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Neil Young pulls his music for poor sound quality

MacNut

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Neil Young announced on Facebook that he was pulling his music from all of the streaming services saying the audio quality sucks.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-pulling-catalog-from-streaming-services-20150715
Neil Young announced Wednesday that he is pulling his music off streaming services over frustration with the medium's sound quality. On Facebook, theHarvest singer wrote that while he also has issues with how streaming services compensate artists, it's how his music sounds when streamed that pushed him to his limit. "Streaming has ended for me. I hope this is ok for my fans," Young wrote.

"It's not because of the money, although my share (like all the other artists) was dramatically reduced by bad deals made without my consent," Young continued, addressing the same royalties accusations that artists like Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke have levied against Spotify. "It's about sound quality. I don't need my music to be devalued by the worst quality in the history of broadcasting or any other form of distribution. I don't feel right allowing this to be sold to my fans. It's bad for my music."

After telling fans about his plans to abandon streaming, Young then shared a second message further slamming streaming's sound quality. "AM radio kicked streaming's ass. Analog cassettes and 8 tracks also kicked streaming's ass, and absolutely rocked compared to streaming," Young wrote. "Streaming sucks. Streaming is the worst audio in history. If you want it, you got it. It's here to stay. Your choice." Young adds that he doesn't care if fans "copy" his songs for free as long as it's with the sound quality that he intended. "All my music, my life's work, is what I am preserving the way I want it to be," Young wrote. "It's already started. My music is being removed from all streaming services. It's not good enough to sell or rent."
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Scepticalscribe

Scepticalscribe

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But is whether or not Neil Young's music 'sucks' the real issue here?

And, if it 'sucks' does it 'suck a lot worse' as a result of having been streamed?

In turn, that may serve to help bring us to the real issue here, which is the question of whether streaming has a negative affect on the audio quality of the music being streamed?
 
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MacNut

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Scepticalscribe said:
But is whether or not Neil Young's music 'sucks' the real issue here?

And, if it 'sucks' does it 'suck a lot worse' as a result of having been streamed?

In turn, that may serve to help bring us to the real issue here, which is the question of whether streaming has a negative affect on the audio quality of the music being streamed?
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As long as people listen on phones or with ear buds the music will sound like crap. It is as much the speakers as it is the bit rate.
 
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Scepticalscribe

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MacNut said:
As long as people listen on phones or with ear buds the music will sound like crap. It is as much the speakers as it is the bit rate.
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Amen to that post, sir. And - as someone who uses B&W headphones to listen to my music - I have to admit that the quality of headphone also has an impact on how the music sounds.
 
MacNut

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Jessica Lares said:
"It's not good enough to sell or rent."

Probably a poor choice of words there, especially sell. Doesn't he have his Pono player? I think this is what this is all really about.
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He's also one of the few artists that owns his master recordings. He can pull stunts like this.
 
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MacNut

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If you have ever seen Dave Grohl's movie "Sound City". Neil Young is very old school and despises digital recording. He believes that it is reel to reel or nothing.
 
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Kariya

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I smell BS. Sounds like he just wants more money and is slightly bitter his Pono project didn't kick off.

Pulling the music from streaming does nothing but hurt your fans, because now they can't listen, unless they change how they consume music.

Not gonna happen.

People will simply move on to something else, and you'll be left behind.
 
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Thought I read Neil Diamond and nearly had a scare. Not a fan of Neil Young. Let him be the old fool he's capable of being.
 
maflynn

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Didn't he roll out an ultra high end iPod competitor a couple of years ago? I can't say that I'm surprised and he doesn't need the money so based solely on artistic principal I can see his point. I like Neil Young's music but not enough that this will upset me, there's plenty of other music available for me to enjoy :)
 
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lowendlinux

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Kariya said:
I smell BS. Sounds like he just wants more money and is slightly bitter his Pono project didn't kick off.

Pulling the music from streaming does nothing but hurt your fans, because now they can't listen, unless they change how they consume music.

Not gonna happen.

People will simply move on to something else, and you'll be left behind.
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You assume that his fans subscribe to a streaming service. Most of the people I listen to aren't on any of the major music services but I'm not moving on I just don't use the streaming service and go on like I always have it's really no big deal.
 
Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

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rhett7660 said:
This is the first thing I thought of when I read this. Hey, you can only get my music on a really nice player. Oh did I mention that is is my player! :)
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I remember reading an article where they blind tested a guy with the iTunes version of a song with one on the Pono.

The sad thing is that the guy in question actually owned a Pono, but he ended up blindly saying that the iTunes version sounded better.
 
Mr. McMac

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I was a fan of Neil Young back in the early 70's. That being said, I think he's full of #2 when he claims he can hear the difference between high bitrate mp3's verses his hi def audio format. He played in loud rock n roll bands most of his life and there's no way he doesn't have hearing loss like most of us older folks. I know from personal experience. My hearing took it's toll from exposure to loud music over the years. BTW, I'm 63, played in loud rock bands when I was younger, but not nearly as long as he did. So I say he's full of crap!
 
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0388631

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I'm surprised my hearing is still good after all the years I've listened to blaring music. Like a cat, I hear everything.
 
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All things considered, my hearing is still halfway decent for a guy my age. I can still hear up to about 15K. Beyond that I'm deaf.
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I wonder if the limit of damage sans rupture is genetically limited. My late grandfather who passed away in the early 90s had tremendous hearing for his age. He was in his mid or late 80s when he passed.
 
Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

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I don't particularly like to stream music, but I think a lot of these artists who are so against it have to understand that their future generations of listeners are going to be using it. And while there are a lot of young people who will never give a care in the world about their music, there will be those who do, and a lot of them will end up being the guys who guy CDs, vinyls, and digital formats, and invest into everything you've ever made.

And sound quality means nothing to them, to an extent it does, but that is not what initially connects one to a song that isn't an instrumental.
 
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