illusionofjoy | CMJ not listening to applicant's songs?

I haven't submitted anything to (nor attended) a CMJ Music Marathon since college. Since their web board crashed and burned, I haven't even visited their site much either. Still, all it takes is a juicy little piece of potential scandal to catch my attention; from Pitchfork:

Though it seems as though, like, everybody plays the CMJ Music Marathon-- the annual musicstravaganza going down on the streets of New York October 16-20-- the real purpose is to highlight acts slightly lower on the radar. Thousands of bands from all over the musical landscape apply for the chance to score a slot on any one of dozens upon dozens of bills, but there's only so many hours in the long weekend, and only so many clubs in New York City. Eventually, something's gotta give.

But a rather sizable group of artists who had sent in their application materials to CMJ were turned away from the conference in a couple of peculiar ways. First, when they received their rejection emails, they found that CMJ had forgotten to use the BCC function. Thus, the identity of hundreds of rejects was revealed.

CMJ blamed Sonicbids, the MySpace-like site they employed to let bands submit songs and press kits electronically. Sonicbids' system allows the artist to see how many times their songs have been played. Many CMJ applicants were furious to discover that their songs had received zero plays, and called foul on CMJ for not even giving them-- or their $45 application fees-- any consideration.

The article goes on to state that CMJ claims to listen to at least two songs by every applicant. Furthermore, tests by Pitchfork indicated that Sonicbids system for tabulating plays is not particularly reliable. Either way, everyone who was rejected gets a chance at a discounted Marathon pass. Personally, I'd go for it, if for no other reason than to have an excuse to visit New York City again (an excuse I keep looking for, but which keeps eluding me somehow).