Neil Young Archives On New Streaming Service

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Not really news and far away what was announced as XStream a view months ago, but a great and cheap way to experience the work of Neil Young up to HiRes quality. http://www.neilyoungarchives.com/desktop/index.html#/?_k=b087ri

 

There was an OraStream link a view months ago with some selected albums from NY and the sound quality was excellent up to 24/192. 

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The Neil Young archives are online now and you can sign in http://www.neilyoungarchives.com/#/?_k=l18i1x and make your own impressions.

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On 30.11.2017 at 4:33 PM, The Computer Audiophile said:

Web browser listening is great for the times while I'm working at my computer, but the need for high resolution is usually diminished during these times. 

 

Anyway, just a thought.

 

You are right with your thoughts. Someone who wants to listen to music in a HiRes format is not using a computer with the Brio App or a browser. Meanwhile for this audience it is common to use a dedicated audio device with internet access and it is essential for a service like the Neil Young Archives or XStream or any other new streaming service to appear on the list of supported providers on as much as possible platforms.

 

Beside this audio aspects, there are a lot multimedia elements in the NYA that can only be played back with a computer. My first impression is, this a groundbreaking multimedia example to show the lifework of an exceptional artist. 

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1 hour ago, austinpop said:

Tantalizing, but agree about the browser restriction. 

 

This is just a novelty, until they figure out how to serve this as a stream to music players and servers like Roon. IF they ever do.

I've addressed this months ago to Phil Baker who seems to be responsible at XStream as he used to be at PonoMusic. However, I cannot imagine, any music player hard- or software supplier will support a single artist streaming and download service, even if it is Neil Young. We will see if there are plans to widen the catalog, first steps with CSN&Y are already announced, but to be taken seriously as an possible additional feature would be a long way, IMO.

 

Perhaps they stay with the current appearance, it remains to be seen how many paying subscribers will support NYA when it is not for free anymore in a view weeks. Time will tell!

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38 minutes ago, left channel said:

 

Not disagreeing, just clarifying. As I understand it:

 

• the neilyoungarchives.com site will be free until June 30th, and the nya.orastream.com download service will launch soon, 

 

• XStream was developed for Neil, Phil & the rest of whatever team they have left (if any) by Orastream, a very small Singapore company, and

 

• Orastream also offers the BRIO streaming server solution. Their biggest coup before this deal with Neil Young was signing up a group of classical music stations for a BRIO-based subscription service.

 

I would hope Neil & co. will try to sign other artists up for the XStream concept before next June. And I hope they are developing standalone apps for that, to unchain us from the tyranny of browser audio.

This is largely my state of knowledge, too. Maybe, NYA/XStream will use a BRIO based application as well, but this will not solve the issue of computer/tablet/smartphone dependency, beside SONOS or Chromecast Audio, both not really HiRes enabled.

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18 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I’d like integration with JRiver or Roon. 

I'm afraid, the relationship between Jim Hillegass (JRiver, Inc.) and Neil Young is not the very best since Jim published in the Pono Community that he had submitted a proposal to invest in PonoMusic to get the store up and running. The proposal has been rejected by the Pono Management.

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5 minutes ago, mansr said:

I'll give it a try.

 

Is there any good reason https isn't supported?

As far as I know, OraStream is not responsible for the front end. You should ask Phil Baker from NYA. 

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4 minutes ago, mansr said:

Ok, then it's an issue with NYA.

I've send a message to Phil and hope that he'll respond to your request in this forum, even if I've read recently that "https" isn't nearly as secure as it is supposed to be. 

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8 minutes ago, mansr said:

Seems like it is now. A few days ago, https connections would hang forever. Also seems to have moved to CloudFront hosting. Perhaps related.

Indeed, there is a https access now. We must consider that NYA is a brand new service and teething troubles are usual. As long as technical issues are eliminated quickly, it is OK. 

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An hour ago, I've got the message from OraStream that the NYA store is open now. I quickly checked the prices, they are anything else than competitive, the Warner Bros. store https://neilyoung.warnerbrosrecords.com/music-2/hd-digital.html is selling most of the albums for less than half of the price. Very disappointing! 

 

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34 minutes ago, spin33 said:

I find this to be quite a curious situation, in fact. And an incredible deal if those prices on the Warner Bros storefront hold and NYA/Orastream match them to boot.

Many, if not all, of the mainstream digital download stores are not remotely competitive with this. Just did a quick price comparison for the following album and found these results...

 

Neil Young - Storytone (Deluxe Edition) 192/24 FLAC:

 

Warner Bros Store  $13.99

Acoustic Sounds  $35.98

HDtracks  $34.98

7digital  $31.49

Neil Young - Storytone Deluxe Edition 24/192 from 7Digital in mainland Europe €17.99 and on the wannabe separate island nearby £ 18.49.