New-York tribune., 1921-10-23
illustrations by ELLISON HOOVER

sands OF artists and would-be ortiz.
whom believe they can sing better tra. 'n
Ponselle or Stracciari. va" 10ss
"We are required to work i, o,.
alton with the music publishers " S'-Ops'-
tain committee of musical experts s,t. ,1 nan
day receive and consider stacks a e's'!
sltions submitted by publishers. gena~sS'N sTu'p'
manuscript form. Indeed. MANY ;s %
we have thus selected would NOT otSs. eass
have been published at all-Dardanariss,,w..ss is,w.ss
instance aof
Just as the fiction writers have %.
habit OF thinking in terms of movies ,v.s,.' 40
out plots that will afterward Servo ~'",as
screen, song writer's all aim at nbonos 'aa
records Which is good thing from an ss.i' ,sg1
tic as we'll as q commercial standno;~. ''r
an author writes book or magazine sso..
such way that it has the making ~ q Il
class film, then it will have real sct;o. 80.
variety and color and viyidness, and il . cas 49,
poser writes song SO that it will bs q Il. '.'
the phonograph, then it will have tuna -, :,
catchiness, sure enough human appea,
Then, too, the royalties we pav a..
mighty substantial inducement two ..s..
side may not seem much, but on rn;ll.
disk it mean $4,000, to be shared br ~.
Usher, composer and lyric writer. Dance -.
ords' you notice, often have two tunes !,
ons side for the sake of variety. such :,
Feather Your Nest introducing "A yorss
Mans Fancy That stunt calls for Q ...,s
on each--4 cents for the one side. M v.r
der the publishers can afford to so tbino, !.
big way.
"And they are good sports, at that. LIZ,
than dozen publishing firms handle sS ~,
cent of the hits. They scour the countrv ..
them. A song with big possibilities v;..
nobody in particular to back it may pet star.
ed in some locality and yet not have ,.,,
chance. There was Hold Me- that had nu..
vogue out in California, but nobody knev
Of it anywhere else till one Of the big bonss,
in the East, realizing what could be made
Of it, bought it outright for good MANY
thousands in cash and put it on the man
everywhere: Why, there are music houss,
here who buy and sell hits and hit possibia;s,
for large sums of money just as you would
sell real estate. Queer, isn't it, to pay s25000
for couple Of pages Of notes, just because
the tune has got going in Bangor or Keokuk
"Anybody who can turn out a real livs
tune can make success with It and all kind,
of money. It doesn't much matter who pub
fishes it in the first place, even If it's only ths
piano store in the home town. If the tuna
has the goods, one of the big fellows will take
1t up, and then nothing can stop it. Weu
be let IN on the discovery and a month or 50
later 1t will be played on Photographs ia
thousands Of homes. I can assure YOU this
game of ferreting out the hits and picking
the real winners from the slough of pieces
each offered US as q genuine world beater' is
difficult, not to say exciting game In a
way it's harder than handling standard music,
That is already established, and offers less
chance Of either profit or loss Nobody can
make much of cleanup nowadays or 60
broke on Home, Sweet Home but $4,000
fox trot may turn into gold mine or CON-
plete gloom. I know of a company that re-
Gently. staked $4,000 on single popular
record-and then sold only 1000 copesF'
"Most of your business is in the popular
field, suppose?"
''At least three-fourths of IT, More people
will take to tunes they can whistle than will
take to music they have to be educated to
appreciate. The best sellers Of all are dance
records; then come popular songs, then old
favorites like Annie Laurie and then class
lead music Plenty of folks get to like Bee
thoven, but they are more apt to like Irving
Berlin first. And we do our darndest to give
them what they want"