Variety (November 1954)

44 niCH FIDELITY PfatlETT Wednesday, November 24, 1954 Consumer Interest Into Consumer Sales By ROBERT A. SEIDEL (Executive V.P., RCA Consumer Products) After what must be considered the introductory year of high fidelity as a mass market product, the boxoffice appeal o‘f this finer music-in-the-home service has been definitely established. For the first time, the radio-phonograph industry and the distributor-dealer, trade organization now have a fairly good idea of the initial size of the market and its poten- tial. Based oh the best figures available and projecting for the remainder of the year, it is estimated that con- sumers will spend approximately $140,000,000 on high fidelity equipment this year. This includes completely assembled instruments as well as components ,for .home- assembled units. Including records, total, consumer expen- diture in the high fidelity field should be approximately $350,000,000. In article after article appearing in the special high fidelity section published by Variety just one year ago, the point constantly emphasized was that the “new sound" heralded the. advent of a new era for the industry. Frank M, Folsom, president of RCA, in a signed article urging the entire electronics industry to be alert to the opportunity presented by the growing interest in high fidelity, said: “This mass market is not staked out for any one company, nor can it be developed to its full potential by anything less than industry-wide recognition and action." In 1953, the best “guestimate" of business done in hi-fi assembled instruments and components was between $60,- 000,000 and $70,000,000. The fact that instrument and. component sales amounted to approximately double that in the year that has passed and that record manufacturers have swung over to high fidelity techniques indicate that the industry .has harkened to the call of hi-fi. In facing up to a realistic picture after a full year’s experience, three important fundamentals become appar- ent. For one, high fidelity can be sold in the mass market, but not without.added'effort beyond that expended on the conventional music reproducing instruments; for another, high fidelity has been “plus" business since it evolved as a mass market product; and third, and perhaps most im- portant, the market has barely been scratched and still represents a tremendous opportunity for the industry and trade. In the past year, high fidelity has become a topic of wide discussion. National magazines have covered the subject from “tweeter" to “woofer." Newspapers have run special sections on hi-fi, arid this has been supplemented by trade' advertising. Hi-fi shows, have increased ,in number throughout the country, and attendance has been unusually large. And yet it is safe to guess that to every person who has purchased some high fidelity equipment, pei'haps a thousand have become interested, Herein lies the chal- lenge to manufacturers, distributors, and dealers—the challenge facing the industry is to translate consumer interest into consumer sales. For an industry which has moved millions of phono- graphs, radios, and television sets into homes throughout the land, this is by no means an insurmountable challenge. The ingenuity, imagination, and skill which have character- ized the merchandising, promotion, and selling of this industry in the past cam—and should—be marshalled to meet this challenge. An important key to translating, consumer interest into consumer sales, so far as high fidelity is concerned, is expansion of distribution for easy, convenient consumer accessibility of the merchandise. Volume sales cannot be attained if consumers must make a search for a source of supply. This calls for a larger number of dealers carrying assembled hi-fi instruments, and effectively merchandising them. In the components field, distribution can similarly be broadened.. The development of promotional programs is an im- portant factor in the realization of mass volume business in high fidelity. That the industry is becoming aware of this need is evidenced by the number of promotions u'hich have only recently appeared. Distributors and dealers, who have a stake in this field, should plan to support factory promotions and advertising with local efforts. The key to successful selling of this type of merchandise is demonstrated under conditions free of distractions. How large a factor high fidelity will become in the electronics industry is still to be determined. That it can become a volume, sales producer of some importance is already evidenced. Ahead Is the task of fully realizing the potential of high fidelty. i | The Composer And Hip Fidelity !; • ■ -■ -B y GEORGE R. MAREK= (Director of. Artists & Repertoire, RCA Victor) Every night a few of us in the record business bow three times, first to the north and; then to the south, where the high and the low frequencies are located. We-sing our hymn of thanks to HF. “We" being the a&r man, the recording engineer, the sales manager, the dealer and the critic. We all love High Fidelity. But there is one. fellow who can’t bow, nor can he raise his voice, whether in praise or in protest. He has, in most cases, departed for Elysian fields, He is the composer. How, I wonder, would Beethoven have felt about High Fidelity? The composer has every reason to be grateful for High Fidelity. The image of his thought is today reproduced in a brightly-polished mirror, as against a sometimes cloudy mirrored image which he obtained with the old recording methods. What the polished mirror can do for the composer is evident in the sound of such new record- ings as Fritz Reiner’s “Richard Strauss in High Fidelity" with the Chicago Symphony, “The Damnation of Faust" with Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony and Ar- thur Fiedler’s new interpretation of “Gaite Parisienne" with the Boston Pops or the Wagner album by Toscanini. Pardon me for choosing Victor recordings for my ex- amples—but those are the ones I know best.) Certain passages In musical compositions have particu- larly benefited by the new recording methods. Listen to the horn arpeggios in Stravinsky's “Firebird Suite,” Listen to the faithful reproduction of the antique cymbals used in Debussy’s “Afternoon of a Faun," or, for .that matter, listen to that special Viennese quality of the zither in Johann Strauss’ “Tales from the Vienna Woods" and you will hear what I mean. Another instrument never before repro- duced with fidelity is the harp. It plays for the first time in proper perspective with the orchestra in works by Debussy and Ravel. The low register of the bassoon also is fully realized for the first time on records in the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony. The human voice has always been, the easiest musical instrument to record—the piano being the most difficult. But even in Opera by yerdi, Puccini and Wagner the com- poser benefits because his voices not only stand out clearly but also are not overshadowed by the orchestral back- ground which these men—great orchestrators each arid every one of them—wrote in support of the voice. The men in the pit as well as the men and women behind the footlights are heard. This is equally important with show albums, where you ..want to understand the words; A few composers may have reasons to protest—not about high fidelity itself but about its abuse. It is a mis- take, I think, to turn a high fidelity formula loose on every kind of music and to treat all sorts of music as if it were Richard Strauss , or a number by Sauter-Finegan. Over- emphasis on individual instruments, unnatural sharpness, a laying-on-thick of high frequencies has resulted in some recordings which seem forced, mannered and “doctored." It is^-fine to hear the clarinet distinctly—but the clari- net* is still a part of the orchestral web and ought not to be heard being played in our laps or in the cavities of our molars. We must fit high fidelity to music—not music to high, fidelity. Each piece of music needs, in my opinion, an individual treatment, and it is obvious that that treatment must represent respectfully the composer's wishes. It must preserve “high fidelity” to the creator's intention. Taste and. judgment enter here. Perhaps the most interesting phenomenon of high fidel- ity lies in the fact that the love for good sound, the attrac- tion that we feel toward sound as sound, has brought into the fore certain repertoire which has not been popular before HF, or at least not as popular. A number of com- posers have benefited! Foremost among these Berlioz, the great romantic, whose mastery of the orchestra can now be presented faithfully for the first time. “Romeo and Juliet" or “The Damnation of Faust" in their entirety have become best sellers. .Debussy’s “La Mer” now de- lights listeners because now the sea thunders and roars, ripples and sparkles. Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloe” or his “La Valse," Richard Strauss’ “Death and Transfigura- tion,” Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” Moussourgsky’s “Pic- tures at an Exhibition" and Beethoven’s Ninth—all these have taken on a new clarity and greater dimension. You have here an interesting sign of the interdepend- ence of taste and means; science influences popularity, technical advances make possible a widening of the musi- cal horizon. Hi-Fi From Start To End By JAMES B. CONKLING (President, Columbia Records) We record people, as an industry and as individuals responsible for recorded entertainment, recognize the continuing Importance to us and to the public of high fidelity. Daily our customers ask, “Are your records really hi-fi?" And sound Experts and collectors demand of us that we be honest in our answer. An honest answer is not an easy one. Only a “Yes, but ...” reply can lead our listening, audience to the sort of high fidelity enjoyment they hope to find. To many who ask this question of us, high fidelity begins and ends with the physical record they buy and play at home. To these people we must emphasize that the record, really, is neither the beginning nor the end of Jim Conkiing high fidelity, but in fact, the middle. It is true that until 1948, when the first of the new speeds was introduced, no recorded per- formance could satisfy the hi-fi fan, because the quality of the old 78 rpm disks was not good enough to mirror the actual sounds of the performance oyer the entire range of audible sound. So that only with new speeds, vinylite platters, and ^higher standards of manufacture has a high fidelity record been possible. Today’s record is so good, in fact, that only the newest phonographs can reproduce all that is contained in its grooves. Does that make it high fidelity? Yes, but. ... The beginning of a hi-fi record is the mhsic. Even the composer might be said to have something to do with whether or not the record is high fidelity. Certainly some composers' works produce a more startling hi-fi per- formance than others. But the artist, his affinity for .the music he is to record, the studio setup, and the creative engineering supervision that the artist receives on the date are all vital to the high, fidelity record. At least, in the sense that I think the public means when it asks, “Are your records high fidelity?” Music is still the per- sonal, emotional thing it has .always been, and high, fidelity manufacturing processes merely increase the enjoyment we get from hearirig a recorded performance. So we have a beginning and a middle to our answer. Now for the end. That’s the part the public must provide for itself. For only what we hear when we play the high fidelity record at home can determine the final answer to the question. We as an industry have recognized the importance of this final part of the answer. In the past three years we have made available, for the first time phonographs capable of reproducing all we put into our records; Aside from building your own set, as many hi-fi hobbyists prefer to do, it is now possible, and best of all, inexpensive, to own a phonograph in keeping with the performance and the quality of the record we buy. Arid only then can we honestly say our records are high fidelity. , In fact, it has never been so easy to hear good music. The best jazz, the finest of the classics, and the popular repertoire are all being recorded by artists of skill and imagination on records whose quality is a sound engi- neer’s dream come true. And old and new recordings are lifelike and forever enjoyable on the phonographs avail- able to the public in every price category. That, we think, is the honest answer to the public’s question. Cautions On Electronic Gold Bricks in Hi-Fi By e. f. McDonald jr. (President, Zenith Radio Corp.) Chicago. Like any new electronic advance, the high-fidelity sound business during the past year has been cluttered up by several problems and a lot of technical gobbeldygook. The lack of an industry-wide set. of standards has encouraged the wholesale production of electronic gold bricks; sets that have no. business being included in the hi-fi category. Coupled with this, the only language of the business is the language of the hi-fi addicts—largely technical and riot very well understood by the buying public. Among the audiophiles, conversation is like a physics lecture on the characteristics of soring, and the hi-fi adver- tising copy is not much more comprehensible to the aver- age person. Try talking to a retail customer in terms like “variable reluctance," “bass reflex," “20,000 cps" (cycles per second) or “audible frequency range” and you're likely to lose him back there at the first turn. Am sure, that if hi-fi is to become a mass market busi- ness, vast improvement is needed in our nomenclature and better ways must be found for explaining what high fidel- ity is and does. The public is very likely to go sour on the whole hi-fi subject unless manufacturers subordinate the cps num- bers and the technical terminology and concentrate on demonstrating and selling performance. Those numbers and those terms. provide an all-too-handy screen for un- scrupulous selling; It is an unfortunate fact that some manufacturers have been, able to find a haven of refuge in all the pseudo-scientific doubletalk, and have taken advantage of the public’s gullibility. The end result of unscrupulous selling in this or any other case is likely to be destruction of public confidence in all manufacturers of the product—the reputable manu- facturer as well as the bad. Zenith does not contend that it is tljse only company producing and selling good high fidelity radios. There are many other companies doing an honest and conscien- tious job in this field. The public is entitled to be told an honest story about hi-fi in terms it can understand. It must be made plain that hi-fi will add materially to the purchaser’s enjoy- ment of music, He should also have a crystal clear under* standing of the extent to which a particular instrument will achieve this desired purpose. Nothing less than the Whole story will suffice. One fact about hi-fi reproduction of recorded music has been relatively neglected by everybody except Zenith. This is the fact that a record will not respond with the right pitch and timbre unless it is played at the exact speed of recording. It is not alone sufficient to produce instruments that have an excellent pickup, wide range amplifier and well engineered speakers. Without the turn- table turning at the precise number of rpm’s called for by the record, all else is largely wasted. Enough people are around who remember what hap- pened when they tinkered the speed control of the old windup phonographs and they know what we’re talking about. All pur record players come with a speed regula- tor, arid we equip the hi-fi .models with a stroboscope so that the user can see whatever speed adjustment may be necessary. But when we mention that word “stroboscope" in any of our copy, we take .pains to add the word “speed- ometer" immediately after, and the public knows what it is. If high fidelity is ever to become a mass market item, then the industry has got to stop hitting people over the head with a slide rule and start coaxing them to come into the store and hear. Quality Brings 'Em Back Continued from page 43 one’s own home on record; and (2) people seemed to desert their phonographs in numbers almost equal to the newcomers because of inadequate satisfaction received from the product itself. Both of these factors are appar- ent in both the seasonal and repertoire sales patterns of the industry. London's full frequency range recordings were devel- oped in the belief that the real strength of the industry lay not only in attracting more people to our form of entertainment, but in retaining these same people as per- manent and continuing customers. In this task the record business has found its greatest ally in the field of high fidelity, using that term in its broadest sense and encom- passing the individual fields of recording and reproduction as well as pertaining to the phonographs and records themselves. This total “high-fidelity” picture, in brief, means better product. Improved recordings, processing, and manufacturing techniques have resulted in better records; improved phonographs and audio equipment have created the means of reproducing these better records in our homes. Whereas the sale of a badly made phono- graph and the subsequent playing of inadequate records drove the customer further away from the field of records as an entertainment factor, we have quite a different situa- tion today. The marvel of electronics, with all its glamor and excitement, has joined us and we find ourselves a partner in a thriving infant industry of sound electronics, audio equipment fOr the home, or just plain “hi-fi stuff." Not only does this afford the record industry thousands of new customers and automatic exposure to our product (that which our formula has sought to do for years), but the improved reproduction how in the hands of these new customers allows them to hear the improved recordings, and the two improvements, taken together, make music in the home more exciting and 'rnore satisfying entertain- ment. For several years record companies have hung promo- tional “tags" on their product in an effort to create con- sumer interest; no other advertising slogan or descriptive phrase has caught the public's fancy as has “hi-fi," and; through this newest of sales attractions records will be exposed to millions of additional people, and we will have a far better opportunity to convert the “new phono- graph customer" to a real record buyer.