I think you're probably right. As much as I want it to succeed, I can't really see it lasting beyond a few years.
I think that this website is for uberfans. Now, when the access is free and with the maximum of Internet traffic, they can sustain the website costs for 7 months without any need of paid fees. It's foreseeable that when the website will be a membership service, the traffic is going to slow down substantially and with a minimum of paying members they should survive for years, at least until Neil is alive. The only added costs will be for the CSNY, Buffalo Springfield and Geffen material.
In theory I agree with what you are saying, I guess I'm just a bit sceptical at this stage. I just wonder how they are going to maintain interest. The most obvious way is exclusive content for the website which is regularly updated. The most obvious content to be attractive is the archive releases, but I can't imagine that they would make that online only - surely there will still be physical releases. So many of us own the music already, and will buy physical copies of future releases, that I think the streaming may lose it's appeal. If they do a mobile version it will have portability in it's favour but only a certain amount of an already niche market will use it that way. I'm sure they've already thought of all of this and have a plan in place. I just hope they manage to find a sweet spot where both the price and the amount of new content is good. Despite my doubts, I do really hope it works.
A couple of questions. Can any of the songs and/or albums be downloaded? Also, are Freedom and Ragged Glory in hi-rez?
Ragged Glory and Freedom are both for sale in hi-rez on there... As others have mentioned, there are things there not available in entirety or for purchase yet (El Dorado, for example)
Although it says "buy them in hi-rez" they are not, they're 16/44. And as noted earlier these recordings won't be hi-rez due to how they were recorded.
Gotcha. But if they are new conversions from the original masters, still might be higher quality/resolution that the original CDs?
Ragged Glory and Freedom were "only" recorded in CD quality (along with all the other albums between 1982 and 1995, at least). Thank God it doesn't matter.
Just to nitpick, sleeps with angels and mirror ball are analog, so 1994. SWA wasn't recorded at the ranch
I'm not so sure about Mirror Ball, because it tops out at "Full 16/44 Resolution" on the Archives player. Other albums that are definitely analog play at 24/192 for me.
If I remember correctly, recent albums as Silver & Gold, AYP etc are 16/44. Probably not remastered yet.
I think that the rule is that albums remastered for Pono, sound as hi-rez also on the new Neil Young website. The rest of the albums are waiting for same kind of hi-rez remastering and maybe new release for appearing as Hi-res also in the NYA website.
Yer this website has not made me return to it for a while now, too much effort. I’ll be back when the Roxy appears in my dreams.
love neil but yeah, I think youre right, even when/if he starts to add unreleased cuts/shows i think it will be in sparse drips and drabs, just another hippie dream, love to be proven wrong!
Only 6 or 7 more months until we (possibly) gain access to Vol 2 of the Archive. My debit card is waiting and ready. As it is now, it's a nice treat. But if they are calculating the number of people streaming from that page, they have to realize that there are probably thousands of people who will stream more often once they've paid and they have full access. I've decided that I will not pay for the service unless it includes the streaming of EVERY Neil Young album that has been released so far. I don't want to pay money and then be jerked around and find out "certain albums aren't stream-able yet". Happy New Year!!
