Pitchfork (formerly Pitchfork Media) is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres including pop, hip-hop, jazz and metal. Pitchfork is one of the most influential music publications to have emerged in the internet age.

In the 2000s, Pitchfork distinguished itself from print media through its unusual editorial style, frequent updates and coverage of emerging acts. It was praised as passionate, authentic and unique, but criticized as pretentious, mean-spirited and elitist, playing into stereotypes of the cynical hipster. It is credited with popularizing acts such as Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens.

Pitchfork relocated to Chicago in 1999 and Brooklyn, New York, in 2011. It expanded with projects including the annual Pitchfork Music Festival (launched in Chicago in 2006), the video site Pitchfork.tv (launched in 2008), the 2008 book The Pitchfork 500, and a print publication, The Pitchfork Review (published between 2013 and 2016). In later years, Pitchfork became less antagonistic and more professional in style, and began covering more mainstream music and issues of gender, race and identity. As of 2014, it was receiving around 6.2 million unique visitors every month.

The influence of Pitchfork declined in the 2010s with the growth of streaming and social media. In 2015, it was acquired by the mass media company Condé Nast and moved to One World Trade Center. The Pitchfork president, Chris Kaskie, left in 2017, followed by Schreiber in 2019. In 2024, Condé Nast announced plans to merge Pitchfork into the men's magazine GQ, resulting in layoffs and the closure of Pitchfork Music Festival. The merge drew criticism and triggered concern about the implications for music journalism.

Pitchfork was created in February 1996 by Ryan Schreiber, a high school graduate living in his parents' home in Minneapolis. Schreiber grew up listening to indie rock acts such as Fugazi, Jawbox and Guided by Voices. He was influenced by fanzine culture and had no previous writing experience. Schreiber initially named the website Turntable, but changed it after another website claimed the rights. The name Pitchfork was inspired by the tattoo on the assassin Tony Montana in the film Scarface. Schreiber chose it as it was concise and had "evilish overtones". The first review was of Pacer (1995) by the Amps, and the record store Insound was Pitchfork's first advertiser.

Early Pitchfork reviews focused on indie rock and were often critical. The Washington Post described them as "brutal" and "merciless", writing: "The site's stable of critics often seemed capricious, uninvested, sometimes spiteful, assigning low scores on a signature 10-point scale with punitive zeal." Schreiber said the site's early period "was about really laying into people who really deserved it", and defended the importance of honesty in arts criticism. He said he wanted "to be daring, to surprise people and catch them off guard". In 1999, Schreiber relocated Pitchfork to Chicago. He estimated that Pitchfork had published 1,000 reviews by this point.

Around the turn of the millennium, the American music press was dominated by monthly print magazines such as Rolling Stone, creating a gap in the market for faster-moving publication that emphasized new acts. Pitchfork could publish several articles a day, greatly outpacing print media. New technologies such as MP3, the iPod and the file-sharing service Napster created greater access to music, and music blogs became an important resource, creating further opportunity for Pitchfork. The contributors Mark Richardson and Eric Harvey said this was an important part of Pitchfork's early popularity, as music fans could share and listen to new music while reading daily updates.

In 2000, Pitchfork's 10.0/10.0 review of the highly anticipated Radiohead album Kid A, written by Brent DiCrescenzo, generated a surge in readership and was one of the first signs of Pitchfork becoming a major publication. One of the first Kid A reviews published, it attracted attention for its unusual style. Billboard described it as "extremely long-winded and brazenly unhinged from the journalistic form and temperament of the time". While it was widely mocked, it boosted Pitchfork's profile. Schreiber said he understood the review would attract ridicule, but "wanted Pitchfork to be daring and to surprise people". In 2001, Pitchfork had 30,000 daily readers.