Music legend Neil Young and his music are available again via Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming services. About a year and a half ago, he removed his entire music catalog from streaming services, presenting himself as the guardian of sound quality. Because, original quote from his Facebook post at the time, “I don’t need my music to be devalued by the worst quality in the history of broadcasting or any other form of distribution”. However, the step was not really consistent.
Because the music on Apple Music has no different quality than in the iTunes Store – and Neil Young’s songs were still available there. However, he firmly ruled out a financial background to his decision at the time. And now he’s back on the streaming services with all of his music, and the sound quality hasn’t changed at all. “When the quality is back I’ll take another look. Never say never,” Neil Young said at the time.
Neil Young and his company PonoMusic developed the $400 music player Pono and successfully funded it on Kickstarter in 2014. Pono is said to offer significantly better audio quality than conventional MP3 players or smartphones (emphasis on “should”). The high-resolution music suitable for the player could be purchased via the PonoMusic Store. However, the store has not been available for several months as the offer is being transferred to another platform. After initial hype, the Pono music player has since become very quiet.
Image by Dena Flows (flickr), certain rights reserved
Via MacRumors