On the ground, the 29th annual CMJ Music Marathon might seem to be all shoestring budgets and gas-money revenue. But even in these dark days of the record business, it is still about potential: the possibility of starting a viral buzz, making critical industry connections and striking deals for bookings, foreign distribution rights or commercial sync rights, in addition to record contracts. Undoubtedly one of the bands you will see on a magazine cover in a year or so will have come through CMJ this week as a little-known, as so many others have done, from R.E.M. to MGMT.

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The companies behind the marathon smell money, too. This year, CMJ Network, which produces the festival and publishes its magazines, CMJ New Music Report and CMJ New Music, merged with Metropolitan Talent, a management and concert-promotion company in New York. At first glance, they would seem to be strange bedfellows: CMJ is the bible of college radio

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http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/mergers-and-music/