Neil Young says he “felt better” after leaving Spotify and its “shitty” sound high quality

Even after departing the platform, Neil Young isn’t accomplished criticizing Spotify but. Today, the rock legend has published another letter on his web site, describing Spotify as a purveyor of “more songs and less sound.” Young says that he “felt better” after pulling his music catalog from the main streaming music service earlier this week whereas noting that he’s strongly against censorship and that “private companies have the right to choose what they profit from, just as I can choose not to have my music support a platform that disseminates harmful information.”

Throughout the newest publish, Young — a longtime advocate of hi-fi sound — closely criticizes Spotify for its lossy audio high quality. “Amazon, Apple Music, and Qobuz deliver up to 100 percent of the music [quality] today and it sounds a lot better [than] the shitty degraded and neutered sound of Spotify,” he says, including that “if you support Spotify, you are destroying an art form.” Young implores his followers to “go to a new place that truly cares about music quality.” Convincing shoppers to care about music streaming constancy may be difficult, with many individuals unable to inform a distinction between one thing like Spotify’s “high quality” tier and true lossless — particularly with the prevalence of Bluetooth headphones, earbuds, and audio system. (Bluetooth is one thing Young has also touched on.)

Since his exit from Spotify, competing providers like Apple Music have seized the chance to promote Young’s catalog. Apple went as far as to name itself “the home of Neil Young,” although it appears Young can be rooting for the a lot smaller Qobuz, which has pushed hi-fi sound since its launch. Young continues to utterly ignore Tidal, which is frankly brutal since Tidal led the lossless streaming wave earlier than Amazon and Apple joined in.

Spotify’s failure to roll out the lossless streaming tier that it first introduced a yr in the past has left the door open for Young to proceed denouncing the service’s audio high quality. The firm initially stated HiFi can be obtainable by the top of 2021, however that deadline got here and went, and Spotify has since declined to offer a brand new timeframe on when HiFi may be obtainable.

In his observe, Young instantly mentions Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, explaining that he met Ek again within the service’s early days. “It sounded to me like he was really going to be getting into it. I wonder what happened.” Young closes by saying he’s joyful and proud in regards to the resolution he’s made, which he says is supposed to point out solidarity with well being care employees and others working to avoid wasting lives through the COVID-19 pandemic. “As an unexpected bonus, I sound better everywhere else.”