While 2017 has been one of the quietest years of legendary artist Neil Young‘s career, December 1 is a date fans should mark on their calendars. Not only will Neil release a new album entitled The Visitor featuring Promise Of The Real, but he’ll also unveil his complete archives for free.

As pointed out by Gary Graff, Neil recently shared a message on Facebook detailing what to expect, “December 1st will be a big day for me. The Visitor will be coming to your town. I will be going to my town. You will be able to hear me and see me. My archive will open on that same day, a place you can visit and experience every song I have ever released in the highest quality your machine will allow. It’s the way it’s supposed to be. In the beginning, everything is free.”

There’s a note on the NeilYoungArchives.com from Young detailing what lies ahead. It appears Neil has finally settled on a format in which he feels comfortable. Xstream Music high resolution streaming by OraStream is said to “allow the listener to hear all of the music available at his or her current listening location” regardless of available bandwidth. “Xstream Music master recordings are always pure uncompressed masters. They are not part of a format that compromises the quality. All compression formats compromise quality,” wrote Neil.


He admits he created the site “for myself as much as for everyone else. I am very interested in collecting and organization, as well as mechanical things and old school record keeping. What we have built here at NYA (Neil Young Archives) is a result of a great effort by many people over a long period of time. A timeline will soon be live in which fans can explore Young’s vast catalog. The archives span 1963 through “today’s date.”