Neil Young's new book chronicles why music sounds worse than it used to

Neil Young's new book chronicles why music sounds worse than it used to

Neil Young has announced a new book that aims to shed light on how - despite many technological innovations over the years - music's sound quality has deteriorated.

Co-written by Phil Baker (CEO of the Neil Young Archives), To Feel the Music: A Songwriter's Mission to Save High-Quality Audio, will explore "how the sound was and is compromised by the tech and record companies," explains Young on his website, "and instead of improving over time like other technologies, it has become worse".

Young has been a longtime champion of high quality audio. He helped develop the hi-res audio digital music player Pono, as well as the streaming service Xstream. He promises the book will lift the lid on his time working on both.

"Our book also tells the business and development story behind Pono," he writes, "and then, when people wanted the convenience of streaming, how we developed Xstream high resolution streaming, the highest quality streaming in the world, as you hear it at NYA." 

The book is available to pre-order now and will ship in September.

MORE: 

PonoPlayer hands-on review

Best music streaming services

Best portable music players 2019: Budget to hi-res music

Joe Svetlik

Joe has been writing about tech for 17 years, first on staff at T3 magazine, then in a freelance capacity for Stuff, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Men's Health, GQ, The Mirror, Trusted Reviews, TechRadar and many more (including What Hi-Fi?). His specialities include all things mobile, headphones and speakers that he can't justifying spending money on.