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Neil Young's huge online music archive opens to the public

It's much more than your usual artist page.

Matt Kincaid/Getty Images

Neil Young has been talking up his giant online archive for ages, but he's finally ready to deliver on his promises. The veteran Canadian rocker has launched the simply-titled Neil Young Archives, a website that includes all the media he has produced to date. And we do mean everything -- every song Young has made is available to stream for free (until June 30th 2018) through his Xstream Music service, including unreleased tracks.

Young naturally makes a big deal out of the audio quality, which improves the stronger your connection gets. He even devotes his introductory message to a long diatribe about Apple's music quality choices on top of explaining how the archive works. Young would prefer that you listen on a computer, and even has a guide to help set up access on your home stereo.

Overkill? You bet. And ultimately, it's serving as a sales pitch for Xstream. However, it's still miles above the typical musician page offering the occasional freebie and a few music videos. This is an insight into Young's entire history as an artist, not just a promotion for his latest album.