Neil Young Introduces Expansive New Online Archive

Neil Young is crafting a new online home for his music. Previously, listeners could delve into most of Young’s catalogue via NeilYoungArchives.com. This weekend, however, Young announced in a Facebook post his plans to revamp and update the archive to include more recordings, video and manuscripts, stretching all the way back to his days playing in high school bands.

While aspects of the site will remain free to everyone, Young will offer memberships starting on June 1, allowing for a more immersive experience into what he calls “a giant time machine cabinet.” He’ll charge $1.99 per month, or $19.99 per year, for complete access to NeilYoungArchives.com, or NYA for short. Paying members will have the opportunity to hear new records “before they get released anywhere else.” Young also plans to abandon Facebook, writing, “[NYA] will also be the place where I live on the web. I won’t be here.”

Previously unreleased music from Young’s archives, as well as new music, will be available for streaming via NYA. Young is crafting in the archive an all-in-one platform for experiencing everything in his catalogue, as well as a vehicle for other projects like the site’s newspaper, The Times-Contrarian, which Young says will be chock full of “updates, projects and upcoming events related to my music.”

The archive will also house media that tell the stories of Young’s songs. “Each song is being backed up with the archival material that relates to it and to the creation of it, from song writing to band jams, the history of this music is there. It’s never finished, it is huge and growing,” Young writes in his Facebook post.

You can read Young’s entire post on Facebook here and revisit our ranking of the 25 best Neil Young songs of all time right here.