The Music Trades is an American trade magazine that covers a broad spectrum of music and music commerce, domestically and abroad. Founded in New York City in 1890, it has been based in Englewood, New Jersey, since the mid-1970s. The Music Trades is one of the oldest continuously published trade publications in the world. Few publications have been as long closely held by a single family.
History
Freund and Weil: 1890-1927 The Music Trades was founded in 1890 by John Christian Freund (1848–1924) and Milton Weil (1871–1935). Eight years later, they founded Musical America, the oldest American magazine on classical music.
John Christian Freund Freund, who matriculated in 1868 at Exeter College, Oxford, but left after three years without a degree, had first been a playwright and actor. He emigrated to New York in 1871. In 1875, he founded The Music Trade Review, a fortnightly publication that he later renamed The Musical and Dramatic Times and Music Trade Review. The publication ran for about two years. In 1878, Freund founded the Musical Times, soon renamed the Musical and Dramatic Times. On January 7, 1882, Freund launched a weekly magazine, Music: A Review, which contained an insert called The Music Trade. Sometime on or before July 8, 1882, Freund changed the magazine's name to Music and Drama, supplemented by Freund's Daily Music and Drama. Music and Drama evolved into The Music Trades.
In 1884, Freund and John Travis Quigg (1839–1893) co-founded The American Musician, which during its seven-year run became the official publication of the National League of Musicians union, the forerunner of the American Federation of Musicians. Before founding the American Musician, Henry Cood Watson (1818–1875) began in 1864 the publication Watson's Art Journal, devoted to music criticism and trade. Watson died in 1875 and his Journal was taken over by his pupil, William M. Thoms, who improved it, renamed it American Art Journal, edited it until his retirement in 1906, then, upon his retirement, merged it with the American Musician.
Around 1895, Freund's younger brother, Harry Edward Freund (1863–1950), was editor of Musical Weekly, which continued as a weekly with a new name, beginning January 1896, as The Musical Age. The publication was aimed at piano dealers.
Legacy of Freund and Weil Freund and Weil were exponents of American classical music, although Freund had become a naturalized United States citizen on November 2, 1903. Their publications Musical America and The Music Trades complemented each other, and gave their editors a unique view of the growth of classical music in America and its international rank, as an art form and in commerce. Both publications reached an international readership. Freund and Weil held sway as impresarios and movement leaders of American classical music. Their publications flourished during the early 1900s — on a new wave of American composers, including those of the Second New England School — joined by foreign composers who emigrated to America in a flood of nearly 25 million Europeans after 1880. In commerce, 1875 to 1932 represented a golden age of piano making — nearly 364,545 were sold at the peak in 1909, according to the National Piano Manufacturers Association, notably in New York City and Chicago.
Freund and Weil's publications gave them broad access in the field of music. They served as bridges between the art and the money, connecting artists, organizations, commerce, and public policy. The spectrum that both publications collectively chronicled gave Freund and Weil a strong platform to serve as advocates, opinion leaders, conciliators, counselors, arbiters, and ambassadors for music and the music trades in America. As an example, Freund and Weil helped found the National Music Managers Association (for national managers) and the National Concert Managers' Association (for local managers), aimed at improving cooperation between the two for the benefit of musicians. In 1918, Freund and Weil helped found the Musical Alliance of the United States, an organization that endures today. Weil served as founding secretary-treasurer, while Freund, the founding president, called upon the group to organize "all workers in the field, from the man at the bench in a piano factory to the conductor of the great symphony."
Trade Publications: 1927-29 On June 13, 1927, three years after Freund died, Weil put The Music Trades and Musical America up for sale.
One bid came from John Francis Majeski, Sr. (1892–1971), who in 1910 had joined the staff of Musical America and become Weil's assistant. Majeski offered a quarter-million dollars for the pair, but was outbid by a new syndicate that also acquired four other publications (The American Architect, The Barbers' Journal, Beauty Culture, and Perfumers' Journal) and consolidated them all into a new company called Trade Publications, Inc.
The deal was handled by investment bankers Schluter & Company and Shields & Company, which issued $1,100,000 () in preferred and common stock. Shields & Company and Nixon & Company, of Philadelphia, also made a public offering of ten-year percent gold bonds of Trade Publications, that carried warrants to purchase common stock at a price that closely corresponded with the value of the stock.
Trade Publication's officers included Walter Crawford Howey (1882–1954), president; Verne Hardin Porter (1888–1942), vice president and secretary; and Edwin John Rosencrans (1870–1935), treasurer. The board of directors included these three plus G. Murray Hulbert, John Zollikoffer Lowe, Jr. (1884–1951), and Joseph Urban. Howey and Porter had been executives of the Hearst Corporation. Rosencrans, a civil engineer, was the managing editor of The American Architect; years earlier, he and architect John F. Jackson (1867–1948) had a partnership that designed more than 70 YMCAs. Lowe, a lawyer, had been a partner in a law firm with Samuel Seabury.
Howey, who had been the founding managing editor of the New York Daily Mirror, left Trade Publications on August 1, 1928, to retake his old job.
1929 bankruptcy The following year, Trade Publications filed for bankruptcy. The Irving Trust Co. was appointed receiver for the company, which had liabilities of $716,839 () and assets of $59,511.
On July 19, 1929, bankruptcy referee John Logan Lyttle (1879–1930) oversaw the auction of the magazines. Majeski, Weil's former assistant, bought four of the six for $45,200: Musical America, The Music Trades, The Barbers' Journal, and Beauty Culture. About $11,000 of the total went for Musical America and The Music Trades, the publications for which Majeski had offered a quarter-million dollars three years earlier. The acquisition included the publications' names, a collection of back issues, and a few months of office space in the Steinway Building.
A few months before the bankruptcy auction, Weil was said to have sold his interest in Trade Publications for $200,000 () in preferred stock. He and his wife—Henrietta Lander ( Rich; 1874–1935) — then moved to Paris with $5,000. Weil's father, Jacob A. Weil (1835–1913), was a Paris-born American and his mother, Dina ( Lilienthal; born 1843), was a German-born American.
Double suicide of Milton and Henrietta Weil
After the bankruptcy sale wiped out Weil's stake in the publication, he and his wife Henrietta spent several years attempting unsuccessfully to rebuild their finances. Contemporary newspaper accounts attributed their subsequent deaths primarily to financial losses stemming from the pre-Crash of 1929, then the Crash and the Great Depression. However, a letter left by the couple (dated May 19, 1935) and later preserved in U.S. State Department consular records presents a more complex explanation. In it, the Weils referred both to the loss of their fortune and to what they described as chronic and incurable health problems – for Milton, a cyst on the back of his neck (for 5 or 6 years) and for Henrietta, a great sufferer for years from rheumatic gout/inflammation in her hands and above her ankles. Their letter stated that their circumstances had become hopeless and that they no longer had sufficient means to continue. On May 22, 1935, while staying at the Hotel Scribe in the Opera District of Paris, they carried out a double-suicide pact, each, according to their letter, ingesting 25 grains (1,620 mg) of the barbiturate Veronal. Henrietta Weil died at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine on May 23, 1935, 7:40 ; and Milton Weil died there, 23 hours and 25 minutes later – May 24, 7:05 . They were buried beside each other in the New Cemetery of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
The Majeski years: 1929–present
On August 22, 1929, some five weeks after Majeski acquired the publications at bankruptcy auction, he formed three holding companies: The Music Trades Corporation, for The Music Trades; The Musical America Corporation, for Musical America, and Beauty Culture Publishing Corporation, for Barbers Journal and Beauty Culture.
In 1959, Majeski sold Musical America—which would merge with High Fidelity in 1964—but retained his interest in The Musical Trades, and served as its publisher until his death in 1971. The publisher's job was taken over by his son, John Francis Majeski, Jr. (1921–2011), who was already the magazine's editor. The younger Majeski served as editor until 1982 and publisher until 1985.
In 2005, he received the American Music Conference Lifetime Achievement Award for his achievements, contribution to music, and long tenure as editor of The Music Trades.
Current ownership As of 2022, the Majeski family continues its ownership of The Music Trades through its holding company, a New Jersey entity based in Englewood. Paul Anton Majeski (born 1960), has been publisher since 1985, and Brian T. Majeski (born 1956), editor since 1982. Paul holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Ohio Wesleyan University (1982) and Brian holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Lawrence University (1978).
Selected editors and publishers Editors-in-chief1890–1924John Christian Freund (1848–1924)1924–1927Milton Weil (1871–1935) was editor through July 2, 19271946–1947Samuel Charles Klores ( Shlomo Chaskell Klores; 1913–1994)1946–1951John Francis Majeski, Sr. (1892–1971)1951–1982John Francis Majeski, Jr. (1921–2011)1982–presentBrian T. Majeski (born 1956)Managing editors1917–1918Charles Barrett Bowne (1889–1952) was an alumnus of Brown University (1911), he went on to become a journalist with his hometown paper, the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, then four years with the New York Evening Sun, then he enlisted in the U.S. Infantry as a 2nd Lieutenant from April 4, 1918, to November 20, 19181918–1919Charles Fulton Oursler (1893–1952) was the first managing editor who, in that position, had his name printed in the masthead — Vol. 56, No. 21, November 23, 19181919–19??After returning from World War I, Charles Barrett Bowne (1889–1952) became an editorial editor in 19261922–1924William Joseph Dougherty (1893–1951), formerly of the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, left in 1917 to become city editor of the New Rochelle Pioneer, then joined the Music Trades staff in 1918 as news editor under Charles Barrett Bowne. He went on to become assistant managing editor, then managing editor (1922)1924–1927Milton Weil (1871–1935) was managing editor through July 2, 19271922–192?William Joseph Dougherty (1893–1951)1927–1928William Joseph Dougherty (1893–1951), again became managing editor with Vol. 74, No. 3, July 16, 1927; then in 1928, general manager (see "General manager" below)