Sad to see another (online) music publication bite the dust, and uncomfortable that the remains will be donated to “men’s Lifestyle” magazine GQ: is that the only room for music fans now? Yes, Pitchfork were guilty of the marks-out-of-ten rating system, but I enjoyed a lot of the content.
https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/pitchfork-layoffs-folded-into-gq-conde-nast-1235875585/
Sorry to hear it. I don’t think I was in their natural constituency, but they produced some interesting overviews and articles.
It’s easy (and right) to take the piss out of their constant championing of unlistenable indie bands with stupid names that probably don’t exist, but some of the writing on archival/reissues is incredible. Find the review of The Band’s brown album if you can – one of the best things I’ve ever read about them. Like all “grown-up” American writing it tends to be rather humourless… but that “review” of the second Jet album still makes me laugh.
I always had a lot of tine for Pitchfork (I am leaving that typo, it’s too good to edit), so this is sad news for me. Looking at the bigger picture, if something as recognisable, long-lived and authoritative as PF can’t make music journalism work online, then who can?
This is sad news. Really enjoyed some of the writing on Pitchfork and found they always gave good list. Discovered a few great songs from their end of year round ups.
Had no idea they were in bother. Is this a “music journalism is dead” moment, or was the site just too Millennial for Gen-Z?
A further nail in paid music journalism is dead, for sure.
Eh?
If they were made redundant, presumably they were paid. Rare in virtual media,,these days.
Millennials don’t get redundancy, grandad! They’re lucky if they get paid int’ first place!
The writers are probably all freelancers*. Everyone in the place, apart from possibly the office staff.
*Therefore, self-employed.
My daughter does freelance journalist pieces for The Guardian and The Sun and gets paid very well by them for the time it takes to do the pieces.
Better for them than employing people and giving them onerous contracts.
It’s the way of the World these days and in some ways not much different to Victorian Britain.
I didn’t know anyone at the Guardian got paid, except for Adrian Chiles who gets paid £3.4 million a year for columns like “My cat’s breath smells like cat food” and the like.
And for dating the Editor-In-Chief.
Yeah I know. Very heartening to think that a guy who looks like that is essentially the UK’s highest-paid sex worker.
it is the corporate owners Conde Nast. Ruthless bastards.
I somehow doubt Pitchfork had a significant readership. I thought it was pretty useless to be honest and digital doesn’t encourage loyalty which is why the likes of Uncut and Mojo are pretty focussed on getting subscriptions.
I’m one of the millions who’ve never read Pitchfork.
Not my bag and presumably not enough other people’s bag either.
I found this news ultimately to be rather derivative of Pavement
Arf!
Pitchfork famously rated the Afterword at 7.1
Yebbut then you came back📉
There’s still time for a return to form. Some of the more talented original members of the band are still alive.
Paste still has good online music coverage. And there is a US site/physical magazine called Under The Radar which is pretty good.
I’ll miss Pitchfork for articles like this:
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/bob-dylan-desire/
…and this. Found it. I stand by my first impression, this is wonderful.
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-band-the-band/
That whole “Sunday” series is fantastic.
That’s very good
I don’t recall Canadian punks Fucked Up ever being a particular favourite here, but their guitarist has written a longish blog entry about what it was like to be on the receiving end of a glowing Pitchfork review, and how it impacted the band, well worth a read
https://lookingforgold.blogspot.com/2024/01/p-fork.html
Worth a read indeed
yep a good read
Thanks for sharing that.