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Report: CMJ sued for $1 million the same week roughly a million bands descend on New York

All eyes are on CMJ this week, the organization behind the long-running college magazine and popular music festival that brings bands from across the globe to New York City. But in this case, it’s not about some white-hot bass-trumpet jazz fusion band from Park Slope.

According to a report in Pitchfork, CMJ is being sued for nearly $1 million by management/promotion/production company Metropolitan Entertainment over a four-year-old planned merger.

Jenn Pelly writes, citing the New York Times:

According to the suit, CMJ now owes Metropolitan over $600,000 in loans, which were made in 2009 and 2010 to help fund the festival and were never repaid. With interest, that sum is almost $800,000, and Metropolitan also seeks an additional $99,000 in fees for its legal costs. The New York Times writes that CMJ also “fraudulently transferred its assets to another corporation to shield them from Metropolitan,” according to the lawsuit.

This is the 33rd year of CMJ’s Music Marathon, and Pitchfork estimates roughly 1,400 bands will perform in New York this week. We were slightly off in our headline estimate.

Among the Massachusetts bands taking part in this year’s CMJ are Gentlemen Hall, Mean Creek, Emily Reo, Speedy Ortiz, and others.