Neil Young Says Internet Piracy Is The 'New Radio,' Campaigns For A New Musical Format

Rock and roll superstar Neil Young continued his fight against digital music this week when he compared the widespread acceptance of online piracy to the way fans used to discover music on the radio.

Young, who has yet to slow down as he grows older, has also been vocal about the plummeting sound quality that comes with each new widely adopted audio technology.

While other artists have jumped to sign contracts with streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify in an attempt to minimize their profit loss, Young appeared unconcerned about listeners stealing his music during a 2012 D: Dive into Media interview.

“It doesn’t affect me because I look at the Internet as the new radio,” young said. “I look at the radio as gone … Piracy is the new radio. That’s how music gets around … That’s the radio. If you really want to hear it, let’s make it available, let them hear it, let them hear the 95 percent of it.”

Young’s latter comment was a reference to his philosophy that almost all of a song’s quality is lost in mp3 format compared with CDs or superior audio formats.

Last year the rocker announced his intent to release an entirely new audio format. Named “Pono,” the invention is expected to be processed through the U.S. Patent Service within six months, and then making its debut when Young re-releases his entire music catalog in that format, according to Spin.

During Young’s most recent interview he said he hopes “some rich guy” will help fix the current problem and bring back “100 percent” of the sound quality in music.

“Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music, his legacy was tremendous,” Young said. “But when he went home, he listened to vinyl.”