Neil Young Archives — High Res Streaming Content Being Added to Bluesound and NAD Electronics in North America
Unique fan-focused service comes to BluOS enabled products via previously announced adaptive streaming protocol.
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, JANUARY 6, 2020 – Lenbrook International, the Canadian owner and maker of award-winning high fidelity audio brands and technologies, and the Neil Young Archives (NYA), the high-resolution streaming online archive of famed Canadian-born rock icon, Neil Young, have announced an agreement to integrate NYA into Lenbrook’s BluOS high-resolution multiroom streaming platform. This integration follows closely on the heels of an earlier announcement that BluOS is beginning to add OraStream’s adaptive streaming protocol as part of its goal a to maintain leadership in offering high-resolution music content options for its users.
In Q1 of 2020, North American users of BluOS Enabled products from NAD Electronics, Bluesound, and DALI Loudspeakers, will be prompted to update their players for the unique opportunity to sample Neil Young Archives’ song of the day and album of the week in full resolution, with a tap of a button in the BluOS Controller app. Users interested in subscribing to the full NYA service will be able to subscribe through the BluOS app. Existing subscribers of the Neil Young Archives can simply enter their credentials into BluOS to access the service.
ALL-CANADIAN COMMITMENT TO HIGH-RESOLUTION AUDIO
In 2018, Canadian-born Young launched his Neil Young Archives, an ambitious project that models a novel way for artists who care totally about the quality of the content they so carefully create to also stream it to their fans without the damaging compression so prevalent in today’s mass-market streaming music world. His website and app provide access to all of his audio, video, memorabilia, notes, lyrics, original manuscripts and news.
For decades, Young has been warning the music industry and music fans worldwide to take better care of recorded content from the past decades and to provide it in its fullest and least compressed form so that music lovers can hear all the music the artist intended for them. Young articulates this in his latest book, co-written with Phil Baker, “To Feel the Music.”
“I am happy to be able to offer this as a new benefit to NYA’s existing subscribers,” exclaimed Young. ” For the first time, they’ll be able to stream all my archives’ audio content directly to equipment capable of playing it without adding any compression. I’m also excited that North American users of BluOS hardware can sample my archives by listening to the song of the day and album of the week. We share a passion with the Lenbrook team for delivering and making high res audio streaming easily accessible to music lovers in their homes, leading us to this new cooperation.”
In 2012, Ontario based Lenbrook International unveiled a new and modern audiophile brand that set a completely new performance standard and user experience supporting high resolution 24/192 audio steaming 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, has been setting new standards and winning awards worldwide ever since. Bluesound, a collaborative effort between Lenbrook’s software development team and the world-renowned amplifier and acoustics teams from NAD Electronics and PSB Speakers has since garnered pole position in the modern audiophile age.
“The BluOS operating system has become a standard in the audiophile world as a result of an unwavering commitment to care about what the high-resolution audio listening experience can offer music lovers,” explained Lenbrook’s CEO, Gordon Simmonds. “Along with our brands Bluesound, NAD Electronics and PSB Speakers, we have opened this platform up to other global premium audio brands like DALI Loudspeakers (Denmark) and Monitor Audio (UK). All of these brands are part of an open ecosystem that offers a wide array of audio solutions to the music lovers that truly care. We are thrilled to be realizing this shared vision with Neil and his team and this new level of collaboration announced today.”
MODEL OF STREAMING INTEGRATIONS TO COME
Beyond just the technical integration, 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. As musical artists take greater control over their life’s work, often bypassing traditional music distribution channels to reach their fans more directly, this agreement could represent a novel avenue for artists to gain better control over their work and their earnings.
Neil Young Archives on BluOS will be demonstrated at CES 2020 at the Venetian Hotel, in the Lenbrook suite, #29-140.
ABOUT THE NEIL YOUNG ARCHIVES
The Neil Young Archives (neilyoungarchives.com), 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 Neil is continually adding new content and where his fans and he communicate with each other. It went live a little over a year ago and has tens of thousands of paid members. A subscription cost $19.99 per year.
ABOUT BLUOS
BluOS™ is a premium multi-room audio ecosystem that manages stored and cloud music sources and playback, with support for high-resolution audio streams up to 24/192. Adopted by some of the most renowned hi-fi audio brands and integrated with numerous smart home and voice control systems, BluOS allows for interoperability among enabled devices across brands for maximum versatility and use cases. Integrations with popular streaming music services like Tidal, Spotify, Amazon Music HD, Qobuz, and Deezer, as well as featuring support for FLAC, WAV, OraStream, MQA, and other high-resolution formats and codecs, BluOS offers virtually unlimited access to music of all genres for any occasion. Made up of an operating system and a control application for smartphones, tablets, and PC desktops, BluOS is the ultimate choice for the modern audiophile.
ABOUT LENBROOK INTERNATIONAL
Lenbrook International, a subsidiary of the Lenbrook Group of Companies, is the owner and manufacturer of award-winning brands for home audio and residential install applications. Its full suite of products from NAD Electronics, PSB Speakers, Bluesound wireless multi-room players, and Bluesound Professional commercial audio, are distributed in over 80 countries, while its BluOS hi-res distributed audio platform continues to be adopted by some of the world’s leading premium audio brands.
CONTACTS
Corporate Contact
June Ip
Marketing, Lenbrook International
jip@lenbrook.com
US Media Relations
Peter Hoagland
PR Consultant
peter@hoagland.us
UK Media Relations
Richard Stevenson
PR Consultant
richard@rspr.co.uk
LINKS
The Neil Young Archives: www.neilyoungarchives.com
BluOS: www.bluos.net
Lenbrook Group: www.lenbrook.com