The talking machine world (July-Dec 1926)

50 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD October 15, 1926 SSISJAIKINS'MACHINI [Editor's Note. — This is the sixty-second of a series of articles by William Braid White devoted to the various interesting opportunities which prevail in the domain of education for the retailer of talking machines. The subject is one of great interest and we commend these articles to the consideration of all who are devoting attention to the featuring and developing of the musical possibilities of the talking machine.] The Era of Fine Recordings The big opportunity in the phonograph business today is in the record department. The wise merchant is the merchant who sees this and acts accordingly. Some records sell themselves, but records that sell themselves are like all other goods of the same kind. The demand for them is ephemeral and those who buy them are just as likely to go rushing off tomorrow after something else, possibly the last thing that could have been imagined as rivaling the former favorite. On the other hand, the record which sells all the year round and every year is the record of standard music performed by the best artists in the best way. The educational efforts of the National Federation of Music Clubs in State and local regions throughout the country are hardly if at all appreciated by talking machine dealers. These local music clubs are centers of musical culture, and crude though their efforts may often be, these are nevertheless sincere and wellmeant. Whatever is being done to-day in the United States towards bringing up the people out of a contempt for and indifference to the meaning of music and its place in civilized life is being done mainly by these and other like agencies. New Type of Demand Needed Now to-day the talking machine dealer has before him the problem of building up a new type of demand for his machines and his records. Let the dead bury their dead, and let U5 therefore forget absolutely the stupidities of old days when we had no rival to bring music out of the air and when we thought that to cultivate the musically intelligent or even the seekers after musical refreshment was waste of time, not worth the effort of practical business men. Let us rather look forward, for then we shall see clearly that henceforward talking machines and records will be bought only by those who really have been convinced of the superiority of these media above all others for the musical refreshment of the family and of the individual. In a word, we have henceforth to demonstrate the musical value of the talking machine and thus competitively to sell it. Which is precisely why the live dealer today, forgetting the past, will look keenly around him to find those who are likely to listen with interest and not with indifference to the bearer of musical good-tidings. The modern talking machine, and even more the present-day records, are such apostles. Yet it is perfectly safe to say that not one in ten of the hundreds of local music clubs which constitute the National Federation has yet had from a local dealer the offer of a private hearing with a program worthy of the occasion and staged with the care and knowledge which in this case are everything. And why not? Apparently because our talking machine dealers still insist that the musical people will not spend money on machines and records. Which is about the biggest nonsense one has heard of in many a day. On the other hand, here is something not at all nonsensical; it is that the great mass of the music lovers of the United States, outside the greater cities at any rate, knows nothing of the marvelous revolution that has taken place in the powers and capacities of the talking machine, while still less do these people realize that to-day they can obtain the recorded performances of the world's greatest orchestras and soloists, not in snippy dribs and drabs of Italian opera and innocuous arrangements of wishy-washy instrumental pieces, but in the complete works of the greatest composers, to complete operas even, complete symphonies, overtures, string quartets, everything of the best, done by the most inspired and world-famous composers of the present and of past days. And Here's the Field It is only necessary to do a little thinking to see quite clearly that here is a vast field of prospective demand almost entirely untilled. For ^ts mrywavc! 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CO. the thousands of women in every State of the Union, who make up the Music Clubs Federation and the almost innumerable private and unattached local clubs and societies, are constantly studying the standard repertoire of large musical works, and when they cannot get to hear these works performed by great orchestras are contenting themselves with learning and playing, at their club meetings, inadequate piano arrangements. In other words, to these thousands of women the talking machine industry can come to-day and offer not only a substitute but an immensely superior means for music study. To-day, without exaggeration, it may be said that the performances of a great symphony orchestra can be reproduced with a fidelity of detail, an intensity of power and a sense of reality such as a few years ago would have been considered out of the question. Yet these things are here, they are at the disposal of the public. They await only proper demonstration to be publicly recognized and publicly acclaimed. Now it seems to me that a talking machine dealer who is alive to his opportunities will make it his business to see that every group of musical people in his community has the opportunity of hearing the new records and machines in conditions as nearlj' perfect as may be possible. By that, I mean in conditions suited to each group and carefully chosen for the requirements of each. For instance, the local Music Club naturally will be interested in hearing a program equivalent to what could be heard at a symphony or string quartet concert. In preparing a program for such a group the aid should be sought of some prominent local musician who could be engaged to give to the hearers a running commentary on the music and acquaint them with what they were to hear and with the best way of listening to it. Such a person, too, would give the best possible aid in choosing the numbers to be performed; and so on. These records (like, for instance, the magnificent series of imported recordings known as the Columbia Masterworks) have been produced at enormous cost and to be sold, not to be looked at. All Sorts of Prospects There are many and varied groups of musically inclined people in every community of any size. For instance, there are the classes, elementary and advanced, of all the better music teachers. Then there are the members of the High School band or orchestra, who have seldom "^had the opportunity to hear good music vfell performed on a large scale and whose instructor will in most cases be only too happy to have his young musicians hear something of the very best. Along with such work the merchant can stock and sell miniature scores, which are low in price, ranging from about sixty cents up to two dollars apiece, and which add immensely to the value which attaches to the possession of a fine set of records. The sale of such scores should be part of the work of every store which is promoting the sale of the fine new orchestral and instrumental ensemble records now available. One more point: When work of this kind has been done with good results, a climax to a season could be had by giving a whole opera complete. It can be done. Ask your manufacturer. Of course, this sort of thing must be done well, or not done at all. He who takes the trouble to do this sort of thing well is sure of a rich reward. For the selling of the talking machine and of records henceforth is the selling of music and of nothing else.