Ownership matters. I use streaming to supplement and explore but I’m still primarily a CD guy. My own rips and scans are not subject to disputes between artists, labels and streaming services.
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i do have a CD collection, and i do buy digital lossless music, but every day listening has mostly been taken over by spotify, as it is so simple to get to listen to new music and discover more of artists you already have some albums from. And for most part availability has not been an issue for me, even though i have noticed some songs have disappeared. But you still have a nagging feeling that it might all go away one day 
I read about it. dislike it when musicians let their personal politics move them to do stupid things like this because someone has a different opinion. Why pollute your legacy behind personal bias? But whatever, it’s his music so he can do what he wants, I suppose. Bye-Bye, Niel! Won’t miss ya if that’s the way it’s gonna be. Anyway…
This, however, it does bring a point about how things can change without notice or control of the situation. That is why ownership matters. Matters for Young, and it matters for us. And as I write this, I am listening to a CD. If streaming went away tomorrow (and it won’t), I’d be upset but I’d be just fine. It’s nice to have multiple sources!
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Check Qobuz.
One, it sounds better than Tidal or Amazon Music HD (I have not tried Apple Music since it went high-res). Two, you have the option to buy high-res FLAC files from Qobuz that are yours forever. Three, Qobuz has a lot of cool extras, like detailed liner notes, recording studio and engineer notes and information for albums, feature stories, etc.
If you’re a real musichead and audiophile, Qobuz is a great service.
How does Neil’s decision pollute his legacy? He’s standing up for a principle in which he believes. That’s admirable. Plus he’s also wise enough to know he won’t lose much money over the stance because Spotify’s payments per stream are pitiful. Neil makes more money from ONE live show than he does from Spotify in a year.
Plus it’s Neil’s music. He can do with it as he pleases. His music is available on other services or by purchasing physical product - the “other sources” you identify. Neil doesn’t owe us anything.
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Exactly. And I don’t owe him anything. I don’t care about his politics. Why should we get caught in that crossfire? That is all I’m saying. But I agree and I have said as much, it’s his music and he can do what he wants. So bye-bye, Niel. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.
Oh, and he will be known as the guy who got punked by Spotify!
Unless I’m mistaken, which I very well could be, I think he sold the rights to all of his music some years back. So it isn’t even his to be making that kind of threat over anymore.
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I have both Qobuz and Tidal accounts along with Roon. None of those services offer the complete liner notes of CDs. (A handful of albums on Qobuz have a PDF of the booklet but those are few and far between).
I totally forgot about that. Here it is. He sold half of his catalog for 150 Mil.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/business/neil-young-rights-deal-scli-intl-gbr/index.html
So there ya go. Still legit I suppose. But that is about all for that. Spotify is a great service, and I’m sure one day they will go lossless or Hi-Res, or whatever you want to call it. That will make it even better. Whether Young is on board or not.
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If you’re trying to use your influence to silence another person on the same platform, you’re an asshole.
If silence yourself because you don’t want to share the same platform as someone else, that’s standing by your principles.
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You say you don’t want to get caught in the crossfire yet finish your post saying Neil got punked by Spotify. Charming.
Did you really think Neil would back down and was just brokering a better deal from Spotify? If so, then you don’t know much about Neil Young. He’s been a man of principle – right or wrong – for his entire life as a professional musician.
Neil wanted his stuff removed from Spotify because he disagreed with their enabling of Rogan. It’s that simple. And you know who loses? Fans of Neil on Spotify and perhaps Spotify itself, as some follow Neil off the service (I’m one of them). They’re the ones who got punked, not Neil.
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I stand corrected. Liner notes was a bad term. But most albums have detailed background on the artist, the genesis of the album and more tasty treats for musicheads.
But you’re right: They’re not the ACTUAL liner notes. Thanks for the clarification.
So, you’re trying to infer Rogan and Neil were “teammates” because they’re both on Spotify?
Neil isn’t naive enough to think Spotify is going to silence or censor Rogan, who is the No. 1 podcaster on the platform and a big cash cow for Spotify. But he did threaten and follow through on removing his music because he feels Rogan spreads misinformation about COVID (which I agree with) and because Spotify does nothing about it, and he wanted to shine a light on both.
Now, there’s very little financial loss to Neil for pulling his music from Spotify, and he knows that. He makes more money from ONE live show than he does from a year of Spotify streaming royalties due to Spotify’s pitiful payouts.
So, Neil’s move was largely symbolic and intended to shine a light on something he sees as a real problem. That’s his right, and it doesn’t make him an asshole.
Neil always has had an uncomfortable relationship with big streaming companies and their shitty sound quality and poor royalty payouts. Remember his alternative, Pono?
Well, you can view it any way you like. I respect your opinion. But hey, when you puff out your chest and give someone a “me or him” ultimatum like that and get the door slammed in your face, you got punked, Son. And you are right, so did we, because now he is slinking away with his music and what the hell did I or we do to have his work pulled from me/us? That is all I’m saying. That is the cross-fire I was referring to. As far as the rest of it, I can’t control any of it, so it is what it is. We move forward.
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The rumor about Spotify’s delay in launching hi-res was that it was caught with its pants down by Apple and Amazon’s free high-res plans and that its original intent was just to offer CD quality, at best. So, when Apple and Amazon came out with high-res plans for no added cost and at higher bitrate than CD quality (at least Amazon, I believe), Spotify had to go back to the drawing board.
Again, just a rumor I read in a report in a tech magazine.
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This makes sense. Thanks for the information. It seemed like they were close, and now you don’t really hear about it. I’m sure they will get there, but I imagine the delay is hurting a bit.
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Again, “ultimatum” was just the public front. If you really think Neil believed Spotify would back him instead of Rogan, you don’t understand business or the amount of money that Spotify paid to land Rogan and the amount of dough his podcast brings to Spotify.
The “ultimatum” was a symbolic gesture by Neil, made to shine a light on a problem he sees. Combine that with a small loss of revenue and that he’s a man of principle, and it was easy for him to follow through on the threat.
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My big question: Will Spotify use MQA, or is that a proprietary technology for Tidal?
Qobuz does not use MQA. I don’t believe Amazon or Apple do, either, so that leads me to believe it’s special sauce for Tidal. Or it’s just marketing bullshit and dodgy tech that Tidal clings to as a “feature”, as some audiophiles believe, so other services don’t use it.
Yep, copy that. They are both going to take hits, no doubt. It just saddens me a little ya know? I just want to listen to music. The rest of it is just boring and unfortunate to me. There is too much of this crap everywhere else. Why can’t they leave music alone? Oh well.
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OOOOOH, the 64-thousand-dollar question!! I have been wondering if that was what the delay was about. Maybe they were looking at MQA, and when all that blew up, they had to re-think the whole thing! Pure speculation of course, but possible maybe?
I am of the opinion that MQA is crap and won’t waste any time on it, btw. But that is just me.
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