Neil Young is perhaps the most diligent archaeologist of his own past and has the same storage compulsion that would make him a fine subject for the Hoarders TV series. But this auto-collector mentality is something he is now monetising.
The paid iteration of the Neil Young Archives went live just before Christmas, charging users $1.99 a month (or $19.99 a year) to fully access his entire back catalogue as well as get to hear new music before anyone else.
Fans can also get early access to tickets for his shows. The audio streams in high quality (using the Xstream format that effectively supersedes his Pono offering) and there are also films, videos, photos, manuscripts, unreleased material and more that he has meticulously squirrelled away over the years.
“This is a life’s work,” Young said in a press statement at the launch of the subscription service that has been done in partnership with Warner Bros. Records. “It will never be finished […] All my new records can be heard there first, before they get released anywhere else.
New, unreleased albums from the archives and old, unreleased albums from the archives will always be heard there first. Our machine is a monster.” It is available both online and via an iOS app, with an Android app planned soon. There are certain tracks and pieces of content available for free as well as an option to buy high-res Xstream downloads or physical product. But after the taster menu, users have to take out a subscription to access anything else.
This, of course, comes almost two years after Garth Brooks closed his own GhostTunes download service as his digital catalogue went to Amazon Music Unlimited (and it’s still kept off other DSPs). But labels are certainly seeing archive management and exploitation as something they need to pay closer attention to – symbolised best with the appointment of Tom Mullen as VP of catalogue marketing for Atlantic Records last year.
The Neil Young Archives – as slick and as fan-friendly as they undoubtedly are – might be an outlier for now; but it really should be something that acts with deep catalogues are looking to learn from.
