Neil Young Rips Into Google - Noise11.com
Neil Young & Crazy Horse, The Plenary, Melbourne, 2013, Ros O'Gorman, Noise11, Photo

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, The Plenary, Melbourne, 2013, Photo By Ros O'Gorman

Neil Young Rips Into Google

by Paul Cashmere on February 25, 2018

in News,Noise Pro

Neil Young has posted a new open letter that was published on Friday (February 23) on the Neil Young Archive.

Aimed at the tech giants and, especially, Google, Young talks about the future of the music business, questioning how a new artist is expected to be able to survive. “The Tech Giants have figured out a way to use all the great music of everyone from all time, without reporting an artist’s number of plays or paying a fucking cent to the musicians. Aren’t they great companies!!!”

While the not paying a cent statement is a bit of an exaggeration (there are payments, they’re just small), his premise is still sound. With physical and download sales plummeting and streaming services paying a small fraction of previous royalties, it leaves new artists with live shows and merchandise as their main source of income.

The letter eventually makes it back around to the Neil Young Archive, the singers’ on-line service where all of his music is placed for streaming. Right now, the archive is free but there will be charges for its use in the future.

Here is the text of his message:

Young artists today, great authors, songwriters and musicians at the beginning of their creative output, are challenged to make ends meet in the digital world, a world where the artist is paid last, if at all, by the Tech Giants. This came to mind somehow today, listening to Broken Arrow, an album I made with Crazy Horse about twenty years ago, in 1996.

Broken Arrow is an overlooked album. It was the first Crazy Horse album after the death of David Briggs, our producer since the beginning’s lucky “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.” It was engineered by Greg Archilla, who David had just introduced to us. Broken Arrow is soulful. Real. Not trying to be anything it wasn’t. I was beginning to see that hits were overrated and that hit-makers were falling like flies.

There’s a comet in the sky tonight.

Makes me feel like I’m alright

I’m movin’ pretty fast

For my size

Those lyrics from “Music Arcade” are kind of how I felt at the time. Today, in the age of FaceBook, GOOGLE, and Amazon, it’s hard to tell how a new and growing musical artist could make it in the way we did. The Tech Giants have figured out a way to use all the great music of everyone from all time, without reporting an artist’s number of plays or paying a fucking cent to the musicians. Aren’t they great companies!!! It makes you wonder where the next generation of artists will come from. How will they survive?

‘Don’t Be Evil.’ That was GOOGLE’s corporate motto as they directed users to pirate sites to get artists’ creations and not pay!! Amazing tech breakthrough!! Meanwhile, they reap the bucks from ads people read while listening to music made by the artists. GOOGLE just changed their motto to ‘Do The Right Thing,’ but haven’t changed anything else as they continue to rip off the artist community, building their wealth on music’s back and paying nothing to the artists. WOW! Brilliant tech breakthrough! BTW, GOOGLE is YOUTUBE! Guess who’s next?

I am so happy to be able to share my music and albums like Broken Arrow with you here at NYA, where you can actually hear what we did. Xstream high resolution music makes me feel like I was there. I hope you can feel it too. The more you enjoy this music, the happier I am to share it with you. NYA is moving into a future that is really different from what we have now. It will not be easy. We are going to break a few rules and give you what you want.

PEACE

NY/NYA

vvnmusic.com

Listen to the Noise11 Music News channel now at iHeartRadio

Related Posts

Neil Young photo by Ros O'Gorman
Neil Young Digs Deep For 2025 Euro setlist

Neil Young has been reaching deep into the catalogue to dust off a few songs rarely played in more than a decade.

6 hours ago
Steve Van Zandt photo by Ros O'Gorman
Steve Van Zandt Misses Springsteen Shows Due To Surgery

Guitarist Steven Van Zandt will miss his next shows with Bruce Springsteen after undergoing emergency surgery.

1 day ago
Angus Young AC/DC Etihad Stadium, Rock Or Bust World Tour. Photo by Ros O'Gorman
AC/DC Angus Young is Only The Schoolboy on Stage, at Home He is Told to ‘Wipe His Feet’

The public persona and private life of Angus Young of AC/DC are total opposites.

2 days ago
The Doobie Brothers Tom Johnston at Deni Blues and Roots Festival on Sunday 20 April 2014.
The Doobie Brothers’ Tom Johnston Has No Plans For A Third Solo Album

It has been 54 years since The Doobie Brothers released their debut album. Between then and now, co-founder, singer, guitarist and songwriter has only released two solo albums and they were 46 and 44 years ago. To find out why there has never been a third Tom Johnston solo album, Noise11 asked Tom.

2 days ago
Dolly Parton in concert photo by Ros O'Gorman
Dolly Parton To Play Vegas Residency

Dolly Parton, who hasn't toured regularly in nearly a decade, has announced a six-concert run at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

2 days ago
Mick Ralphs of Bad Company
Bad Company and Mott The Hoople Mike Ralphs Dead at 81

Guitarist Mick Ralphs, a founding member of both Mott The Hoople and Bad Company, has died at the age of 81.

2 days ago
Amyl and the Sniffers photo by John Angus Stewart
Amyl & The Sniffers Next Australian Shows Will Be With AC/DC

Amyl & The Sniffers’ next Australian shows will be with AC/DC in November.

3 days ago