This paper discusses two unusual Victorian periodicals that reported on, and almost exclusively to, the British music trade. Exploring them deepens materially our understanding of Victorian musical culture-to which, until recently, musicians have paid meager attention.' Because the journals are specialized, bits and strands of data extracted from them, woven together, may also disclose valuable specific information about music publishing and about the commerce of which it is a part, the retail music trade. That trade has suffered perhaps an even greater lack of attention than the culture that it affected.2