The Neil Young Archives is a longtime project by singer-songwriter Neil Young. It started as a series of archival releases featuring previously released as well as unreleased studio and live recordings. It eventually developed into a website featuring almost the whole of Young's recording output throughout his career, available for streaming in high resolution audio format. The project has been long in the making – work began in the late 1980s. Throughout its development, Young himself has made several statements about the material included, release dates, and marketing that have proven false as the project was modified for new multimedia formats and expanded upon to accommodate new releases or other relevant material.[1] As of 2024, the Neil Young Archives series of box sets is scheduled to have five volumes.[2]
The archives are divided into several series. The main series consists of several volumes of box sets, each covering a separate period of the artist's career. The Performance Series consists of individual releases of live material, each representing a specific show or tour. Finally, there is the Special Release Series, which consists of previously unreleased albums. These different series also overlap; for example, two volumes of the Performance Series that are included on each of the first two Archives box set releases are also available separately. Homegrown is also included in its entirety on Neil Young Archives Volume II: 1972–1976 but was also released on its own earlier in 2020.
As of 2019, Young has launched a subscription website and application where all of his music is available to stream in high resolution audio. The Neil Young Archives also include his newspaper, The Times-Contrarian; The Hearse Theater, which shows limited runs of concert films and rare footage; and photos and memorabilia throughout his career.[3]