Neil Young has confirmed the reason he sold his back catalogue is because of the “freedom” it offers him.
The legendary songwriter, who will headline Glastonbury Festival later this year, says he can do what he wants after selling off the rights to his recordings. Artists like Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and Paul Simon also sold off the rights to their recordings in recent years, and received hundreds of millions for doing so. Sony Music picked up the rights to Dylan’s recorded music catalogue, dating from 1962 onwards. Universal Music had purchased his song catalogue for roughly £300million in 2020. Dylan also donated personal archives to the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Young has since sold off half of his catalogue to Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited in 2021.
Explaining the reason for selling off half his catalogue, Young says it was a financial freedom that allowed him to do what he wanted, when he wanted. He explained: “I want to sell my songs because I don’t have to worry about a fucking thing now. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do.
“I’ve got the end of my life to go out doing exactly what it is I want to do and not doing what I don’t want to do unless it hurts somebody that I love, then I really have to think about it.
“But when it comes to expressing who you are and what you can do, if you’re constricted by money and a lot of people are relying on you, you don’t have to do that. If you spend seventy-five years getting to this spot, you don’t have to pay for what you did. You just sell what you want and you use the money to be able to go forward living life the way you wanna live it.”
Young then gave examples of what he wants and does not want to do, suggesting his tours are based on where he wants to go and at what time. He said: “I don’t have to go on a tour if I don’t want to go on a tour.”
Even with the choice to do what he wants, Young remains a prolific artist who is set to tour Europe and North America later this year. He will also release a new album, along with a soundtrack album and film titled Coastal. Young has already released archival album, Oceanside Countryside, earlier this year.
In a four-star review of the album from Cult Following, Oceanside Countryside was described as “a gentle excuse to return to some of the lesser-loved Young songs… and is a welcome entry in [the discography] its own way.”
