Neil Young takes on the iPod

Just shut up and play the music,Neil. The same goes for your politics. In concert people want to hear Powderfinger-not you lambasting the Bush administration for ten minutes between songs. GET BACK TO WHAT MATTERS-The music

I don’t care for MP3 players, either, but I’m not going to lie: a CD player and a stack of CDS isn’t the easiest thing to carry around school hallways, listen to while vacuuming, etc. This is where the iPod comes in handy.

human beings are the most interestingly distorted things on the planet. Neil has been on this bandwagon long before IPOD’s ruled the land, he was on the forefront of the bandwidth / sampling rates when CD’s first came out too…..but most of you frat boys are simply too young to remember…..its always enjoyable to see the posts from people with no facts promote their ignorance……most of these folks likely werent around in the age of vinyl and turntables and tube analog audio…….its interesting to note the the price of all that old school gear is skyrocketing these days even with all the MP3 and Ipod gear splashing around the place…..

to DD from China,

No, no one in China will say yes because they take for granted that pirating is the fight for evil western capitalism.

If you guys dislike all those BS, then don’t take it. Oh yeah, I forgot, you guy can’t make the decision because your government choose what your people can do, they even control which websites your people can visit. Brain washed by your government buy you guys don’t even know.

Neil, Neil, Neil,… what to say to an aging CANADIAN hippie whose inspirations come to him when he is hopped up on who knows what or deathly ill. We live in a world of instant gratification. Get over it Neil. You think this country sucks so bad? Go back to Canada, jerk off. I’m a huge fan of some of his music but he needs to shut the hell up and stay on his ranch and fix his electric cars or play with his Lionel trains. I have 2 ipods and I rip all my stuff at 256. Sounds decent enough for the car. You’re in a car man, not friggin Carnagie Hall! I don’t use the earbuds because I know they suck. Its not the player, people, its the compression rate you choose. Yeah you get fewer songs but that’s why they make 60gb players. do you put whole albums on or just some songs from each? Then, as has been mentioned, how about using lossless? Ears are the windows to the soul…..ha…smoke another joint Neil and go back to bed.

Neil just wants higher audio quality because MP3 won’t accurately represent his extremely high-pitched, feminine, lady-like singing voice.

Not to mention the feeble, wimpy guitar scratching.

I listened to a mate’s when they first came out & decided to stick with a Panasonic SD-SV85 that I’d had since 2000 because the iPod sounded so bad.

My mate was very appreciative that I recommended at least replacing earphones.

I guess I’ll never be cool.

Wow ! Fisher-Price toys sound as good as an IPOD! What a concept and guess what? Fisher-Price toys actually sound pretty good these days. I’m an Audio Engineer there and I consider this a compliment ! Thanks Neil.

Perhaps Neil Young not getting paid well, so he complains?

Does Neil Young actually think his music requires a full audio range to enjoy? Those twenty minute one note solo’s aren’t really that dynamic tonally. But hey, who you going to blame when sales are down?

Dude looks like Jesus

How many people in china would say yes? Maybe none.

These complaints about quality, while valid, miss the point. In order to have the fullest musical experience, you need to go to a live concert. Any recording is going to fall short of the real thing. Would you rather see a picture of the perfect sunset or the sunset itself? Recorded music in general puts music anywhere at the touch of a button but we forget the wonder of a live concert because it’s a luxury we don’t need. Why pay for the concert when you have the CD or MP3 right there?

That said, I use my iPod all the time when the real thing isn’t available or realistic (I unfortunately don’t have a concert hall in my car…). Cheap substitute? Maybe, but it beats singing to myself.

Totally agree. The iPod has allowed me as a musician to serialize so many songs and pluck out cuts that I can then use to play at will without changing CDs to develop an improvisational repertoir..without the iPod I would never have gotten the chops needed to jam enough to learn improv. although I am clasically trained I just could never find enough guys or have the patience so change records over and over. While iTunes does devalue music to the same extent that downloading porn downgrades sex it is not to say it has any downgrading in the overall learning or expansion of musical experience..that is in the mind of the beholder and beholding more yields more insight…it is not either or…it is both…get the CD sure? get it on iTunes fast if you need it…buy more listen to more good stuff..do not buy crap! Do not buy stuff from Suits..listen to the DEAD MAN and all those great jam bands who you have to see LIVE anyway! RIGHT?

We are at a point where quallity isn’t a problem anymore for the majority of people. Only a small group of people demand higher quallity but there are option for them.. And then there are people who still think a records sounds better than an iPod and VHS is superior to DVD..

This is interesting though is it not. The gizmo that, in theory, is merely a storage and replay device has clearly taken on more importance than the actual music. Bit superficial I reckon, Marshall McCluhan would be proud.

Hence the “unconditional love for my iPod” crowd jumping on NY and this thread in general.

Anyone with half a tin ear can hear the diff between even a less-than-stellar mastered CD (don’t get me started on the whole 16 bit, 20Hz-20KHz CD spec thing), versus what comes out of Apple’s overpriced earphones, or even a set of reference headphones plugged into an iPod.

People who know zip about audio (but love to flash their iPods) should refrain from commenting on things about which they know nothing whatsoever. And have a nice day.

This discussion has made me actively start investigating finding something, anything, other than an Apple iPod, on which to cart music around. Bah!

Neil Young is correct that Apple have indeed dumbed-down the quality of music, but I’d personally focus more on the notion of respect. I hate that people are choosing to download something for the same price as buying a CD. Owning a file is so impersonal; I chose to buy CDs and then copy them to iTunes using the highest audio formatting possible.

All Neil is talking about is numbers (sampling rates). I’m not sure why so many posters were convinced that he is incorrect about certain numbers being bigger than other numbers… but he’s not. It’s understandable that some of you don’t care about raising the standards… but if you don’t care, why did you join the conversation? Go yell at the people in your real life that CAUSED the anger you’re feeling! Haha. It will feel much better.

Unbelievable some of the comments here. Neil Young, the artist, is advocating improved quality for you, the consumer.

And gets trashed for even suggesting such a thing? I have to conclude the trashers here are all totally brainwashed Apple fanboys, good little consumers of whatever ‘they’ decide to dish up for you. Gimme a break.

Talk about ‘the lowest common denominator’. It’s pathetic. And yeah I have an 80 gig iPod, nearly full.

Young is a complete hypocrite. For years and years, his music was available on the radio, scratchy records, hissing tapes – back then no one complained about audio quality. Audiophiles will always search for the higher standard, but the MP3 is a huge upgrade from that old standard (unless you had a very expensive turntable and speakers). What bothers artists, is now that music is easily copied and shared (killing the standard distribution model).

Check this out. Part of the problem has NOTHING to do with the sound. It’s takes effort to play a record, it takes attention and care. Devoting that of yourself, is going to cause you to appreciate what you hear for more than something as convinient as an ipod. The worst cost of convinience is that it makes the user even lazier than he/she already was. IPOD’s are the microwaves of music, records are home cooked meals.
Peace

I thought the eyes were the windows to the soul? lol

Lets define the 21st centenary
with respect to our 5 senses:

Sound: ipod, I wonder what a
real instrument sounds like?

Smell: Febreze, I wonder what a
real flower or basil smells like?

Taste: Transgenic fruits, I wonder
what a real strawberry tastes like?

Touch: Keyboards, mice, steering wheels,
I wonder what it must feel like planting a
flower, oh yes I don’t need to I have Febreze.

Site: Music Video on a 1″ X 1″ screen.
I wonder what it feels like to see the
Grand Canyon, or watch Casablanca
on large screen.

I hope Neal Young will remember…..
a southern man don’t need him….
anyhow

I would like to remind people who don’t think there’s a difference between 192kbit/s, and a CD audio stream that with their $50 headphones they will be right. I fought the other side of this debate for a long time; “There’s no difference between 192kbit/s and a CD” years ago when MP3’s first came out. After years of listening to compressed audio, and upgrading sound systems as I grew up my ears became more and more picky to a point now where I’ve dumped my iPod and re-installed a CD Changer in my car. It’s also fun to go into a local CD shop, and chat with the people who work there. iTunes has removed our sense of a music community as well.

I think that what Brock wanted to say is that you can change compressing from lossy to lossless just selecting an option, not change the lossy file itself. If you are concerned about music quality, why rip cds in lossy formats when you can compress in lossless?

Apple should sell in lossless formats too, but the real problem is not the format, but the recording. The studios are butchering the music.

Quality sounds good. Technology has not always promoted quality.

Neil Young is notorious for listening and using sound. Why wouldn’t Apple want to seek out his advice??? As my four year old would say, (to Apple that is), “Your not listening!”

It starts with you, Neil Young.

Looking at Neil Young’s catalog on iTunes, I noticed that he chooses to offer only the basic AAC versions, not the higher-quality DRM-free versions he espouses.

Say one thing, do another and blame Apple — is this how you roll, Neil?

So, Young and his adherents equate technology of art. You don’t appreciate art unless you buy $25,000 worth of audio equipment. An iPod has far better sound than anything available prior to 1960. Does that mean music as an art form started in 1960? No one could appreciate real music until then? Hey, if Tolstoy wrote “War and Peace” with a pencil instead of a word processor or a calligraphy set, and wrote it on paper instead of gilt-edged parchment – it can’t be art, can it? DaVinci’s sketchbooks are shlock? And if I look at a picture of “The Last Supper” printed in a magazine, I’m just a crude Philistine who can’t truly appreciate real art. The ludicrous paradigm advanced here is that the technology and presentation are what comprises art – not the human ideas and thoughts behind it. If the definition of “art” is tied to the equipment you buy – then I say it isn’t art at all. It’s a commerical product.

Surely, as memory gets cheaper, this problem will disappear? In a few years your iPod will have enough memory to record everything at lossless quality, and still hold thousands of CDs. Doesn’t memory cost halve every 18 months or so?

Neil Young was a strong proponent of Super Audio CDs (”SACD”) – a practical audio format that offers significantly higher potential audio fidelity. Unfortunately, the marketing effort that was put into SACD was miniscule, and the amount of SACD product available is sad.

If the music publishers offered a choice between downloads in MP3 and SACD, or even both with one purchase, I expect that the market for non-downloaded music would stabilize.

Some of my SACDs are spectacular – even when they come from 40+ year old masters (Oscar Peterson comes to mind).

YOUNG IS CORRECT.
JOBS SHOULD GET HIS TECHS TO PRODUCE THE EXCELLENT DIGITAL QUALITY THAT IS AVAILABLE. WOULD RATHER LISTEN TO LP CRACKLING OD “THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON”
IPOD-JUST DO IT AND YOUR IPOD SALES WILL SKYROCKET.

Interesting: recording technology has improved HUGELY over the last 30 years; audio equipment as a hobby has greatly diminished: almost all equipment out there (at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.) is plastic crap, not much better than an iPod. If you actually care (most dont) about sound quality there are many fantastic audio manufacturers out there still, but many are strugling, because Neil is right: people dont care about sound quality. Feel free to research Krell Audio, Martin Logan, Mark Levinson, Genesis Advanced Technologies, Audio Research, Jeff Rowland, Wilson Audio, etc. Most of you dont know what this stuff is becuase you DONT CARE about sound quality. Dont say you do.

Sorry Brock, but no it can’t. With one click it can be compressed, but you can’t take a 192kbps file and suddenly create a lossles file. It doesn’t work that way. You can’t create something from nothing. You need the actual CD. You can change the format to “lossless” but it isn’t actually that.

Brock. Converting compressed audio files to lossless is the worst idea I’ve heard. Unless it’s a compressed lossless file to begin with.
Larry. That’s the problem. Companies are trying to spoil digital audio quality by mastering them for an mp3 player!

Lossy audio formats are byfar the worst technology ever invented for the music industry.

But I agree, he can’t solely blame Apple. Apple’s 4G, 5G, 5.5G and Touch has the best sound quality in the iPod line and I honestly think it’s true. When used with an external amp of course. Not the headphone out.

With one click, compressed audio files can be converted back to lossless sound quality. You can even leave them uncompressed from the get go and never lose the full sound. Educate yourself before you rip CD’s or technology for that matter.

How much PC (Pure crap) windows pay him to say thi??????

“Hydrogenaudio.org did a double blind study a few years back playing serious audiophiles raw cd audio and lame alt preset standard vbr mp3s, on their own high end audiophile equipment.”

You are missing the point. Most music these days is mastered so they sound OK when converted to MP3s or played over highly compressed radio. Of course you can’t hear the difference. Listen to something that was mastered to sound great then compare. There is a discernable difference!

It boggles the mind.
Why on Earth would anyone pay to download an album from iTunes?
For useless files, at low bit rates.
For about the same ammount of money, go out to a record store and buy the CD, and rip your own files (at any bit rate you want).
2 birds for the price of one, plus you actually have something, a collectable in your hands, and not just some useless files.

I have qbout 800 LPs that I would like to download to my computer and then I would like to put them on my IPOD. Without costing thousands of dollars,
what is the best way to get the best quality sound. I currently do nothave a turntable so I would be interested
in what would be a good turntable.
Thanks

Neil Young doesn’t know what he is talking about.

My guess is he has heard a few too many poorly compressed mp3s.

Hydrogenaudio.org did a double blind study a few years back playing serious audiophiles raw cd audio and lame alt preset standard vbr mp3s, on their own high end audiophile equipment.

The test subjects could not pick which sample was which more than 50% of the time (I.e. No better than chance.)

Most of the mp3 vs. CD vs. Vinyl debate is more a matter of inherent human bias than it an actual difference in sound quality.

Go digital! There are no sacrifices to convenience!

Come on folks Neil is blowing smoke. He’s probably lucky if He can hear a jet airplane taking off after all of the exposer he’s had to LOUD !! music. I’m 43 and a live music lover. My hearing is destroyed !! Neils can’t be all that !! Love you Neil but get real !!

The babbling of an old man… what an idiot.

Good for you Neil. Apple sucks. That company wants to make it hard to do anything in music without Apple wetting their beak. I suspect all the Ipod defenders don’t have any idea what high quality music sounds like. We listen to our Ipods and pretty soon it sounds OK because our ears have lost the ability to tell the difference.

I like it when Neil Young shouts at the Gods. It’s a lot more refreshing than hearing Al DiMeola kiss Apple’s butt. Al, you’re a pretty fair guitar player, but you never had a good idea in your life that didn’t originate in Chick Corea’s head and if you think Ipods sound great then you might want to invest in some earplugs. Your ears have blown out listening to that tired old fusion you play. And jeez Al, is your career so dead you have to remind everyone who you are in a comments section. That’s pitiful, man. I’ve been playing music for a living as long as you have, but I don’t have to drop my own name. Why didn’t you just link to your downloads on Itunes?

Neil Young is a great musician but he lacks in the political field.

If he were a better politician he would be attacking the problem at the core of compressed, terrible sounding music… digital storage.

If, he had half an electronic brain, he would know that it isn’t anyone’s fault except hard drive makers and flash memory makers.

Think about it… if there wasn’t a high per megabyte cost for storage, then we could save music to storage in a lossless state.

Let’s put the blame where it needs to be… on all the PHBs holding back the Dilberts of the world.

-AI

[For those with poor sarcasm detectors, this post involves satirical outlooks on life, tyvm]

Interesting. I wonder where Neil was in the 80s when music was being distributed on cassette tape (or the 70s on 8 track tapes, eww). When both the sound quality and capacity were compromised and limited by the recording media. Remember tape hiss? Miss it? Probably not.

Digital audio can be made to sound as good or as bad as the record companies and listeners want to make it.

Of course, none of that means a thing if the music being recorded sounds like a fork on a blackboard, but that’s another topic for another day…

I don’t think what Mr Young is implying is this is the evidence of bad technology, though it is. It’s that technology surely can do better than this and at an affordable rate. Artists spend many hours in the recording studio trying to deliver their work the way they envisioned it and it gets creamed by technology that is convenient. It does make a difference. People don’t realize it because they haven’t heard it…the choice should be the listener not the manufacturers. More choices? Why not…

I know a guy who works at a record label. He’s the last one to hear a cd before it goes to the dupe plant. He tells me he hates mp3s cuz he can hear the low and high distortion. I can’t. I never even knew it was there. My brother is a trained classical guitarist. He has an iPod and loves it. Sound quality depends on the ears it goes into. You can’t blame technology, you can blame the listener.

Sorry, I meant his “voice is invalid”.

When Neil returns his royalty checks from and pulls his music off iTunes – then his voice is valid. As long as he’s taking money from this inferior music “wallpaper” service, he needs to shut up!!

It’s like someone complaining that McDonald’s makes unhealthy food, but they star in McDonald’s commercials and take their money.

So, he has no problem selling his music on this “backseat” service, but at the same time he blames them.

Mr. Young – don’t take money from or sell your music on iTunes, until then you’re just a poser! Tell us Neil, how does it taste to have your cake and eat it, too?

A couple of comments:

1. There’s a real concern that highly compressed audio files will become the norm for the recording industry, which will negatively impact those people with higher quality (not necessarily expensive) home audio systems. I agree with the poster that said that we ought to be able to purchase (either on disc or by download) high resolution audio files which could be downconverted to lower resolution for use with a portable music player. This would be the ideal situation.

2. These days, a quality home two-channel audio system including speakers, an integrated amp and a CD player can be assembled for little more than $1,000. Add $500 for a decent turntable. Such a system would be far superior than any kind of all-in-one system. There is a company (Wadia) that makes a dock that allows an iPod to be used as a high quality music server in a good stereo system as described above.

Hooray for iPods and high-end audio! They are not mutually exclusive!

Does anyone else find it ironic that Mr. Young is slamming Apple for the iPod and .mp3 compression formats, but is touting his entire career coming out on Blu-Ray, and Apple is on the Blu-Ray consortium? Things that make you go hmmmm . . . .

Neil is right on. Almost all MP3 files are offered at 128…I only record my own CD’s at 196…but there is only so much you can do if the source recording is of lower bit rates anyway.

Most people either dont care or cant notice the difference. I personally like good sound but not if it makes my IPOD $200 more expensive. I like what apple and digital music have done for the whole industry… it has brought people closer to music. Its something similar to the FORD revolution…now mostly everyone can afford a personal music player… with satisfying quality. Its like saying that Ford was wrong to make cars for the people instead of making Ferrari’s…I hope ya’ll understand what I’m trying to say

Weather or not Apple is to blame is actually irrelvant chit chat. Apple’s iTunes sales achieved the 5 billion mark in June of 2008. There is simply no other on-line retailer with the customer clout to demand and deliver improved/pristine audio and video.

Bravo Neil Young, once again you prove that Rust Never Sleeps.

Neil Young is terrific, and I’ve enjoyed his music. But I welcome iTunes for the reason that it has empowered me as a consumer. I have access to a wider variety of music than what I heard from radio alone. Which means that less well known, less ‘connected’ artists without big labels or recording agents can have their music heard. In addition, it has liberated the consumer from purchasing music that they may not want. I can preview the music selections from an album before purchase and I can buy a single song on iTunes as opposed to spending 20 dollars or so on an entire album when maybe only one song was deemed worthy of purchase. But none of this should bother Young because he’s great. Rock on Neil Young.

I should be able to buy it at the highest quality possible, and downsize it myself to whatever media I want. MP3 was fine when we carried 256mb players. Now that I can carry 160 GB and move music off and at will from 500GB hard drives.
There is no longer a reason to sacrifice quality for convenience. But listening to anything thru headphones sucks.

“I’m not goin’ back
to Woodstock for a while,
Though I long to hear
that lonesome hippie smile.
I’m a million miles away
from that helicopter day
No, I don’t believe
I’ll be goin’ back that way.”

Death to ipods/itunes/MP3’s….go out and buy a record.

Neils gone off on one here – apple uses AAC and offers lossless compression – the music itself is still mastered the same way and still distributed on CD – his comments about mps are correct – maybe he’s been downloading variable quality torrents?

Neil Young may have a point. However, The quality of his music would also improve if he took some music lessons and became a real musician like Al DiMeola, chick Corea, Brad Delp, Steve Perry, Steve Walsh (Kansas) or Harry Connick Jr.

Being a musician, I agree with NY to a point. The average person listens to music very different than an audophile. To me it’s like food – most people like basic food then there are a minority who like ecentric foods. Same thing here.

Give him a break – he has a point.. when is the last time someone focused on high-definition portable sound? Portability has been the focus but I’d love to hear some quality sound that has never been created before… lets move the ball forward I think is the essance of what NY is getting at… and I agree being an audio snob myself

This response is probably the best I’ve read over at Macdailynews.com …

“Of course, Young’s right. He’s just blaming the wrong party.

Apple sells music via their iTunes Store at the best quality levels the music cartels will allow. If you want to criticize, then criticize those responsible for the problem, please. Leave Apple out of it. (We suppose you could stretch far beyond the bounds of reason and attempt to blame Apple for not including $500 audiophile-quality headphones with every iPod, but let’s stay realistic).

Apple iPods are perfectly capable of playing pristine high-fidelity sound with frequency responses of 20Hz to 20,000Hz. Apple’s iTunes can import using the extremely high-quality Apple Lossless Encoder. In fact, Apple even offered encoding in MP3 format at bit rates up to 320 kbps at no extra cost long before most other applications. Of course, you’ll sacrifice hard drive space for sound quality.

Bottom line: The music cartels, NOT APPLE, are to blame for not allowing real high-resolution music to be sold online, which is Young’s real criticism, we believe. Apple, Apple iPod, and Apple’s iTunes software are not to blame. You can easily get very high-quality music into and out of an Apple iPod using Apple’s iTunes software.”

Thank you, Neil. I have nothing against ipod but my personal preference is always for the best possible sound.

Finally, the truth gets some mainstream exposure. There’s no argument that digital music, either as uncompressed data or the wild outline of it known as MP3, is convenient. However, much is lost in all but the highest of the high end in digital reprodution and playback. Music is alive… on vinyl. Analog lives.

This is to Q, from St. Petersburg FL.
Who is the heck is ND? (Diamond, I guess?) You have an awful lot of confidence and conviction for such an accomplished gerckoffe.

Apples preferred mode of compression is AAC, which is much better then MP3. I Tunes offers you the choice of both. AAC is much better sounding although not as good as the original source. I put all my music in my computer and iPod in AAC.

What the hell is wrong with a company going down “convenience highway”…I’m thankful for the convenience… I can listen to music more frequently so that my SOUL can be enrichened more frequently… SHUT UP ND!!! If you get a kick butt set of headphones it enhances quality a great deal. As a musician I’m thankful for this availability via APPLE… when I’m at an event and someone wants to check out my music I pull my IPOD & headphones out of purse… Doesn’t get any better than that! …Btw did I mention that ND should STHU?

Strange, Neil Young comments on sound quality or lack as he see’s it . Then some post a comment here on Neil Youngs quality as a person . He has to be considered an expert, he was been recording music since all a person had was 4 track analog.
So give the man his due. Even if you
don’t agree with his opinion.

CSNY had the right forumula: “Love the One You’re With”. While sitting in a noisy airport my iPod lets me listen to virtually every favorite song of the last few decades. I don’t expect concert quality (there’s a misnomer–sound at a rock concert can melt your ear drums!) and with so much ambient noise higher quality wouldn’t make much difference. In my living room, I expect much more. At the core of the issue, however, is our ability to be selective. A few Neil Young cuts are among those I treasure most. Others possess “chalk on a blackboard” qualities that I can’t handle. Point is, iTunes and other music services provide a way to purchase just the music we want. Neil should place the blame for quality loss on the players and earbuds and try to imagine how many royalty checks he would receive for songs like “After the Goldrush” without iPod, et al.

Mr. Young, who I believe left CSN and went solo partially because of the others work ethic and drug use and giant egos, although I am certainly no “expert” on the subject, is certainly correct about the quality of music being ‘dumbed’ down. I am also guessing that those who have felt compelled to comment about his music have never even listened to it. One doesn’t have to like NY to acknowledge it is a great city of the world that just isn’t, for some, to one’s personal taste in cities and you wouldn’t live there. To impugn Neil Young as talentless just exposes who has really lost some brain cells along the way mentality of haters who think that all current music apparently just fell out the brainpans of todays youth unlinked to the past performances of the musicians that came before. Love or hate his music, it certainly isn’t irrelevant and neither is he. Get unstuck and put on Neils last CD or two, Living with War was whipped up fairly quickly by his past standards and shows somewhat in the sound, but the spirit of the music is amazing and try to whip up something that is as least that good in a few days and then take the podium and give us your thoughts. I am going to listen to a little Roots now, MIA and then Neil Young (any will do), followed by that obvious hack, Bob Dylan and maybe a little Raconteurs and close my day with The Mars Volta at about 3 am, which at age 54, is my bedtime! Open your mind and the heart will follow or better yet, open your heart and everything will. Don’t be a hater!

Today, convience always trumps quality

Neil is talking about sound quality though a musician’s ears..he knows what he is talking about. MP3’s do offer some advantages if you aren’t talking about quality, depth and range of sound. But I don’t know why you would compare the two anyway..I am “not” going to play MP3’s on my stereo system,..they in no way compare to wav files, no way.

If I’m on a trip and I have an MP3 player loaded, I can live with it.

What Neil is trying to say is he does not like the compression and conversion that happens when you go to certain digital formats. There are several Beatles songs that won’t even convert directly. Now, in my opinion you need both, high quality for those who care. You know people who buy 500 dollar headphones, and less expensive formats those who enjoy the thought of the music, message, and the lyrics. Lyrics and beat are the most important to me and they come across great on most mp3 players. I think people who don’t pay attention to the words would maybe notice background instruments not being exact etc.

Thanks for having an opinion Neil. Loved you on Charlie Rose the other night.

Even the highest-quality MP3 sounds awful when it contains the work of Neil Young.

Neil Young is right (although I don’t agree with his thoughts on digital vs. analog). But iPod (Apple) is just one of the problems. Most people only hear full, good sound in a movie theater and even that is poor (over loud, over bassed, often not properly calibrated equipment) and you can do better in your living room. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune and, in fact, can be little more than the cost of the new iPod (alright, I agree that, within limits, the more you spend the better the sound quality. It’s the compression into MP3 for replay on tiny speakers and earbuds that is the problem. (Even MP3 isn’t completely bad if it’s properly reexpanded and played back on a full spectrum system.) Convenience and portability don’t make for good music (and I don’t care what you think is “good” music – I’m talking quality sound.) Much music today IS Muzak-like or at least is treated that way. Listen to Neil Young or Pink Floyd or Coldplay or Boston Pops or Phantom of the Opera with a decent quality sound system (now I’m truly talking in the several hundred to several thousand dollar range) and you will hear what Neil Young is talking about (and what I’m talking about) — it can transport you — leave you listening instead of passing by.

I agree with Neil Young 100%! I have been complaining to friends for years about MP3’s. The reason I am one of the few people left on the planet who DON’T own an iPod is because the sound quality sucks! The unfortunate reality is that most people don’t have the ear to distinguish between a flat, tinny sounding MP3 and a much larger studio quality .wav file.

Yeah, I agree.

I’ll strap a turntable to my back next time at the gym for some premium music. I need something to overcome that terrible gym music.

I defy anyone to tell the difference between 16-bit audio and 24-bit audio listening to it. Neil Young is a jerk who needs to get back in the news to sell more music. He sucked in 1970 and he sucks today. He’s probably the worst guitar player I ever heard. Remember when he decided to play electric and you would have to sit and listen to him agonize over a solo that would make you want to leave the concert. Jesus, this guy just likes to bitch about everything. Neil, get a life.

who cares how someone listens to music? music is music regardless of the speakers that are pushing it out.

im a big neil young fan (the only reason i read this article) but i would love to tell him that he has it all wrong. every musician should be extremely priveledged that people can listen to their music without buying some super hydra stereo system.

go lay down neil.

Al Di Meola rocks and jazzes. I have enjoyed his music since he played with Chick Corea

Neil is right of course regarding the technical quality of sound reproduction. But it is all relative anyway, isn,t it?. Kirk is right. Listen to Robert Johnson playing a cheap guitar and recorded on simple equipment, yet considered classic. Is the art in the music, the vocal, the words, the performance, or the process?

Frankly, I could care less what Neil Young has to say about anything. When did he become the “be all and end all” of the music industry? He should be happy I still keep a couple of his albums on my ipod. He hasn’t done much of anything the last 20 years.

As someone who believes that CD quality is not as good as good old vinyl, I agree with the sentiment, but Neil Young has the wrong target. Although I have an extensive vinyl collection with a good turntable, interconnects, tube amps and speakers – I do all of my listening nowadays on iTunes, everything is ripped in lossless format, I have a fire wire audio interface connected to a nice pair of powered monitors.

You just can’t beat the convenience, I have Apple Airport express boxes around the house, connected to speakers in various rooms, all of this is controlled using the “Remote” app on my iPhone or my wife’s iPod Touch.

On the move, I listen to lossless tracks on my iPhone, or one of several iPods. I love the flexibility of this set up and although I still think fondly of the tactile experience of placing a record on the turntable and lowering the stylus into the groove, it doesn’t beat the coolness of coming up with smart playlists for different needs/moods.

Actually I find that if I losslessly (is that a word?) rip audio files that I have made from vinyl tracks going through my tube pre amp, the resulting iTunes tracks retain much of the warmth and resolution from the vinyl original.

I’ve got an underdeveloped ear as well and really can’t tell the difference. I don’t like your politics Neil but I love your music. My wife and I still smile whenever we hear “Cowgirl in the Sand.”

Neil Young is right. I recall having a toshiba cassette walkman type player that had clarity to die for. Even recording off an lp created “crisp” and I mean “crisp” sound. Compressing music files has killed music to a large degree.

Kirk’s comment (i paraphrase—What was it that we first discovered Harvest on? Some crap turntable, and the music was beautiful) is totally spot on.
i frankly do not know if i like Neil Young more than apple or the other way around, they are two of many many things that make me happy to be alive, so Neil we still love you—heck, the enemies of my friends don’t have to be mine!

Your all right,Musichas taken a back seat, quality has and so has technology because of it. Really it all comes down to education, lack of it creates morrons and morrons listen to what ever is force fed them. Keep thepopulation stupid and you can forcefeed them anything to buy.

Your music is old, Neil. Keep it real, keep it in context, and listen to it on LP like you know you should. And put a new battery in your hearing aid, jeez.

iTune users can load music using Apple’s lossless encoding if they want. Also, many songs are available at 256 AAC, much superior to mp3.

As others have said, Neil is pointing at the wrong company.

I think it is time to replace MP3s with true CD quality downloads. MP3s had their place when internet speeds were slow and hard drives were small and expensive . But most everyone nowadays has high speed internet connections and hard drives are large and cheap enough to make 44.1/16 bit (i.e., CD redbook quality) downloads the standard (besides, although MP3s sound ok on limited range computer speakers and headphones, they are not acceptable on full range high fidelity systems.) In fact, there are now a handfull of sites that offer CD quality downloads but unfortunately their catalogues aren’t yet large enough to make it a main source of music purchases. As an example of how cheap it is store CD quality music, I recently transferred 600 CDs to Apple lossless format (which is 44.1 khz/16 bit CD quality) in iTunes and it uses less than 200 gigabytes of storage space; that is trivial when 500 gigabyte hard drives for a little more than $100 are the norm. So I say lets do away with MP3s and move to true CD quality and even beyond to 96k/24 bit downloads so that one has the option of listening to music in all its full-range glory (and believe me it is worth it!). (By the way, the Apple remote control program for the iPod Touch/iPhone is fabulous and when combined with a wireless Airport Express and desktop computer, gives you a very inexpensive music server).

Amen to that. Kudos to Neil Young. Nuff said.

“Archiving project of his entire career (which he says should be available as a series of Blue-Ray discs later this year.”

Yeah sure Neil, let’s not forget your entire music career on Blue Ray. MP3’s suck, right Neil? Every other format sucks but Blue-Ray is the ultimate format for music? Spoken like a true Liberal hypocrite.

I wonder what kind of contract you have with Sony. I don’t think there will be any difference listing to “Cinnamon Girl” in a MP3 format over Blue Ray. As a matter of fact, the MP3 format allows people to purchase your songs individually for 89 cents as opposed to spending a bloviated amount on the whole entire collection with songs nobody wants.

Anyway, the MP3 format cuts the twang out of your voice for some reason. Amazing technology today.

TOTALLY AGREE. My 300$ iPod Touch sounds terrible compared to my little bro’s 100$ Zen. I listen to audiobooks 99% of the time so the poor sound quality doesn’t bother me much.

Neil,

I’ve been a big fan for years, but I think you have some screws loose here.

If you are so concerned about quality, why aren’t your OWN albums on iTunes available in iTunes plus format? It’s a higher quality format, with no DRM, available to label, etc… so why are yours on the original format? Apple would LOVE this, but the TRUTH is it’s your OWN LABEL that WON’T ALLOW IT. Greedy bastards! How many times have we bought the same albums on Vinyl, 8 track, cassette, CD, now iPod, but you have a problem now with iPod? Not me, it’s the best value for the money ever. CDs were way too damned expensive before iTunes came along.

Finally, you can fairly easily put your vinyl on an iPod. Don’t be a wintard, iTunes is the best software for any player, and iPod is the ultimate player.

You could put all your vinyl albums directly on lossless and there would be absolutely NO LOSS in quality over the vinyl. Get over yourself, it’s a trade off, sure, but not all of us have 80GB iPods.

The music is more important than the sound quality, and Apple absolutely got it right. If you are an audiofile, that is totally supported on iPod, and NOT on the other players nearly to the same extent.

I do not buy music in any format other than iTunes, or ripping it myself from CD or Vinyl.

I can dance to phonographs. Hell, I can dance to a telegraph. What I can’t dance to is the RIAA and their self-serving greedy puppets like Neil Young. Sorry Niel, but this man don’t need you ’round anyhow.

Personally, I don’t seek or expect a quality listening experience while doing anything that would necessitate an iPod i.e. jogging, working in the yard or even driving in the car. Listening is something to be done at home, in the right room with the right equipment. I’ll choose a LINN SONDEK turntable over anything digital any day of the week.

peabody out…

Before dismissing what Neil has to say, I challenge you to listen to the DVD 24-bit audio version of Prairie Wind for a day and then go back to the CD version. If you listen on decent speakers, you’ll hear and feel a huge difference. The ordinary 16bit CD sounds small and harsh in comparison. It makes me wonder why more artists don’t do this too, offer a 2nd disk with the 24-bit master.

As for iPods, Apple Lossless with some good professional headphones sounds pretty darn good for mobile listening.

BTW, if you want to hear some stunning audio, check out the new CSNY DejaVu:Live. Quality matters and Neil has always been a champion — and we thank him for keeping that message alive, even if it doesn’t apply to every situation.

And how is this criticism useful? He’s just bitching like I’m bitching when I say people should never eat spicy tuna roll because it’s ingredient is old fish laced with spicy sauce to hide the old fishy taste. But some people will still love to eat it. Or people should read the original Lord of the Rings and not watch the movie from Peter Jackson because it’s diluted. It’s all just holier-than-thou bitching.

What the heck is Neil blabbering about? Most people listen to crap music and don’t care about music as a form of art – the music and the technology are disposable to them. Those that do listen to music that IS art and is willing to use technology that does provide high resolution have access to it: FLAC for example. It’s not APPLE Niel, it’s the recording companies and the “Artists”. I’m pretty sure APPLE can come up with high resolution media if the need was there.

But since most music being force-fed to the masses by the record companies is crap, why would anyone care to have “high resolution’ crap? What about you “Artists” coming up with some high quality MUSIC?

PS: I personally don’t like APPLE products and don’t own any nor will I ever.

And to Crosby, if you think iPods sound good, I submit that it is you who are deaf.

Mr. Young is spot-on with his comments. The sound quality of today’s music is terrible. When I see people ‘listening’ to songs on their cell phones using their cell phone’s speaker, I’m beginning to believe America has Tin Ears. It seems as if most people are into the ‘coolness factor’ of music instead of the quality. It’s a sad time for music.

What Apple and others have done was to bring music to the masses. If Apple didn’t get in the game, where would we be? Most of us would not be exposed to a wider range of music, including your ‘lesser successful albums’ Mr Young.

High quality music is still there for a price. That hasn’t changed. All Apple did was give us a choice….what’s wrong with that?

He’s right. I edit a ton of WMV movie files for our movie network on the internet. Audio on WMV files can be sampled with absolutely stunning fidelity. New movies via the web are able to imbed this level of music quality. Neil give me a call. I’ll put your high def stuff on our HD internet movie network for free. http://www.archivemovienetwork.com

Thanks for the great impact on music.

We should pity Neil. He’s getting old and deaf.

Neil Young is right on the money with these comments. The quality of downloads from Apple is horrible. I’ve had an iPOD for about 3 years but rarely listen to it because the quality is really bad.

Neil Young’s music would not sound any better on cd, LP or iPod…its still crap and I dont really care a fig about his ramblings.

Keep on rockin’ in the free world, Young.

Neil Young has made his money off Apple and is
trying to make more. He has 150 songs on iTunes along
with another 150 from Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
that he will continue to make money on. He’s looking
for another venue to make money off his 300 songs.

He should not put down a venue that has helped him out
all these years. I haven’t heard any Top 10 songs from him
lately.

Neil, please. What is it that you think I listened to 4 Way Street, Heart of Gold, Before the Gold Rush or Everybody Knows this is Nowhere on? Linn turntables and Rockport speakers? Get your head screwed on. It was cheap audio that a 15 year old could buy. The big bank account fills your head with fuzzy logic.
Apple put music in everyones pocket to listen to whenever they wanted. The MP3 players until my 5gig iPod were GARBAGE I had them all.

The music companies didn’t kill higher quality sound options, the consumer did. SACD and DVD-Audio were being introduced roughly when Apple created the iTunes Music Store. Consumers chose convenience over quality.

I lament the lack of success met by SACD. I am however eagerly anticipating upcoming audio releases on the Blu Ray format.

Is Neil nuts or something? Ipods and itune downloads sound great! Since when was his music considered audiophile and really what percentage of people care anyway??? Jesus Neil come-on!!! Its not about the absolute ultimate quality. Never was! With all due respect from a fellow musician, Al Di Meola

In Neil Youngs book, “Shaky” he described his distaste for digital and preferred analog. He said (as i recall) “Digital is like water hitting you in a shower, you can feel each drop hitting you, but analog washes over you.” Further, “Digital can give you anything you want, except a surprise.” The scratches I have on the “After the Goldrush” album are always surprising…but hell. Neil needs the money?????dale duke

Who’s Neil Young?

Neil Young doesn’t know that Apple has nothing to dowith mp3.
Apple is AAC which is way better.

Neil Young is pointing his finger at the wrong person…

It’s the record labels that put restrictions on the “quality” and file size of the media they distribute.

Why would a record company want to sell a perfect song master to the public.. when it could so easily be duplicated and redistributed.

They want to keep making money on classic music whenever a new disc format comes out.

Digital music atleast helps the consumer even the playing field with the record industry, so we don’t have to buy a record, tape cassette, cd, blu-ray disc ect.. of the same song over and over when technology progresses.

With digital music it’s easy to transition to the next tech step.

Well, I like the sound of LPs better than CDs anyway, so I know what Young is saying. Hard to go jogging with a turntable, or have one in your car though, isn’t it?
But Neil, why do YOU accept making money two or three times for the same product (or “intellectual property”)?
I might have your music on vinyl, AND CD, AND now on iTMS download. Was it ethical to charge me 3 times for the same “intellectual property”? (That’s what a RIAA lawsuit would call it!) Should I have been able to trade in my vinyl towards a CD for just a “media change fee”?
Also, I love the Live in Massey Hall album, downloaded at iTMS, but I get real tired of the speaking in between the songs after a few listens. Couldn’t you have made them separate from the songs? I just want to hear “Old Man” WITHOUT the story of buying a ranch that came with an old man…

As others have already noted, file size matters to most of us. I don’t have such a developed musical ear, experience, understanding as the great NY, so I personally cannot tell the difference between MP3 and AIFF quality. I’m sure there are many people who cannot tell, therefore I’m not yearning for greater quality. er – Now that it’s been mentioned perhaps I’d better check to see if there’s something else I didn’t know I needed to buy – Thanks Neil!
As the Dead Kennedy’s say “Give me convenience or give me death”

Neil Young has a point. But it’s the ubiquity of music, not the quality of its reproduction, that has turned it into wallpaper.

Anyway, as a sound source, an iPod is superior to the 8-track tape of Neil Young and Crazy Horse I listened to back in 1970. And Young’s music is great whatever the source.

I’m glad someone is addressing this issue. At $1 per song iTunes is a poor value for the audio quality. That amounts to about $10 for an iTunes “album” compared to about $14 to $17 for a CD. I think $.75 is more like it. I agree that CD quality audio requires a lot of storage. I’d like the option to have high quality audio and I’d like to pay a fair price when I don’t. Whether record companies overcharge or not is different issue. It doesn’t exonerate Apple if they do the same. Buying the same music repeatedly in different formats is frustrating and expensive, but the current iTunes format isn’t the solution.

Ok already… I won’t listen to your music on my iPod. Anyone have a portable 8-track handy?

Wrong target? Well, perhaps, but Apple only supports their own lossless format, not the standard FLAC format. This makes it a pain to deal with these files in iTunes and iPods.

Good to hear that Jobs listens to LP’s, though. Unfortunately LP’s still sound better than 95% of the digital stuff. A notable exception is Linn Records, which now sell 24-bit “Studio Master” downloads on their website.

Hey, Neil Young. If you buy me a 100tb hard drive, then I won’t worry about the file SIZE of an uncompressed tune. Lossless may cut them in half, but the file sizes are still pretty large. If you’re not willing to buy me the storage space for the music, then STFU!

The music companies are the ones who don’t want you to have high quality music. Then you would have master copies of all the music you wanted, without ever having the need to purchase the same music again.

Don’t believe me? Witness your own habits in re-purchasing the same album first on LP, then 8-track, then cassette, then CD. The company made money on all of those, but won’t make any more money once you purchase an unhindered copy of the album.

Neil Young fired a shot, but he was aimed at the wrong culprits.