I’m on the way to CMJ music marathon in NYC.  CMJ and other similar music events are good barometers for the industry as whole.  Who will be the next band?  What are the labels going to do know?  How has piracy effected music sales? Etc. Etc.

In the past this indie music conference and pseudo music festival has proven to be a great place to find new music talent and network with creative industry types.  This year, the line up is more representative of the changing music scene:  a lot of bands that are great, but that you probably haven’t heard of yet.   The Antlers, Pitbull, Japanroids and Das Rascist are recognizable names to those in the know and will hopefully CMJ will take them and the hundreds of other bands to the next level.

The networking that had gone on in the past was between labels, pr firms, distributors and radio folks.  This year, many of those people are looking for jobs.  Perhaps CMJ will have a job fair day?

I’m looking forward to seeing if the unprecedented ease of getting music to the masses (i.e. the Internet) has truly watered down the musical talent or if it has afforded those that never would have had the opportunity to perform in the past to have their talent seen and heard.  I’m obviously hoping for the latter.  I’m also curious to see what pearls of wisdom the overly entrenched New York industry types plan on sharing at the various panels.  My prediction this year is that a lot of the label types have new jobs with smaller (both in size and revenue) companies.  So, chances are that the theme will be battling piracy and identifying new ways of getting paid for making music.

We shall see and I’ll report back after my trip.

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION OF THE WEEK:

Speaking of new ways of getting music to the masses in a creative way, check out my friend Whatzisface’s newest project (click the link below).  In the past hip hop artists have been found via the mixtape.  Mixtapes were and still are to a large extent, full length albums without a particular theme or concept.  They are given away for free usually on a burned cd or now, via myspace download.  The hope is the same:  someone with decision making power and a budget will listen and choose to develop the artist.  Why not change it up?  Why not re-invent the mixtape so that people look forward to it like a new album release?  Add a concept to it.  Make it funny and release it in a cool way.  That’s what ‘face has done.  Here is one of his latest installments in the White Chocolate and… series.  Enjoy.

New Whatzisface Mixtape