy of upholding prices, so the field is quite clear for the talking machine dealer to place sheet music in stock — at least the best sellers. Certainly it is preferable for him to sell sheet music rather than fishing tackle, or other wares that have nothing to do with the advancement of music. | Men Who Make Popular Songs § No. 12— Fred Fisher Adding to his laurels as a successful writer of popular songs, Fred Fisher, head of the publishing firm that bears his name, has had bestowed upon him the glory of writing the lyric and publishing one of the greatest song and instrumental successes of this generation, "Dardanella." It is seldom we see a songwriter a success as a publisher, and more seldom as a lyricist, com(Continued on page 202) s cjRmersorh Records and Phonographs OME No. 10183 NUMBE R A BELWIN SONG A A« EMERSON RECORD A 1 OO ^-COMBINATION1 OO 2