Houston Calling

Sun-Times interview with Pitchfork founder

March 27th, 2008 · No Comments

Here’s a small excerpt from a Chicago Sun-Times interview with Pitchfork‘s Ryan Shreiber, about the upcoming Pitchfork.tv online music station.

Q. Wait a minute, Ryan: Pitchfork has gotten to a position over the last 12 years where it has a lot of power now; I think you’re aware of that, and you and I have talked about that before. If Pitchfork champions a band, that 9.4 rating means something — it means a lot. Now, what band is going to deny you the right to videotape them and show that content for free on Pitchfork.tv if it’s worried about not getting a good review on the Web site? What band is going to say no to playing the festival, even if it has a better offer somewhere else, and what band is going to reject letting you include them on a videogame soundtrack?

A. I don’t know; I guess there are potential… You can see potential conflicts of interest in a lot of different things. Any time one kind of company starts another kind of company or something like that, there is always this sort of potential for it being a slippery slope. I mean, I have a lot of faith in our integrity to sort of not necessarily succumb to any of that kind of stuff. Like I always say, we’re very honest and straightforward about the way that we approach things, and we try to be very above the table about anything like that. I guess people can read into it… If you wanted to read into it like that, I supposed there are always things people could find…

Q. I’m just wondering if you see any conflict between doing the things that Pitchfork is starting to do and journalism or criticism. Or do you even see Pitchfork doing journalism and criticism? I mean, it looks a lot like both of those things to me.

A. Yeah, well, that’s really what this is: Us going out and documenting a band and spending time with them for a day. It’s basically a logical extension of the kind of journalism and features that we already do. It’s just a different format — it’s a video format.

You can read the entire interview here.

Pitchfork.tv launches April 7th.

Tags: Miscellaneous · Music

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