Neil Young on how the digital age has changed music quality: “Consumers are little lemmings”

While it’s not necessarily new to discuss the potentially destructive impact of technology on musical creativity, it is interesting to consider the broader effects of the digital age on art as a whole. Some argue that technology enhances creative flow by providing new tools and platforms, but others, like Neil Young, view this transformation as somewhat reductive.

Young and many other musicians from his generation have had a considerably complicated relationship with technology lately, and he hasn’t been shy about explaining why. Although his move to ditch Spotify back in 2022 was less about technology in a vague sense and more specifically about his feelings towards how it spreads misinformation, he remained committed to the cause.

“I woke up one morning, and I heard somebody saying there was some scientists saying something about Covid, or some doctors and they were saying something about Covid and how many people were dying in hospitals and misinformation,” Young said at the time, adding that there were allegedly some podcasts on Spotify that were spreading false details about vaccinations.

He also examined how music sounds on the streaming giant, explaining, “It sounds better at the other places. Why would I want to keep it on Spotify when it sounds like a pixilated movie?”

While Young’s bitterness towards Joe Rogan might have catalysed his decision, the entire boycott seemed less of a spark and more like rubbing salt in the wound—returning to the platform earlier this year didn’t mark an end to his squabble as much as start new conversations about music listening quality. Upon his return, he remarked, “[I have] sincere hopes that Spotify sound quality will improve and people will be able to hear and feel all the music as we made it.”

Back in 2014, Young explained his position on the digital age to Charlie Rose, emphasising the idea that music is created to tap into deep emotions, and when people listen to poorer quality versions of songs, it removes its magic entirely. He even said that contemporary vinyl pressings often lack quality due to how they are made, raising concerns about the falsehoods surrounding a traditional consuming format.

“It’s content now, not music,” the musician deadpanned. “It’s consumer content. It’s almost like consumers are little lemmings and here’s your little cheese,” he quipped. “Music was supposed to make me feel something, I want goosebumps, I want to close my eyes and see the universe and feel people’s hearts. Music is a great language, people used it for centuries.”

Discussing the loss of quality in modern streaming, he continued: “It’s down to 5% of what our files hold or are capable of holding. Vinyl is great, but there are a lot of things about vinyl that people don’t know today. Many times, vinyl is created from the digital masters that made CDs, so you’re never going to have any more sound on vinyl that’s on CD. The CD actually plays the tracks much better than the vinyl; the vinyl colours them.”

Advising how to get better quality music, he concluded: “If the vinyl is pressed from an original analogue master—analogue music is a reflection. A digital track is a reconstitution of the track. The more samples you have, the clearer the music sounds.”

While the debate surrounding music sound quality in the digital age persists, Young’s subtly condemning discourse suggests that there are ways to discover music as it was intended to be heard, even if streaming services like Spotify have made it infinitely more challenging to rediscover authenticity.

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