Singer Neil Young speaks during a press conference in Toronto, Sunday January 12, 2014. Young wrote on Facebook Wednesday that he would be pulling his music from streaming sites.Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press
The free world just got a little less rocking. Canadian songwriting legend Neil Young announced Wednesday that he'd no longer make his catalogue available to streaming music services worldwide.
Mr. Young has long been a critic of the audio quality that streaming services provide, largely because of the compression required to make audio files small enough to stream. The move is a challenge to major services such as Spotify, Rdio and Apple Music to upgrade their audio quality so songs sound more like the original recordings.
In a Facebook post, the 69-year-old Heart of Gold and Cinnamon Girl songwriter minced no words about the all-you-can-stream services. "AM radio kicked streaming's ass," he wrote. "Analog cassettes and 8 tracks also kicked streaming's ass, and absolutely rocked compared to streaming. … Streaming is the worst audio in history."
The move, he wrote, allows him to preserve his art as it was intended to be heard. (As of publication time, his music was still available on services including Rdio and Apple Music.)
Last year, Mr. Young ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to launch the Pono portable music device and download service to promote high-quality audio in digital music.
He's not the only artist to be frustrated with streaming: Earlier this month, Prince removed his music from all streaming services except Tidal, an artist-owned service with an uncompressed high-fidelity option.
Mr. Young ended his note with an olive branch: "Make streaming sound good, and I will be back."
Josh O’Kane