Earlier this week, news of GQ taking over Pitchfork broke hearts throughout the music community, leaving journalists, artists and others in distress about the future of their industry. There are no concrete details about the transition and what it means for the legacy music publication, but with several writers confirming they were laid off, the outlook for music criticism as a whole is bleak.

Several scenarios are possible. Pitchfork could continue existing with a smaller output. Or the few remaining writers could join the GQ team and adopt the men's magazine's style, which would likely mean an end to longform reviews. GQ does cover music, though primarily through features and news. Recent pieces include an analysis of Playboi Carti's album rollout and a deep dive on slap bass. The detailed review format that Pitchfork embodies—thoughtful, well-researched evaluations of records—doesn't easily fit into GQ's existing lifestyle and fashion brief. In a post on X, Pitchfork's reviews director, Jeremy Larson, said he expects to keep publishing reviews on the site: "Don't expect everyone to believe that right away, but so far it's true and I will try to hold up my end of the deal," he wrote.

When Condé Nast acquired Pitchfork in 2015, it said the legacy site brought a "passionate audience of millennial males into our roster." Pitchfork's content and writer roster diversified under the leadership of editor-in-chief Puja Patel (who departed, voluntarily or not, following the announcement of the GQ merger), but it's likely this male audience factor played a key role in Condé Nast's decision to fold Pitchfork into the men's magazine.

Music lives under the "culture" section of GQ's website, a telltale sign of its priorities—music doesn't even merit its own category. There's a deeper theme at play here. From a business point of view, investment in the music industry is often tied to integration with disruptive technologies, fashion, wellness and other fields. When private equity firms or corporations buy underground festivals, producer tools or media, they're looking at the larger business umbrella these platforms fall under. The value of music on its own terms is overlooked.

Fans are also focusing on those big-picture connections. A 2023 note from MIDiA Research outlines how listeners are paying more attention to the communities and subcultures that a record represents rather than melodies, genres or lyrics. In short, more people seem to be paying attention to the social realities behind music, which might be a reason why Condé Nast would potentially see Pitchfork content as a good fit for GQ's culture section.

Music writing should analyse music as an artform. Context on society and culture is valuable, but so is emotional impact and historical value. Meditations on the influence of a cult '80s album or the changing tone of pop music can spark deep reflection, and make fans feel connected to each other. Criticism—in film, art or music—helps us understand the world. It's part of a well-balanced media diet, alongside news and investigative journalism, and warrants its own real estate. Like countless other writers, I learned how to critique from reading Pitchfork. To think the publication's grand tradition of rigorous, boundary-pushing (this Autechre review was written as a play) and occasionally iconoclastic criticism could go extinct is tragic.

When Bandcamp announced mass layoffs last year, it set off a similar wave of doom and gloom. While the beloved site continues to publish meaningful reviews and features, the fact that its new owners, Songtradr, decided it didn't want to devote resources to a sizable editorial team indicates the devaluation of creative criticism. Across the board, music publications seem to be downsizing—just this week, Fact Magazine ended its iconic mix series after 16 years. When leading platforms can't thoroughly commit to educating audiences on the vast landscape of old and new sounds out there, it's a loss for society.

Longform music journalism in today's attention-driven economy is a tough business. In a post on X, Claire Willett, part of Condé Nast's analytics team, said Pitchfork has the highest daily site visitors by volume compared to the conglomerate's other titles: "Their higher consuming segments generate more unique page views by volume than any title," she wrote. No matter how many clicks Pitchfork got, it probably still didn't meet the high revenue standards of a conglomerate like Condé Nast, which fired five percent of its staff late last year. Even in the money-printing streaming sector, Spotify and TIDAL axed large parts of their workforce in December despite reporting healthy earnings—a cost-cutting measure to meet financial targets.

Layoffs have swept the global media and tech sector over the past few months. In 2024 alone, Google has cut 100 staffers at YouTube, Universal Music is expected to slash hundreds of jobs (mostly in its recorded music division), Discord fired 17 percent of its workforce and NBC News laid off several dozen employees, among other examples. In this brutal market, the role of a critic takes on fresh urgency. More than ever, we need curators with diverse tastes to surprise us and take us off the algorithmic paths into the world's unknown and unexpectedly delightful corners.