The talking machine world (Jan-June 1925)

62 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD May 15, 1925 Basis of Future Talking Machine Selling Recent Developments in Recording Give Dealers Opportunity to Meet Unusual Competitive Conditions by New Sales Arguments The future of the talking machine business is in the hands of the retail merchant; but the talking machine record in turn will in the future be the determining and controlling clement of the merchant's business. These two truths are at the basis of all sane and sound thought about the talking machine industry, about talking machine salesmanship and about the probabilities for expansion and prosperity in this industry. Sooner or later this truth had to push itself forward to the front of every question in the whole industry; for ever since there was a talking machine, the record has been the determining factor in its progress. The talking machine is the body but the record is its brain; and if a brain must function through a body, certainly a body without a brain is useless. And when one thus speaks of "the record" in the singular, one means of course records in general, one means all the records, the idea of record in its collective sense, and by no means any one single disc. It ought perhaps to be unnecessary to say anything so obvious as this about the sense in which the word record was used and it would be quite unnecessary if the practice of the trade, whatever their theory has been, did not so steadily lead one to suppose that a talking machine sale was well and satisfactorily made when one record had been added to the purchase. In a word, if the trade had always realized that not one record, but many records, sold with every talking machine and bought steadily by all owners of talking machines, form the only sound basis for trade prosperity, it would not be necessary to lay so much stress upon obvious truths. Obvious Not Always Acceptable Obvious indeed these truths are but the obviousness of a truth is no guarantee that it will be generally accepted by those whom it principally concerns. To-day salesmanship in . the talking machine trade has to solve the not very simple problem of expanding to its proper ^dimensions a public demand which has of late been diverted bv formidable competition of many sorts. The talking machine no longer reigns without competition in a realm itself unique. It no longer finds itself sole provider of the universal reproduction of music. Consequently there is no longer the certainty that the public demand will account for a satisfactory output of machines and records. It is no longer possible to sit by and wait for the public to come in and buy. To-day, there are half a dozen interesting, fascinating and plausible attractions competing with the talking machine for the spending money of the people. Some of these attractions obtrude themselves directly upon the talking machine's own region; all of them are fascinating and formidable. "New Stuff" Consequently, then, talking machines to-day have to be sold. But when we have said this we have said something which we can contradict with equal truth and without the least hesitation as to our meaning. For we can say at once that it is not the talking machine at all which we must heretofore sell. The sales of talking machines have been large in the past -because there was no effective substitute for them. To-day there are substitutes, not of equal merit, not even indeed within a hundred miles of it in general adaptability. These substitutes attract attention because they are new. To talk merely "talking machine" as against these is to talk what may succinctly be called "old stuff." Talking "old stuff" is not effective in dealing with competition which is made up of very "new stuff." . New stuff must be countered by other "new stuff" and fortunately in the present case the "new stuff" is to hand, and requires on our part no effort save the very slight one of stretching out the hand to grasp it. What is this "new stuff?" It is of course the present exalted, wonderful and fascinating condition of the recording department of the talking machine business. The New Record Always the talking machine record has furnished the reason for the possession of a talk ing machine. Always the record has been the controlling feature in that sense; but only today is it seen to be true that the profit-making possibilities of the selling are in future to be bound up with increased sales of records. Record selling is to-day the great, the new, the hitherto-unexplored country which is open to all and which promises the greatest results for the exercise of even slight amounts of intelligent effort. That, in brief, is the "new stuff," the use of which may be guaranteed to cure any slow-sale evils of which the trade is complaining or is ever likely to have to complain. There was a time when the condition of the record catalog of any first-class house was not a condition to cause the merchant any particular joy. The listing of records, the choice of things to be recorded, and the manner of recording, were all subordinated to the personality of the recording artists. This of course could not but be so in the early days, for it was mainly the acceptance of the talking machine by great artists which brought about its acceptance by the masses of people. There has now however come a time when the mere lure of a name is not enough and when scrappy selections of this or that worn-out song, scene or fragment of a complete musical work no longer please. The people are learning more about music and beginning not only to know what they want but to ask for it. Therefore we now find that instead of little bits of things, "whole works are being done. That is why we find that great orchestral works are being done complete, by great orchestras, in two, three or four disc sets. That is why to-day one can get a whole opera in an album, complete from overture to final curtain. In a word, the talking machine is entering a new era. It used to be an interesting toy, then later it became an interesting and saleable example of the possibilities of the future, a prototype of the home music equipment of the future, when every family shall have its opera, its symphony orchestras and its solo artists in complete repertoire, all contained in one machine and one cabinet of marvelous, almost unimaginably perfect records. And lo! it is already coming to pass. The Music-Means of the Age To-day, be it understood,, the talking machine business is in a retail position such as never before it could have enjoyed. To-day there is a new record age upon us. To-day every owner of a talking machine is fair game for new sales of records. To-day every suggestion of the purchase of a talking machine may be winged with words of compelling power, for to-day the claim to give all music, whenever wanted, and however wanted, is within a short distance of complete fulfilment. The talking machine is no longer a toy. It is the one and the only actually indispensable music-means of the age. With the certain co-operation of the great manufacturing houses, now so fully committed to the policy of providing absolutely the whole literature of music for the talking machine owner's use and behalf, it is no exaggeration to say of the talking machine merchant that his business is entering upon a wholly new and wholly wonderful phase, with possibilities of expansion which only a few years ago could hardly have been imagined. Perhaps some will find themselves unable to see these possibilities so clearly, yet this blindness can only be temporary at the best. The new wine of the talking machine business is the new age of recording which is now upon us and this new wine has the inestimable advantage of filling old bottles without doing them the slightest harm and in fact with the certainty of doing them very much good. YOUR NAME Means something in your town Genera! Phonograph Corp. -OTTO HEINEMAN. Pres. 25 West 45th St., New York, N. Y. The most valuable sort of advertising is the kind that "gets into the home." Your name, imprinted on every one of your needle envelopes, is valuable advertising to you, for it goes into the homes of prospective record buyers. When it is linked to a nationally known product, such as Okeh Needles, and appears under the caption "packed expressly for" the tie-up is doubly strong. Your Okeh distributor is prepared to furnish Okeh Needle envelopes with your name printed in large, bold type, right on the front. Write at once for complete information. OKJL Needles