Fun development: several former Pitchfork writers have teamed up to launch Hearing Things, a new music magazine. From the website:

We are writers and editors with many decades of collective experience covering music and culture at Pitchfork, The Fader, Vibe, Spin, Gawker, Jezebel, and elsewhere. There’s a good chance we’ve played a part in introducing you to some of your favorite artists and deepened your appreciation of some of this century’s most important records. At Hearing Things, we’re continuing to do that work—and more—on our own terms.

The rest of that “About” page has some quotes that are definitely side-eye for Pitchfork’s owners.

Here’s the NYT article about it (gift link):

Readers of Hearing Things won’t be getting a remixed version of Pitchfork. The founders have jettisoned a few of that site’s hallowed features, including the 0-to-10 album scoring system (“That’s their thing,” said Ryan Dombal, one of the founders), and Pitchfork’s sometimes-stuffy tone.

The business approach is also different: Advertising is no longer the main event, part of a plan to avoid chasing clicks. Instead, Hearing Things will sell subscriptions aimed at people eager to learn about music and musicians they might not have heard of before.

The memberships are affordable, I think (I just added one to my Christmas list)

One of the features the site launches with it “100 Songs that Define Our Decade So Far“, which is a very Pitchfork list (Destroyer and Low next to Beyoncé and Lana Del Rey), but the key difference is they’re listed in alphabetical order, not ranked. Smart choice in 2024.

Another killer piece is titled This One Weird Email Helps Explain the Horrible State of Concert Ticketing, and it’s a pretty revealing story about how money and government. You sshould read that too.

Lastly: they include the music in the reviews! This piece on the new Dummy record has two embeds. That’s something that was always a weird omission from Pitchfork reviews.

Anyway, excellent stuff. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.

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