Though the music industry has seen drastic changes in recent years, what has remained constant is the fact that most listeners still find their music with the assistance of a filter: a reliable source that sifts through millions of tracks to help them choose what they do (and don't) want to hear. The filters we traditionally depended on – music magazines, radio stations, music video channels, even the recommendations of a trusted record store clerk – have diminished in influence enough to give a player like Pitchfork room to operate. Pitchfork is a small site: The traffic it draws is too tiny to be measured by Nielsen//NetRatings. But like the indie bands that are its lifeblood, Pitchfork has found its own way to thrive in an industry that is slowly being niched to death: It influences those who influence others.

Haha:

I get the sense that a lot of their writers have never written before," says Hyman, who's now chief executive of the music-themed networking site Mog. "You used to have to go to journalism school to have credibility."

That complaint would seem to be Pitchfork's strongest selling point: By opening its pages to contributors who were willing to sacrifice competitive wages for a chance to express themselves authentically, the site undercut the authority of its print-based rivals.