In 1995, music fan Ryan Schreiber created Pitchfork, a webzine by and for indie music lovers. He tapped into a starving market and filled a void as the internet launched and changed how we listen to, learn about, and distribute music. Pitchfork flourished even as musicians and music journalists often found themselves scrambling to make ends meet. Today, Pitchfork, for better and for worse, rates and reviews albums; but it also hosts its own music festivals, added sister websites, and experiments with inventive takes on covering music. Love it or loathe it, Pitchfork is an instrumental part of the indie music scene. Almost two decades after starting Pitchfork, Schreiber still goes out almost every night to listen to music and remains, first and foremost, a fan.

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