Corporate consolidation sucks. I've been there. In the years between I sold Stereogum in 2006 (seemed like a good idea at the time) and bought it back in 2020, the site was repeatedly acquired by and merged with companies that always seemed to be on the verge of collapse. We are lucky to have survived the transition from Buzznet to Buzzmedia to SpinMedia to Spin Media Group to Prometheus Global Media to Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Group to MRC Media to Valence Media. It was a similar ordeal for me at Viacom before that. Dizzying shit like this occurs often. What happened to our friends at Pitchfork this week — getting gutted and moved under a sister brand— absolutely would have happened to Stereogum, or we would've been shut down completely, under our most recent parent company before coming independent.
Much love to the talented staff who did so much important and influential music criticism at Pitchfork. I don't want to sound the death knell as there are excellent writers and editors who remain at the publication and now must solider on without half their team.
Those who are attributing Pitchfork's restructuring on their music coverage becoming more inclusive (a positive evolution) are wrong. Its website audience may have waned in recent years, but so has every site's! The growth of social media and music streaming, the shifting priorities of advertisers and platforms, corporate greed, and union busting can be blamed instead. Competing with low quality AI content wasn't a factor, but it could've been in the near future. I don't know if Pitchfork's festivals were profitable, but the tentpole Chicago one was one of the best.
Up until 2022, all of Stereogum's revenue came from display advertising. Meaning banner ads. We have experimented with merch and email and affiliate revenue, but none of it moved the needle. Thanks to you, we are less reliant on all of it. Stereogum is only about 10% toward our subscriber goal of not needing ads, though, so I understand why there is now a metered paywall at Pitchfork. If you read a website every day, you should pay for it. At some point Stereogum will almost certainly have to implement some sort of limit on free articles as well. Lucky for our non-Members, our tech stack is a mess so it won't happen so soon.
There are many great music sites, newsletters, and channels you can follow — many of them independent like ours — and I also hope to see Pitchfork continue to publish top quality journalism. This isn't the end of music criticism. But it shows how little it is valued and it's a tremendous loss.
THIS WEEK'S 10 HIGHEST RATED COMMENTS
| #10 |  | Callie Petch |
| Score: 20 | Jan 12th | ||
Tuesday was the funeral of my Mum's partner.She asked me to stay behind and look after Mac, our dog, which was probably for the best.From what I heard, it went ok - or, at least, kicked off with a fuck-up of something Mum had no input over anyway, in the closest thing to karma since Mum was being driven to furious despair over it, that made Mum laugh and relax.Mac was also more like himself when with me, so both those facts made the event easier to process.That knowledge we could all move on and be somewhat like ourselves previous selves instead of just sad and numb the whole time. Still struggling to get back into the groove of being an adult who functions and writes and gyms etc.Probably why I've fallen down a Hitman hole again.Thank God for Jamie xx, dropping another heater again at the exact time I needed.Seriously, it's uncanny how The xx are able to drop exactly when I emotionally need them and with something that reflects my mood at that exact moment in time; Jamie especially. | ||
| Posted in: Shut Up, Dude: This Week's Best Comments | ||
| #9 |  | BatOutOfHellIV |
| Score: 21 | Jan 17th | ||
I knew there would be repercussions for only giving the last Taylor Swift album 7.7. | ||
| Posted in: Pitchfork Is Being Moved Under GQ | ||
| #8 |  | Logan Taylor |
| Score: 21 | Jan 15th | ||
You know how to score a song, don’t you? You just put your lips together and say, “It’s a 3.” (The actual whistle is the only part I really like.) That’s about all I got. I got hit with COVID for the first time so the past few days has been a lot of rest for me. I have nice snow to look at today so I guess it could be worse. Happy MLK Day, everyone. | ||
| Posted in: The Number Ones: Flo Rida's "Whistle" | ||
| #7 |  | crispy |
| Score: 25 | Jan 16th | ||
These kind of interview/articles are so amusing to me... "My new album is influenced by underground culture and Primal Scream and Massive Attack" *five minutes later* "it's dance pop full of Instagram-caption-ready one-liners" | ||
| Posted in: Dua Lipa Says New Album Influenced By Massive Attack And Primal Scream, Denies She's Always On Vacation | ||
| #6 |  | hugsforeveryone |
| Score: 25 | Jan 12th | ||
It's fairly easy to point and hate on Jelly Roll...but the guy is one of the greatest folks I've ever worked with. I work at a mid-level venue in the South that he came through (sold out 3k cap show -- people hanging off of the rafters), and I'll never forget that AFTER the show was over, he came out and shook the hand / thanked EVERY SINGLE venue employee and had long, meaningful conversations. Every bartender, every person on production, every member of the cleaning crew -- he probablyspent an hour chatting with everyone and genuinely thanking them for helping put the show on. The dude is as genuine and cool as it gets, and even though the music is decidedly not for me, I'll be rooting for him forever. | ||
| Posted in: Jelly Roll Speaks At Senate Hearing About Fentanyl Epidemic | ||
| #5 |  | MoonBB |
| Score: 26 | Jan 17th | ||
Of course Pitchfork is already well past its prime, but I still enjoy checking in and seeing what albums they are covering. I still discover some gems from time to time, especially in the realms of electronic and experimental music. This very much seems like something that is going to make things much much worse over at the fork. | ||
| Posted in: Pitchfork Is Being Moved Under GQ | ||
| #4 |  | Gacivory |
| Score: 26 | Jan 11th | ||
Bigmouth Strikes Again | ||
| Posted in: Morrissey Claims He's Being Erased From The Smiths' Origin Story | ||
| #3 |  | bakedbeans |
| Score: 37 | Jan 17th | ||
As easy as it is to make jokes, pitchfork has still been a bastion of constant and often highest-quality music writing since I’ve been a music fan. I regularly go back and re-read my favorite reviews because they’re so well written and insightful and they articulate what I feel better than I could. The writers they have housed over the years, remarkable. Appreciate them so much. Long live Stereogum. | ||
| Posted in: Pitchfork Is Being Moved Under GQ | ||
| #2 |  | bzen |
| Score: 40 | Jan 11th | ||
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| Posted in: Morrissey Claims He's Being Erased From The Smiths' Origin Story | ||
| #1 |  | beepbeep |
| Score: 40 | Jan 17th | ||
Support Independent Stereogum, folks | ||
| Posted in: Pitchfork Is Being Moved Under GQ | ||
THIS WEEK'S EDITOR-IN-CHIEF'S CHOICE
 | sailboat |
| Jan 15th | |
My memories of Whistle primarily consist of being a summer camp counselor and BEGGING the 8 & 9 year old boys I was looking after to sing anything else | |
| Posted in: The Number Ones: Flo Rida's "Whistle" | |
