Article: "Streaming ends for me today…" Neil Young

[StephenJK]

I doubt he became involved with to make a "few" dollars - that is probably what is under his skin. He expected to make lots and lots of dollars.

 

To believe otherwise is naive beyond all belief.

 

-Paul

 

Paul,

 

For goodness sake, the man is worth close to a quarter billion dollars. He's the highest earning musician in the world with revenue of close to $75M for 2014-2015. Do you, in your sincere and wide-eyed innocence seriously believe that there was anything other than altruism behind the Pono effort?

 

NY has publicly stated that the player was developed to allow people to hear music the way the artists intended - and that if someone else wants to pick up the ball and make players or music available he's fine with that.

 

Dreaming up some ridiculous and unfounded opinion that you then post online doesn't make it so.

[Paul R]

Paul,

 

For goodness sake, the man is worth close to a quarter billion dollars. He's the highest earning musician in the world with revenue of close to $75M for 2014-2015. Do you, in your sincere and wide-eyed innocence seriously believe that there was anything other than altruism behind the Pono effort?

 

NY has publicly stated that the player was developed to allow people to hear music the way the artists intended - and that if someone else wants to pick up the ball and make players or music available he's fine with that.

 

Dreaming up some ridiculous and unfounded opinion that you then post online doesn't make it so.

 

(amusement)

You really believe that? In December of 2014, according to Forbes, he wasn't even in the top ten list of high earner musicians-

 

The World's Highest-Paid Musicians Of 2014

 

Nor is he even among the top ten wealthiest musicians, the top spots being held by Madonna and McCartney.

 

You bet he was wanting Pono to increase his wealth significantly. He has an estimated net worth of $65m. Must be terrible given the divorce and all that... poor boy needs some more cash! And Pono is not providing to be the cash cow he wanted it to be.

 

-Paul

[Teresa]

I support Neil Young’s move pulling his music from streaming services, however I agree that he should also remove all his lossy music (MP3, AAC, etc.) from services and download stores as well. And I hope other artists follow suit.

 

Personally, I prefer buying to renting, I would not be interested in streaming with a monthly fee even at DSD128.

[firedog]

Paul,

 

For goodness sake, the man is worth close to a quarter billion dollars. He's the highest earning musician in the world with revenue of close to $75M for 2014-2015. Do you, in your sincere and wide-eyed innocence seriously believe that there was anything other than altruism behind the Pono effort?

 

NY has publicly stated that the player was developed to allow people to hear music the way the artists intended - and that if someone else wants to pick up the ball and make players or music available he's fine with that.

 

Dreaming up some ridiculous and unfounded opinion that you then post online doesn't make it so.

 

None of us have any way of knowing whether NY is interested in more money or not....pure speculation whatever side we take.

 

I will say that in my experience, I have seen people who are very rich, and being fabulously wealthy has only seemed to make them want to be even more wealthy. I'm not assuming anything about NY, just pointing out that wealth that seems to us mortals seems like "way more than enough" - isn't for some of the very rich.

[YashN]

Personally, I prefer buying to renting, I would not be interested in streaming with a monthly fee even at DSD128.

 

Same here. I wonder if people really do the maths on renting music.

[firedog]

Is streaming worth it? I guess it depends how you buy. I tend to take chances and end up with some albums I regret buying. So for me streaming saves money - I can test albums and decide not to buy them if I don't really like them. Or I can stream something I'm on the fence about instead of buying it.

[senorx]

Don't know anything of NY's motives, financial or otherwise. His credibilty is questionable though when he says 8 track tape, and even moreso, AM radio sound better than streaming. AM sounded like shit to me when I was 12, compared to ANY format around at the time. What a crock. Same effect on his credibility if he continues to reap the benefit of sales of mp3 tracks and albums by Amazon et al, at the same bitrates at which streaming takes place. Maybe it's dementia.

[Evo1668]

Well streaming certainly works for me with Roon + Tidal Hifi....and I don't know what the math is, but it's pretty simple...streaming subscription has vastly decreased my expenditure on "rubbish" music. Allows me to purchase the music I really want in my collection - a bargain really, and the math is very simple...when NY stops all his music being streamed from lesser quality sources, I might give his opinions some credence, otherwise "crock"

[Rezseeker]

Ii

[Teresa]

Is streaming worth it? I guess it depends how you buy. I tend to take chances and end up with some albums I regret buying. So for me streaming saves money - I can test albums and decide not to buy them if I don't really like them. Or I can stream something I'm on the fence about instead of buying it.

 

I listen to the 30 second samples for downloads at HDTracks, Super HiRez and Native DSD. And for music I'm really unfamiliar with I listen to the complete tracks at eClassical.com , they give me 30 seconds at a time, I just push the play button every 30 seconds and I can hear the whole track. These samples have really help me avoid albums I won't like.

 

I can't see spending money for a streaming service as it takes away money I could use to purchase music to add to my collection.

[serendipitydawg]

Well it happened. Tidal just removed a large chunk of Mr Young's music.

 

About 10 minutes ago I was listening to "Americana" & it disappeared !

 

All that is left is the Geffen albums, the music from Dead Man, sundry bootlegs & appearances on various artist albums such as The Bridge benefit album

[The Computer Audiophile]

Well it happened. Tidal just removed a large chunk of Mr Young's music.

 

About 10 minutes ago I was listening to "Americana" & it disappeared !

 

All that is left is the Geffen albums, the music from Dead Man, sundry bootlegs & appearances on various artist albums such as The Bridge benefit album

So he removed the CD quality lossless content from Tidal, but keeps the lossy MP3s on Amazon and AACs on iTunes. Neil's reasoning doesn't add up.

[MikeJazz]

Same here. I wonder if people really do the maths on renting music.

 

Yes, people do.

For the price of buying one CD per month, one can get to know a lot more music. It's all about music.

[speavler]

Is there a remote app yet?

[firedog]

Is there a remote app yet?

 

Are you talking about Tidal? or Pono? or what. Tidal has remote apps for iOS and Android.

[speavler]

Are you talking about Tidal? or Pono? or what. Tidal has remote apps for iOS and Android.

 

Tidal. So I can control Tidal running on my mac mini with my iphone/ipad?

[loop7]

So he removed the CD quality lossless content from Tidal, but keeps the lossy MP3s on Amazon and AACs on iTunes. Neil's reasoning doesn't add up.

Absolutely does not add up. Do artists make more for purchased downloads? If so, this is a financial decision cloaked in savior-like grandstanding.

[speavler]

Absolutely does not add up. Do artists make more for purchased downloads? If so, this is a financial decision cloaked in savior-like grandstanding.

 

Kinda like how JZ and his multi-millionaire/billionaire co-owners are out to protect the interests of artists!?!

[firedog]

Tidal. So I can control Tidal running on my mac mini with my iphone/ipad?

 

You don't control Tidal on your Mac Mini with the app, you stream Tidal to the iPad. AFAIK, if you want to control Tidal on your Mini B/c it is part of your stereo setup, you use a remote desktop client to control the mini. I'm not an Apple person, so there may be a better way I don't know about.

[firedog]

Absolutely does not add up. Do artists make more for purchased downloads? If so, this is a financial decision cloaked in savior-like grandstanding.

 

They make much more on the purchase of a song for download than on a stream; the question then becomes whether the number of streams adds up to be enough to make up the difference.

[christopher3393]

Well it happened. Tidal just removed a large chunk of Mr Young's music.

 

About 10 minutes ago I was listening to "Americana" & it disappeared !

 

All that is left is the Geffen albums, the music from Dead Man, sundry bootlegs & appearances on various artist albums such as The Bridge benefit album

 

A lot of music deleted from Spotify as well.

[realhifi]

I wonder what he's up to? We received two free cds of his latest (along with companion dvds) when we purchased tickets to his latest tour. He seems to be giving them away so what's up with the streaming?

[Vic Damone]

Update from NY's facebook page:

 

"I was there.

AM radio kicked streaming's ass.

Analog Cassettes and 8 tracks also kicked streaming's ass,

and absolutely rocked compared to streaming.

Streaming sucks. Streaming is the worst audio in history.

If you want it, you got it. It's here to stay.

Your choice.

Copy my songs if you want to. That's free.

Your choice.

All my music, my life's work, is what I am preserving the way I want it to be.

It's already started. My music is being removed from all streaming services. It's not good enough to sell or rent.

Make streaming sound good and I will be back.

Neil Young"

 

lots of comments on both posts.

 

Personally, I think he intends these as strong subjective comments. I have no reason to suspect that this is primarily about $$$$, but it isn't surprising that people will. I like his comments and stance for what they are: fed up with low sound quality. So am I. I subscribe to and like Tidal, but my cd rips generally sound a bit better to me. Anything less than Redbook? I don't want to pay for it. And I'm not going to pay for it. In fact, I've been considering dumping even my Tidal subscription. Apple can do better. Spotify can do better. Why don't they? If 100 big names in music dropped streaming until sound quality improves, and did this as a coordinated effort, what would happen?

 

Just expressing personal preferences. I sometimes enjoy listening to music I don't own on YouTube, especially if I'm really interested or in the mood. But gradually, it wears on me. And my system is reasonably forgiving.

 

Christopher, thanks. I'll enjoy the benefit for The Bridge School that much more this year.

 

There have been some great advancements in recording (Burl products) and the fidelity after the first A-D / D-A can be stunning. With all the multiple reclocking, compression, and ham fisted mastering for an ear bud and Beats consumer digital fidelity isn't even a consideration for most clients.

[bkinbk]

I'm finding Neil on TIDAL

[bkinbk]

Did Neil ever pull his catalog from TIDAL (as reported by members of this forum) or did he change his mind?

 

http://tidal.com/artist/205