Pitchfork (website)

History

Previous Pitchfork logos

In late 1995, Ryan Schreiber, a recent high school graduate, created the magazine in Minneapolis. Influenced by local fanzines and KUOM, Schreiber, who had no previous writing experience, aimed to provide the Internet with a regularly updated resource for independent music. Initially called Turntable, the site was updated monthly with interviews and reviews. In May 1996, the site began publishing daily and was renamed Pitchfork, alluding to Tony Montana's tattoo in Scarface.^[4]

In early 1999, Schreiber relocated Pitchfork to Chicago, Illinois. By then, the site had expanded to four full-length album reviews daily, as well as sporadic interviews, features, and columns. It had also begun garnering a following for its extensive coverage of underground music and its writing style, which was often unhindered by the conventions of journalism. In October, the site added a daily music news section.^{[citation needed]}

Pitchfork has launched a variety of subsidiary websites. Pitchfork.tv, a website displaying videos related to many independent music acts, launched in April 2008. It features bands that are typically found on Pitchfork .^{[Altered Zones, a blog aggregator devoted to underground and do it yourself music.[5] On 21 May 2011, Pitchfork announced a partnership with Kill Screen, in which Pitchfork would publish some of their articles.[6] Altered Zones was closed on November 30.[7] On December 26, 2012, Pitchfork launched Nothing Major, a website that covered visual arts such as fine art and photography.[8] Nothing Major closed in October 2013.[9] On October 13, 2015, Condé Nast announced that it had acquired Pitchfork.[10] Following the sale, Schreiber remained as editor-in-chief.[11]}

On March 13, 2016, Pitchfork was redesigned. According to an announcement post during the redesign, they said:^[12]