Machines & Musicians

In saloons, roadhouses, poolrooms, drugstores throughout the U. S. are 300,000 coin-in-slot phonographs which play a record once for 5-c-. Having sold 175,000 of these in the past three years, phonograph manufacturers estimate that the boom will continue for 18 months, during which they will market 100,000 more. Because a saloonkeeper with a record machine does not require the services of even a beery "professor" at a piano, Chicago Musicians' Boss James C. ("Mussolini") Petrillo, in order to manufacture work for musicians, forbade his unionists to make any more recordings (TIME, Jan. 4). And haggard President Joseph N. Weber of the American Federation of Musicians has threatened a national musicians' strike if record and radio people do not do something about unemployed A. F. of M. musicians (TIME, Aug. 9). Last week the strike was still a threat, with the A. F. of M.'s deadline moved from Aug. 14 to Sept. 16, but in the important matter of "canned" music there was some action.

The three disc manufacturers of the U. S.* agreed with the A. F. of M. on a closed shop for musicians in the record industry. The manufacturers have already established in court their right as patent owners to determine how their discs may be used commercially. There was thus little sign of legal squalls ahead when the A. F. of M. last week got the manufacturers to agree that so far as coin machines are concerned, discs may not be used in any place which has ever employed musicians, or any place to which admission is charged. This restriction, however, may not help musicians much because few saloons, roadhouses, poolrooms charge admission, or even employ musicians. In the more important matter of sending canned music over the air, the musicians and record men reached an agreement which made radiomen squirm. Under terms not made public last week, broadcasters will have to pay considerably larger fees to use records on programs, the increase presumably to be passed on to the musicians in increased record royalties.

* RCA Manufacturing Co., Inc., Decca Records, Inc., American Record Corp.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.