AfterDawn: News

New Neil Young release to skip CD in favor of DVD and Blu-ray

As music labels sit by and watch their decades old business model crumble before their eyes, yet another artist is attempting to make the leap past CD technology. Neil Young has apparently decided to skip a traditional CD release for the first in a series of releases which are intended to form a retrospective of his career from the 1960s through the present day.

"I know it's in technical production now, but it's only coming out on Blu-ray and DVD," he said during an interview at the Sundance Film Festival, adding "There won't be CDs. Technology has caught up to what the concept was in the first place [and] how we're able to actually present it."



Reportedly, Young's issue with a CD release has nothing to do with complaints about lower CD sales or P2P downloads. Rather it's due to the audio CD's single format - audio - versus the multimedia aspects of DVD and Blu-ray formats, combining music with both video and still images, as well as allowing far more interaction with the listener.

While DVD isn't a particularly compelling format for many audiophiles, mostly due to support for HD audio being optional in DVD-Video, and DVD-Audio never really getting off the ground. Blu-ray and HD DVD, on the other hand, could combine they type of mainstream visibility experienced by DVD-Video with support for high quality audio comparable to DVD-Audio as a standard feature.

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 30 Jan 2008 0:17

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• 10 comments

• ZoSoIV

  the reason CD sales are down is because people are tierd of paying 15 plus dollars for two or three good songs on a album! plus most music/new bands are crap nowadays.
  

  
  

  30.1.2008 01:57 #1

• ZoSoIV

  edit

  30.1.2008 01:58 #2

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:could combine they type of mainstream visibility experienced by DVD-Video with support for high quality audio comparable to DVD-Audio as a standard feature.the grammar nazi voice in my head whos asleep 99.99% of the time questions the use of "they" in this sentance o-o.
  =======================================================
  Meh CD drives are every were, how many potable stero boombox DVD players are there out there?
  
  I hope he took some intiationive and made it where people can burn tracks to CD and what not, if not he is as blind as the rest........

  30.1.2008 02:08 #3

• ExogenBoy

  I would have assumed that the audio limitations of cd-format is the real issue, but apparently the audio quality on Bluray is currently not better than on cd?
  
  I am not quite sure how that is right now, but I recall that at some point not so long ago Young refused to re-release some of his old studio recordings on cd, originally produced with analog technique.
  
  But Neil Young rules!

  30.1.2008 07:18 #4

• dsgtrain

  Originally posted by ExogenBoy: I would have assumed that the audio limitations of cd-format is the real issue, but apparently the audio quality on Bluray is currently not better than on cd?You will probably have to have some very good equipment to notice the difference as everything for years has been built to optimise CD's.
  
  Blu-Ray is probably overkill for Audio (even with extra content), along with the lack of players. DVD will provide more than enough space.
  
  Dave!

  30.1.2008 10:23 #5

• BludRayne

  How are people suppose to play a DVD in their cd player? What a moron. They can put video files on a cd, it's really not that limiting of a format.
  
  CD quality audio is plenty good for 99% of us. Legions of internerds are perfectly happy listening to music in inferior lossy compressed format.

  30.1.2008 12:02 #6

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by BludRayne: How are people suppose to play a DVD in their cd player? What a moron. They can put video files on a cd, it's really not that limiting of a format.
  
  CD quality audio is plenty good for 99% of us. Legions of internerds are perfectly happy listening to music in inferior lossy compressed format.Hes skipping the CD market altogether and moive to the DVD market.
  Funny tho the sales would be so slow I don't see how they will make a profit of it.

  30.1.2008 12:06 #7

• ExogenBoy

  Quote:You will probably have to have some very good equipment to notice the difference as everything for years has been built to optimise CD's.
  
  Apparently Neil has pretty nice equipment, a quote from Sound and Vision mag, 2001:
  
  "CDs were a mistake from the beginning because of the sampling rate," he declares. "The numbers were too low. To achieve the promise of digital . . . it just wasn't there. At first, everyone was impressed — as I was — by the lack of surface noise, but shortly after that, I became aware of the lack of sound and the lack of everything you associate with air. That's where the surface noise and the tape hiss lived: on the sound floor. It's not the loud stuff that gets affected, it's the quiet stuff."
  Rest of it: http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/SoundAn...g021301p01.html
  
  The records missing on cd were the infamous "missing six; "On The Beach" (1974), "American Stars 'N Bars" ('77), "Re*Ac*Tor" ('81), "Hawks and Doves" ('80), "Journey Through The Past" (1972) and "Time Fades Away" (1974), apparently only last two of them still not published on cd...

  30.1.2008 15:39 #8

• atomicxl

  Originally posted by ExogenBoy: I would have assumed that the audio limitations of cd-format is the real issue, but apparently the audio quality on Bluray is currently not better than on cd? I was on another board and a respected member told me that most movies are recorded at 24-bit/48kHZ. Now, even the lowest of mid grade audio recording sound cards will give you 24-bit/96khZ. I found it hard to believe this. Especially when they were saying that there a difference in TrueHD audio... which is only 24-bit/48kHz most of the time. CD audio is 16bit/44.1khZ. So yeah, the quality difference in movies seems minor.
  
  I'm pretty sure the Neil Young release will really push audio. Most live shows and albums are recorded around 24bit/ 96khZ or 192kHz. I think his release will be around 96. There is a very audioble difference between 48kHZ and 96kHz. You don't need thousand dollar speakers to hear it.
  
  Its a shame that movie studio don't embrace HD audio the way they embrace HD video. I think people would be blown away. Just in stereo material, if someone is talking, it sounds like their head is right at the speaker. Its like the person is really right there. Imagine that in a movie with 5.1 channels.
  
  I'm glad he's doing this. WMA can support 24bit/96khZ in 5.1 channels and basically everyone has a Windows OS. Once you hear HD audio I don't think you'll want every album to be released in HD.

  3.2.2008 21:27 #9

• borhan9

  Originally posted by ZoSoIV: the reason CD sales are down is because people are tierd of paying 15 plus dollars for two or three good songs on a album! plus most music/new bands are crap nowadays.Agree 100%

  21.2.2008 00:17 #10