PLAN No. 386. CIRCULATING MUSIC LIBRARY
We will call him John Smith—partly because that was not his name, but mainly because it is short and easy to remember. John’s father had been a piano tuner, and also sold phonographs, records and small musical accessories, but he didn’t advertise, and his business fell off so that at his death there was nothing left except his little music store and the humble home—both of which, however, were paid for.
The son tried to revive the business through the mail-order route, but failed, and was trying to sell out, when an idea came to him through the remark of a casual acquaintance. The idea was: A circulating music library!
As practically every family in his town and the surrounding country owned a phonograph, and most of them were growing tired of the records they had used so long, they were all anxious to get hold of new ones, but most of them felt they could not stand the extra expense.
To these people John’s plan to organize a circulating music library, with a membership fee of $1 a month, and supply the members with new records for their phonographs, as well as new sheet music for those who had pianos, came as an agreeable surprise, and it was almost no time until 500 members were secured. The twelve records or six music rolls, which each member received every month, aroused a new interest in that music-loving community, and John was entrusted with many extra commissions, which added considerably to his income. He paid the postage when sending out the new records or rolls, while the members prepaid the return charges, and as most of the members had old records of which they were tired, he took these in and sent them to other members to whom they were new, thus keeping them in constant use.
The monthly receipts from 500 members were $500. The expenses, including the purchase of new records and rolls, were usually about $250, so that his net profits from the plan were $250 a month.