Monday, August 17, 2009

CMJ New Music Monthly - WTF?

What's up with changes in CMJ New Music Monthly? I signed up for a subscription ($84/2 years) more than a year ago and never received a single issue. I tried e-mailing their customer service and received no response. Left them messages via phone; no one ever picked up the phone or returned my calls. Finally, I just received my first issue today only to be disappointed!

What I received was pale shadow what it used to be. Went from a nice thick magazine (50 pages) full of reviews about bands plus a CD every month down to a thin 20 page "flyer" which mostly shows the Top 200 CMJ bands. Also, no more compilation CDs. Now, I understand that all print media is hitting hard times; so I'm totally understanding about that. Also, being able to download the music is much cooler than having a CD every month. But, I tried to download and the zip file was corrupted!

There is no communication from CMJ about the new format. Also, what about the price I paid over a year ago when I was expecting physical CDs and a lot of information every month!

Their website is terrible... What's going on CMJ? I'm not even going to start about what I think of their conference. I love new music; trying to be supportive.