Remembering Pitchfork

Eulogy

Jan 18

Pitchfork died today, just a couple hours ago. Condé Nast, the media conglomerate who acquired Pitchfork in 2015, announced that the company will be folded into men’s magazine GQ. A sizeable portion of Pitchfork’s writers and editors have been laid off as a result, including editor-in-chief Puja Patel. Up until today, Pitchfork was the most prominent and relevant music publication in the world. No other website or magazine reviewed as much music as Pitchfork, and no other globally-recognised music publication devoted as much attention to independent and underground music. Pitchfork employed many of the most talented writers and editors on music and culture. Pitchfork was divisive, always, but simply one of the most important institutions in the music industry. I really loved Pitchfork. It’s quite devastating to look on Google and see the Pitchfork synopsis turned from present into past tense.

“Pitchfork was an American online music publication that was launched in 1996 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working at a record store in suburban Minneapolis, and the website earned a reputation for its extensive coverage of alternative and independent music.”

I’m sure that Condé Nast will seek to preserve the Pitchfork brand going forward. The website will most likely continue to post album reviews and other music content, even as it comes under GQ administration. But this decision is most likely the beginning of the end. It is hard to imagine that the website will be able to maintain its critical role in music discovery in light of these changes. Former Pitchfork writer Matthew Ismael Ruiz estimated that half of the company’s staff has been let go, including many of the critics and editors responsible for some of the best music journalism in 2023. We cannot provide a comprehensive list of the affected staff, but with a bit of sleuthing on Twitter you should come across some of them. They deserve your support and attention now more than ever.

The future of music writing is uncertain. Earlier this year, over half of Bandcamp’s workforce were laid off at the hands of new parent company, Songtradr, and many of these losses were localised within its editorial division, Bandcamp Daily. Many other music publications are merely hanging on by a thread. It is a bit of a dismal prospect for us, at Redshift. Not because we seek to grow this blog into a business of any sort, but because we genuinely love music and know that critical publications are absolutely essential to a healthy music ecosystem.

Redshift is a tiny blog with a literal handful of readers that are basically all friends and family, but still it is incumbent upon us to advocate for good music writing. If it weren’t for sites like Pitchfork, I personally would never have been exposed to so, so much of the music that I now cannot live without. I certainly wouldn’t be writing about music in any capacity. I promise that engaging with music writing is a really good thing.

Below, I have compiled a list of my go-to sources for music journalism other than Redshift. I highly recommend seeking out any of them.

Pitchfork (while it lasts)

Pitchfork

Stereogum

Stereogum

Bandcamp Daily

Bandcamp Daily

Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss

No Bells

No Bells

Resident Advisor