[1] Co-founders Kevin Reilly and Mike Panico first met waiting in line at a show[8] and later spent time together as volunteers at The Stone, an experimental music space then located in the East Village.

In a 2013 feature, Mary Halvorson asserted that “What Kevin and Mike share is an unrelenting dedication to and passion for music, which is evident from the sheer number of concerts they attend"; Nate Wooley [de] said, "what makes [Relative Pitch] so special in my mind, is that the people that run the label are faces in the crowd of 90% of the shows you play in New York", and described the two as "missionary in their desire to get the music they think is transcendent out to people that don't have the chance or impetus to go to six or seven shows a week in Brooklyn".

[7] The publication also noted Matthew Shipp, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, and Kirk Knuffke as among the "dozens of prominent artists who have released albums on the label".

[10] The annual NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll has included Mary Halvorson's Reverse Blue (2014),[11] James Brandon Lewis's An UnRuly Manifesto (2019),[12] and the Susan Alcorn Quintet's Pedernal (2020).

[23] Other critically-acclaimed albums include Matthew Shipp and Michael Bisio's Floating Ice (2012);[24] Jemeel Moondoc's The Zookeeper's House (2014);[25] Tomas Fujiwara's Variable Bets (2014);[3] the Matthew Shipp Trio's Root of Things (2014);[26] Matana Roberts' Always (2015);[27] Halvorson's Reverse Blue (2015);[28] Alcorn's Soledad (2015);[29] Pulverize The Sound, the self-titled debut of trio Peter Evans, Tim Dahl, and Mike Pride (2015);[30] Mette Ramussen and Chris Corsano's All The Ghosts At Once (2015);[31] Bisio and Kirk Knuffke's Row for William O.