It’s been a crazy week for radio but that’s the world in which we live.
You may have heard the recent news about Neil Young’s decision about how consumers will be able to listen to his music. Last week, he pulled his catalogue off all streaming services.
This means no “Southern Man” or “Rockin’ In The Free World” on Pandora, Spotify, and the other pure-plays.
Unlike the Taylor Swift standoffs with Spotify, and then Apple, Young says this one’s about quality. And that’s what he told his more than three million fans on Facebook – as well as the rest of the world:
In many ways, this isn’t a new tune for Young. He’s been talking about music quality for some time now. You may recall we covered his Pono music player at CES this past January.
At that conference, Young talked about how digital music is a step back in quality. He said that “I don’t think anything can sound better than vinyl.” And his PonoPlayer (roughly $400), a high-resolution device replaces MP3s as a format, using multiple file formats that offer high quality sound.
The flight to quality is part of a larger trend in media and music consumption. While many artists are concerned about royalties and compensation, Young has always taken a different approach to music, emphasizing the experience for the listener as the next big thing.
Wonder if he’s listened to satellite radio lately?
When you think about the pure-play model, you’re looking at a system that is systematically removing the tactile, the human piece, and the charm of analog – whether it’s the philosophy or the technical side.
The resurgence in vinyl sales (as digital album sales decline) suggests there may be the beginnings of a “there there” when it comes to returning to old school audio formats, as Young suggests.
Whether it’s programmatic buying, music scheduling, the quality of CDs and MP3s, voicetracking, and other digital shortcuts, is there a market for that hand-crafted, homemade style of radio?
And while it doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition, is there room for brands that want to take a more organic approach to their stations – whether it’s vinyl, live DJs around the clock, or even some modified version of computer-selected music? (At one time, RCS offered a “DJ Select” product that was a hybrid of their standard model and the card box.)
For radio, this homegrown, baked fresh daily approach might have more appeal to jaded fans as well as twentysomethings searching for a richer, more robust experience.
Hey hey, my my.
Neil Young photo courtesy of Rabbi Jason Miller
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I’m with Lynrd Skynrd when it comes to Neil Young – “a Southern Man don’t need him around anyhow.” Stations that stream just won’t be playing Neil anymore and he’ll likely join the Dixie Chicks in Radio Exile Oblivion.
And, in fact, that may be the net effect, Charlie. My point is that there are a lot of arrows pointing to the quality argument. Are they real?
His whole argument rang hollow to me. First, your point about Satellite radio is right on the money. Spotify at its lowest sound quality setting sounds WAY better than Sirius, so why is he OK with his music on Satellite?
Second, the number of people who buy vinyl or are focused on sound quality beyond what the streamers offer is miniscule and he’s addressing an issue that almost no one cares about. Has he listened to a pair of Beats lately?
I can’t help but wondering if his motivation is the same as taylor Swift and he’s using the sound argument so as not to appear like a grumpy old man. If so…FAIL!
Bob, you may have an argument there. How he doesn’t hear the satellite problem is a good question.
Gotta agree with Charlie & Bob on this one, Fred.
When I first heard Neil talking about his PONO player, I thought it was a cool idea. But NOT for the masses. Neil’s preaching to the 1% who know that Bang & Olufsen isn’t a porn movie.
No one else CARES(unfortunatly). And I consider myself somewhat of an audiophile. I used to subscribe to Stereo Review. I own, in 5.1 surround sound, the following classic CDs:
Hotel california
Brain Salad Surgery
Yes-Fragile & Close to The Edge
Band on the run
Venus & Mars
Rumors
Pet Sounds
and dozens of others.
But now, for Neil to pull his music because of stream quality is sheer insanity. By the way, Neil—you said you actually SUPPORTED 8-Track tapes???
SERIOUSLY?
Ya mean the ones that stopped midway thru a song, faded out, click…then faded back in again??? STOP IT…and put down the pipe, Neil.
I appreciate your spirit…but your timing is off. Wait another 15 years, when Terrabites are ‘small’.
You may be right that the populace may never hear the quality difference. Voltair may end up proving that. 🙂
AM radio sounds better than streaming?
I stopped reading Neil’s post there, because I have a very low tolerance for sheer, unadulterated nonsense.
Hey, he’s a rock star. No shocker there. Thanks, James.
Perhaps through Neil’s Marshall-amp-damaged ears it sounds better!
In fairness to Neil, I think he said “AM radio kicked streaming’s ass.” Maybe he was referring to the annual AM Radio/Streaming Bowling Invitational – not in sound quality.
Maybe it’s proximity to those Marshall stacks!
I think Neil has always been a Fender man – not aware that he ever (willingly) used Marshall amplifiers – at least there’s another point tending to confirm his commitment to better quality sound..
He has always spoken his mind – including when it comes to quality sound. Thanks for commenting.
Has Neil ever listened to an over-the-air radio station? Sure, you have lots of bad things happening in the sampling/encoding/transcoding/recoding/decoding/bending/folding/spindling of music for both streamed and satellite radio. Sure, you have iTunes downloads that sound awful when compared to CDs. But music stations process their audio to death (I was one of the guys who committed the most egregious audio atrocities during my time as an NYC radio engineer). Music stations also rely on the notoriously bad receiver in your dashboard as the last mile of delivery to the user. When I switch from streamed music to FM music in my car, I cringe at the reduction in sound quality (and that’s before getting 12 :30 ads in a row!!).
He has every right to protect his work from degradation in its distribution (by withholding it), but anything he says that suggests that decrease in quality is new, or unique to streaming, is nonsense.
Quality – or the lack thereof – is in the mind (and the ears) the beholder. Thanks for the digital perspective, John.