# Pitchfork Scraper - Album Reviews & Ratings (`lulzasaur/pitchfork-scraper`) Actor

Scrape album reviews and ratings from Pitchfork. Search for artists or albums, browse latest reviews or Best New Music. Get scores, review text, genres, labels, and BNM status.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lulzasaur/pitchfork-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [lulz bot](https://apify.com/lulzasaur) (community)
- **Categories:** Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $10.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Pitchfork Scraper

Scrape album reviews and ratings from [Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com), the leading music review publication. Extract scores, review text, Best New Music picks, genres, labels, and more.

### Features

- **Search** for artists, albums, or keywords
- **Browse** latest album reviews with pagination
- **Best New Music** filter for BNM and Best New Reissue picks
- **Full review text** extraction via JSON-LD structured data
- **Scores** (0-10 scale) from Pitchfork's rating system
- **Rich metadata**: genre, label, release year, review author, publication date

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `searchQueries` | string\[] | `[]` | Artist names, album titles, or keywords to search. Leave empty to browse. |
| `maxListings` | integer | `100` | Maximum number of reviews to scrape per query. |
| `scrapeDetails` | boolean | `false` | Visit each review page for full text, score, label, and BNM status. |
| `bestNewMusic` | boolean | `false` | Only browse Best New Music reviews. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | - | Optional proxy settings. |

### Output

Each result includes:

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `albumTitle` | Album name |
| `artist` | Artist or band name |
| `score` | Pitchfork score (0.0-10.0, available with `scrapeDetails`) |
| `genre` | Music genre (e.g. Rock, Rap, Electronic) |
| `label` | Record label (available with `scrapeDetails`) |
| `releaseDate` | Release year |
| `reviewAuthor` | Review author name |
| `reviewDate` | Publication date |
| `reviewText` | Full review text (available with `scrapeDetails`) |
| `dek` | Review subtitle/summary (available with `scrapeDetails`) |
| `bestNewMusic` | Whether tagged as Best New Music |
| `bestNewReissue` | Whether tagged as Best New Reissue |
| `imageUrl` | Album cover image URL |
| `url` | Full review URL |
| `searchQuery` | The search query that found this result |
| `scrapedAt` | ISO timestamp of when the data was scraped |

### Usage Examples

#### Search for an artist

```json
{
    "searchQueries": ["Radiohead"],
    "maxListings": 20,
    "scrapeDetails": true
}
```

#### Browse latest reviews

```json
{
    "maxListings": 50,
    "scrapeDetails": true
}
```

#### Best New Music only

```json
{
    "bestNewMusic": true,
    "maxListings": 30,
    "scrapeDetails": true
}
```

#### Multiple artist search

```json
{
    "searchQueries": ["Taylor Swift", "Kendrick Lamar", "Billie Eilish"],
    "maxListings": 10,
    "scrapeDetails": true
}
```

### How It Works

1. **Listing mode**: Parses server-rendered review cards from Pitchfork's reviews listing pages. Extracts album title, artist, genre, author, and date from the HTML.

2. **Search mode**: Uses Pitchfork's search page (`/search/?q=`) which returns server-rendered results. Extracts review links and visits each for full data.

3. **Detail extraction**: On individual review pages, parses:
   - `__PRELOADED_STATE__` JSON for score, Best New Music status, label, genre, release year
   - JSON-LD `Review` schema for full review text, author, dates, and images

4. **Pagination**: Follows `head.nextPage` from `__PRELOADED_STATE__` to scrape multiple listing pages.

### Notes

- Scores are only available when `scrapeDetails` is enabled (requires visiting each review page)
- The listing page shows ~96 reviews per page
- Best New Music listing shows ~30 reviews per page
- Search results are limited to what Pitchfork's server renders (~12 unique results per query)
- For comprehensive artist coverage, use both search and browse modes

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Artist names, album titles, or keywords to search for (e.g. \["Radiohead", "Taylor Swift"]). Leave empty to browse latest reviews.

## `maxListings` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of reviews to return per query or browsing session.

## `scrapeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Visit each review page to get full review text, score, label, and Best New Music status. Slower but much richer data.

## `bestNewMusic` (type: `boolean`):

Only browse reviews tagged as Best New Music or Best New Reissue.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional proxy configuration for requests.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "radiohead"
  ],
  "maxListings": 100,
  "scrapeDetails": false,
  "bestNewMusic": false
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "radiohead"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("lulzasaur/pitchfork-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "searchQueries": ["radiohead"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("lulzasaur/pitchfork-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "radiohead"
  ]
}' |
apify call lulzasaur/pitchfork-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lulzasaur/pitchfork-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/ZufLKR4GLmZwbVwSv/builds/hjOKYE9VXZKo1Abju/openapi.json