Neil Young has announced that he is pulling his music catalogue from streaming services because he’s not happy with the sound quality.
The rock legend, who has railed against both the CD and MP3 formats in his time, took to social media to berate the standard of music streaming services.
“Streaming has ended for me,” he wrote on Facebook.
Unlike Taylor Swift, however, this has nothing to do with money – although Young does claim that his share of the funds generated by his music “was dramatically reduced by bad deals made without my consent.” No, this is about simple 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,” says Young. “I don’t feel right allowing this to be sold to my fans. It’s bad for my music.”
As such, Young is going to pull his entire music catalogue from music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, though a quick look at Google Play Music suggests that it’s all still available at the time of writing.
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Of course, Young himself has a stake in the whole sound quality debate, as he has thrown his weight behind the Pono high fidelity music player, which launched in January.
Young doesn’t close the door completely on a return to regular streaming services, however. He signs off with this comment: “When the quality is back, I’ll give it another look. Never say never.”
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.