Not to overstate it but the huge corporation Condé Nast buying Pitchfork Media is a pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty big deal. One could argue that this deal will influence modern music and the industry for years to come. Pitchfork has been one of the most important cultural curators of the last 15 years.
They’ve launched:
– CHILLWAVE
– Purity Ring
– Arcade Fire
– The Weeknd
– Tame Impala
– Kanye West
– Kendrick
– Drake
– Grimes
– Lana Del Rey
– Death Grips
– Bon Iver
– Vampire Weekend
– The NationalThey’ve Killed:
– CHILLWAVE
– Witchhouse
– Alt-J
– Mumford & Sons
– Childish Gambino
– Cold War Kids
– Black Kids (remember the debacle?)
So yes. This is a big deal. This is like your favourite band being signed to a major. (*coughLWSDLMR). It could be awesome. Or it could be horrible!
What will this mean? Well shit is going to get a lot more corporate that is for sure. Not immediately, and not necessarily detrimentally but, there is def going to be a “big business” structure put in place, IF ONLY to stream line “ad revenue” and “increase synergistic overflow”. OOOooh yeah…
One could make that argument that because the publication is now part of the GQ family it will get tame/lame so consumers might stay away from it for what they’re looking for, cool indie music(?) and artists will go elsewhere too, but that’s a bit of stretch and remains to be seen. And really this isn’t much different, at least ideologically, then Vice taking money from Fox News.
Here are what some smart people thought:
An incredibly proud and exciting day for us at @Pitchfork. We are officially a part of @CondeNast! http://t.co/CTQPxOCLgI
— Ryan Schreiber (@ryanpitchfork) October 13, 2015
Condé Nast buys Pitchfork Media to get all those “millennial males.” http://t.co/LLYsigKJa0. via @mashable — Jim Roberts (@nycjim) October 13, 2015
“A very passionate audience of millennial males” is a phrase you might use to make fun of p4k. — Tom Breihan (@tombreihan) October 13, 2015
Now that @CondeNast owns @pitchfork I hope we finally get an article about Dan Bejar’s tips for styling wavy hair — Matthew Hunziker (@DogCitizen) October 13, 2015
I can only promise you that the Pitchfork softball team uniforms are gonna be sick. — Ian Cohen (@en_cohen) October 13, 2015
Conde Nast buying Pitchfork is huge, though it feels more like the end of something than a beginning: http://t.co/cYlu8pS3Ip — Steven Hyden (@Steven_Hyden) October 13, 2015
the first time I visited “pitchfork” it was just a stack of CDs in the corner of Ryan’s living room, so I feel approximately 72 right now — Nitsuh Abebe (6.4) (@ntabebe) October 13, 2015
please no pay window for pitchfork I NEED MY COURTNEY BARNETT CONTENT — thebluehoodie (@thebluehoodie) October 13, 2015
Has anyone done the joke where they give the Condé Nast Pitchfork purchase an arbitrary mark out of ten yet? — Joe Sparrow (@ANewBandADay) October 13, 2015
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