Three basement bloggers shape indie-music scene

May 1, 2005 10:42 PM EST | Music | Email to Friend | Comments (0)

The Internet music magazine Pitchfork (pitchforkmedia.com) started in 1995 in the Minneapolis home of parents of 29-year-old Ryan Schreiber who has emerged as one of the leaders of a new generation of Internet music tastemakers. The site is now run by three Chicago music fanatics in a dimly lit, carpet-free West Side basement, hemmed in by 6-foot-tall boxes of CDs.

The ezine site has become so popular that what they write for the latest daily edition will be read by 120,000 music junkies on this day alone, including everyone from record-company talent scouts, magazine editors, college radio programmers and record-store managers as well as those plain old fans.

Though not all of its readers are the fan of their often contentious writing or its occasionally mean-spirited reviews, but they have an unshakable control over the indie-music scene. People depend on it as a convenient one-stop shopping site for music news. Pitchfork has been considered the go-to national tip sheet for the indie-rock subculture even by those naysayers. The review especially cast a pall over the record and actually predisposed people to not even listen to it.

[Read more via buffalonews.com...]

How do you like the music e-zine site and what do you think about the way they corner the market? Post your comments here and discuss with other music fans.