Legendary Canadian rocker’s fan-focused hi-res streaming service is now available to BluOS customers worldwide
Lenbrook International, developer of the BluOS premium hi-res wireless distributed audio and music management platform, has announced that the integration of Neil Young Archives (NYA), the high-resolution, studio-quality streaming online archive of famed Canadian-born rock icon, Neil Young, into the BluOS platform has been expanded to its entire global user base. Previously only available to North American customers of BluOS, the latest BluOS update has opened availability of the unique music streaming service to Young’s fans around the world, just in time for the November 20th release of a 131-track multi-album collection Archives Vol. II – 1972-1976, which will be available as a 10 CD limited edition deluxe box set and as streaming content to NYA subscribers.
From within the BluOS Controller app and via a BluOS Enabled device from NAD Electronics, Bluesound, DALI Loudspeakers, and Monitor Audio, subscribers to Neil Young Archives will have the ability to stream the musician’s entire discography in Xstream studio-quality resolution. Meanwhile, non-subscribers can freely sample Neil Young Archives’ “Song of the Day” and “Album of the Week” in Xstream high-resolution.
Additional content is available to NYA subscribers via the NYA website and app, including all of his audio and video content, memorabilia, notes, lyrics, original manuscripts, and news.
Young has long been known as an advocate for high resolution audio, even starting his own Pono music venture, and eventually launching, in 2018, Neil Young Archives with his Xstream hi-res, so he could guarantee that his music and life’s work was available only in the highest quality possible.
At the same time, Canada-based Lenbrook International was in the midst of growing its reach with a new and modern audiophile customer seeking a completely new performance standard and user experience supporting high-resolution 24/192 audio streaming, layered with multi-room music capabilities. Such an innovative solution had never before been made commercially available and the Bluesound brand, with its BluOS operating system, had been setting new standards and winning awards worldwide since its launch in 2012.
This “Canadian connection” around high-resolution audio has been developing over a number of years, with Young even mentioning Lenbrook as an example of hardware manufacturers who remain dedicated to hi-res audio in his 2019 book co-written with collaborator, Phil Baker, “To Feel the Music.”
“We are very pleased to be one of the few hardware companies that Neil trusts to deliver his music to his fans in the highest resolutions available,” explains Gordon Simmonds, President and CEO of the Lenbrook Group of Companies. ”Hi-res audio is only possible when both the content and the hardware are offered with quality in mind, and we are proud to have put these two pieces together for the end consumer to enjoy, simply and elegantly.”
This integration is built on OraStream’s adaptive streaming protocol utilizing the MPEG 4 SLS codec in BluOS, introduced late last year as part of BluOS’s goal to maintain its leadership in offering high-resolution music content options for its users. Music files are encoded and delivered in their native resolution, thereby retaining and preserving the nuances and details of the original source file.
Beyond just the technical integration of Young’s service with BluOS, the agreement also demonstrates how a content creator and a home audio equipment provider can collaborate and model an effective and simple solution for music lovers to access and enjoy a unique and fully high-resolution streaming experience.
“I am very pleased to be able to expand access to my archives to the global BluOS community, since I know that they appreciate great Xstream hi-res sound and would never settle for what mainstream devices and streaming services could offer,” says Young.
“Although my music already sounds better on all devices because our master’s high-resolution source is so pure,” Young continues, “combining the best source with the superior playback of devices using BluOS will easily unwrap the true emotional hit from my hi-res music.”
The Neil Young Archives, described as a “Revolution in fandom” by The Guardian, is a website and app where fans have access to Neil Young’s audio, video, memorabilia, notes, lyrics, original manuscripts and an eight-page newspaper. It’s where Young is continually adding new content and where his fans and he communicate with each other. All of his music is streamed in Xstream, NYA’s name for adaptive hi res streaming developed by OraStream. The site went live in December 2018 and has tens of thousands of paid members. A subscription costs $19.99 per year.
