The Aimless Blade of Science

Neil Young returns to Spotify

So Uncle Neil is returning to Spotify after an absence of two years. In 2022, he pulled his catalog due to Spotify becoming comedian Joe Rogan’s exclusive podcast employer (that exclusivity has ended). While this was the stated reason for Neil leaving Spotify, he has also sharply criticized Spotify’s sound quality over the years, and reiterates that criticism in his statement on returning. My friend and fellow blogger about all things Neil Young, The Flying Scotzman, has a post on this today that is well worth taking a look at (all of his content is). While reading his insightful take on the situation, I had some additional thoughts I wanted to talk about.

Neil’s specific reason for leaving Spotify was Rogan’s ongoing questioning of COVID-19 vaccines and protocols, a topic our erstwhile artist has become very passionate about. I applauded Neil’s decision then, as personally, I think Rogan is a dangerous rabbit hole for many reasons. I subscribe to the “Nazi bar” theory (and it’s antecedent the paradox of tolerance; read the link), and letting people like Jordan Peterson and Alex Jones spout their harmful nonsense is frankly disgusting. It’s a big reason I left Twitter, and a big reason I’m contemplating a move off of Substack. Neil is still right to criticize all platforms for allowing disinformation across their platforms, but we only have so much time today. To restrict our topic to just COVID-19, though, vaccines work, and promoting an orderly rollout of them was our only viable way out of a deadly global pandemic. I’m thankful they were developed so quickly and that I was able to get them.

The reason why I’m confident that vaccines work is that science is not partisan. It’s not aimed at a political outcome, as it were. In this instance, it bizarrely did become partisan. That was mostly because our leader at the time was terrified that a pandemic would hurt the economy, and therefore his reelection (and he saw reelection as his only way out of the looming trials that he is currently mired in). His immediate skepticism filtered down to his party, his supporters, and all of the media outlets that support him. So, just like 2016, we had a full on propaganda war happening. This time it was worse, because people were dying from it. It was first and foremost, a failure of leadership at a critical time and that is perhaps the biggest reason I hope he does not return to the White House.

As for Neil and his reasons, it’s his music and he can do whatever he wants with it. In an ideal world, everyone would just subscribe to Neil Young Archives and listen to his music that way, but it’s not realistic, and he’s not so cruel or myopic to think that’s actually viable. He wants people to hear his music, for it to fill their headphones and their homes. He’s an artist, of course he wants that. With the exclusivity deal ending, I can see his reasoning here. If it were me, I’d probably have stuck to my guns, simply because Spotify is still Rogan’s monetary benefactor, but perfect is the enemy of good.

Which brings me to the other aspect of all this: streaming quality. Neil applauds places like Apple and Amazon for offering high resolution audio. He’s not so strict on this value, though, as he is allowing his music on Spotify again. There’s the possibility that this is a record label contract thing, though, with some strictly written clause surrounding political beliefs allowing him to pull music. We don’t know that, so let’s just look at the topic of high resolution audio vs low quality streaming.

When I first started my deep dive (coincidentally also two years ago), I started out listening in the same way I’d been listening to music for awhile: AirPods and my iPhone with Apple Music (256kbps AAC files and Bluetooth). This is basically what most people listen to these days. Some sort of mp3 quality file streamed via Bluetooth or WiFi to a headphone or speaker. When I started reading about Neil’s obsession with audio quality, I got curious. So I tried to test it, first by switching to corded headphones (definite improvement over Bluetooth), and then by listening to high resolution through a digital audio converter (generally the only way to get high res to play). My experience was that there was a definite difference, a sharper, more detailed sound. I also tried ABX tests online and found them to be a mixed bag. Some tests, I detected differences, some tests I didn’t. Personally the individual recordings have a larger influence on this conversation for my ears. The more natural sounds paid the biggest dividends. As music got more artificial, I heard less difference. The biggest test for me, however, is whenever I listen to a mp3 or aac after listening to high resolution for awhile. The lower resolution music immediately sounds different, flatter mostly.

In the end, I solved a number of office music setup problems by buying an amplifier that was also a high resolution streamer. It streamlined my listening and gave me great quality at the same time. However, I’ve always had in the back of my mind that most of the ABX studies show that people can’t really tell the difference and it made me wonder if I was denying the science (that word again!) of this in pursuit of some “pure” audiophile goal that is ultimately unachievable. Neil also uses “science” when he talks about mp3s only presenting 5% of what he recorded so the blade of science can sometimes be double edged. In discussions of this topic, I’ve seen very passionate positions on both sides.

One notable exception to the high resolution subject is that Neil is seemingly very into Dolby Atmos music mixes and listening to some of his Atmos mixed albums on Apple Music with the Atmos-capable AirPods is an astounding experience despite that being an inherently lossy reproduction. The sound is so dimensional and it actually improves the clarity of some mixes (particularly Mirror Ball). Neil seems to see Atmos as the way to improve lower resolution music and I can see why.

My conclusion on all this is that you should trust scientists on life and death issues, and you can give yourself some leeway for placebos and personal feelings on less mortal concerns like music. In the end, music is meant to be enjoyed, not dissected and analyzed (rich coming from me) on a scientific level.