The CMJ Music Marathon kicks off later today, a five-day stretch that will bring together thousands of conference attendees, centered on the target segment of college radio programmers, who once again will convene on NYU’s campus. But CMJ is known more for the wide range of new, emerging, and unsigned artists, with a smattering of established accts, who will be performing at venues across New York City, and the army of club owners, promoters, publicists, and journalists who will be circling one at showcases, panel discussions, and industry parties. Like industry confab South by Southwest, CMJ is a boon for music lovers, who will be bouncing from one venue to another at a seemingly endless array of day parties and evening showcases.
While continuing to serve as an instrumental convener of a critical mass of industry figures, CMJ no longer possesses the make or break influence it once did to jump start the careers of aspiring artists. This is no fault of conference organizers, nor a slight on the vision of founder Robert Haber, who famously co-founded the College Music Journal as a student at Brandeis University as a means of tracking non-commercial and college radio airplay. In the days before independent and unsigned artists possessed the means to get exposure to label executives or audiences through radio airplay, CMJ was a pioneer in exposing influential program directors at College radio stations to new, emerging and unsigned talent. Back in the day, CMJ could take credit for showcases that helped propel the prospects of the likes of Muse, Killers, R.E.M., Eminem, Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga.
But the state of the world is much different, for better of worse, from the time of the first CMJ conference in 1980. The dislocation of the traditional industry model of major labels, rostered artists, and middlemen greasing the wheels of commerce, offering the fortunate few a complete model of cradle-to-grave service offerings has had a liberating effect on both artists inside, and outside the traditional label structure. Artists are less captive to the indentured servitude which coupled hefty upfront signing bonuses and the prestige of having arrived, with disheartening sense that artists were locked in to the assembly line demands of churning out product. Equally worrying was the realization that the labels could derail an album’s prospects for success through a lack of support, or in a worst-case scenario, shelve an album indefinitely, while offering the artist little or no recourse.
The consolidation of the music industry, the shrinking of A&R budgets, and the release of many experienced employees within the industry over the years has had the effect of creating a level playing field between established and emerging artists. At the same time, internet distribution and social media have made DIY, once a necessity, inherently cool. With multiple means of marketing, distribution, and promotion at an artist’s disposal, musicians are opting out. The full service model has been replaced by an a la carte model. Artists can self-record, turning to journeymen or freelance producers and engineering staff, given the numbers of talented soundmen out on the street, or better yet, seek out each other: the era of the superstar musician wearing multiple hats is in full swing.
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