Evening star., 1909-05-30


OF course, | could take you down "Tlnpan
Alley" that part of 2Sth-st. between Broad
way and Sixth-ave, where many of the song
publishers have their factories. l could show
you some of the songsmiths at work and it
would interest if it did not appal You. lmag
inc a great room, with four or five pianos in it,
and a composer at each piano, composing.
One IS composing waltz, another twosteP,
another a coonsong, another some other kind OF
song And they are all playing and singing as
they compose, tool Yes, sir, all singing and
playing at the tops of their voices
And this is going on in dozen different
buildings, the windows OF which are WIDE open,
SO that the melody floats down to the street
and mingles with the jangle of the bells on
the horse cars, making the day beautiful
One Sign Not There
THERE are many signs on Tinpan Alley but
among them all you will look in vain for the
name of the firm with which you have been do
ing business if you are like the average song
writer who halls from Kansas farms The name
of that firm was the apollo Song-Poem Syndi-
cate or something like it, and it advertised to
develop your latent talent for much per de-
velop. 1t said to you.
"SONG-POEMS We pay fortunes for the
words of songs. Have you written any, Are
you poet? If so, send them to us. and we will
have them set to appropriate music for the
nominal sum of ten dollars. Or, If you COM
pose your own music send it to u.s. and we will
publish it. Others have grown rich this way.
Why not your"
No, you will not find that firm on Tinpan
Alley In fact, you will not find it anywhere,
except in jail. For that is its only proper adj
dress When it is free. its office is in its hat,
somewhere. The reputable song publisher does
not take your song and publish 1t tor SO
much money If you write song that IS good,
or seems worthy of success, the reputable pub
Usher will put it on the market for you, paying
you under contract, regular royalty on each
copy sold. He will not ask you to pay five or
ten dollars, or anything for the publication ex-
penses. There are disreputable firms offering,
through advertisements to make you rich
beyond the dreams of avarice by printing your
song tastily. with specially designed and ap-
propriate title page; provided you will take the
first FIVE hundred copies at the small sum of
twenty-five cents each, merely to cover the ex-
pense of mailing. Of course, its advertisement
continues you can sell these copies at fifty
cents each, thus making profit of one hundred
per cent
The Way to Do
YOU will do well to steer clear of any of these
advertisers They mean you nothing but
harm. They know that in the heart of every
one of us is the latent belief that he can write
great songs, and they prey on that weakness.
The only way if you do write song, is to send
it to a publisher in New York or elsewhere
YOU can easily find out who the leading ones
by looking at their imprint on popular songs
and let them give you contract.
How much money will you make that way?
Well, one of the biggest firms in New York
publishes about five hundred songs annually.
OF these it deems itself fortunate If dozen of
them prove to be what are called big sellers .;
that is. songs that become popular and run up
into editions of from forty thousand to hun
dred thousand A song becomes
profitable to the publishers, despite all they
may claim to the contrary, when it has sold
very few thousand copies. Their expenses in
the mere publication are not high. The print
ing of an average song costs about two cents
Your royalty will be about four cents copy.
if you have written both the words and the
music. If not, you will have to divide with
your collaboration. This seems to leave the pub
Usher large profit but you must remember
that he does not sell his songs for the price
marked on them, which is generally fifty cents.
No, he will be fortunate to average twelve cents
a copy In case he sells them in large guam
titles to department stores. for instance, he
may have to accept as low seven or eight
cents a copy If he tells you that he sells them
for less than that you may put him down as
pretty poor sort of publisher 1t is not necess-
sary for him to make any such sacrifice But
then, too, he has the expense of handling and
distributing the song, and the whole his
profit is not much more than the writer's.
Some Have Made Fortunes
SOME songs have made fortunes. Charles X
- Harris, now publisher for himself. claimed
to have sold nearly a million copies of his