You mean he’s finally going to release his archival material?

We’ve been hearing about this since the seventies, how Neil Young is going to do this huge archival dump, ten albums…

But it never happened. And continues not to happen. Even though stories continue to circulate.

Now it appears to be for real. I don’t think he’s got the cojones to stand the guys at Sun up. To do this press conference and then punt, using his mystique as a cover.

Did you know that Neil Young was going to do these Blu-Ray discs?

I did. News started floating down through my filters yesterday. But I never got past the news. Because I figured the stuff would never come out, and how interesting is a press release anyway.

Then I got e-mail about a ten minute video from one of my readers. That made all the difference.

I waited until I had enough time, I just watched the video.

If you’re not a Neil Young fan, don’t click through. This is not for you. We’re in the era of narrowcasting. It’s fine if you don’t like Neil Young…but many do.

Fascinating if you do. You see history come alive.

And, you’ll hear Neil trash the CD… Even the DVD. And tell you to get a PlayStation.

Blu-Ray beat the competing format because of the PlayStation. Each and every PS3 comes with a Blu-Ray drive installed. Drove the price into the stratosphere and the console’s thunder was stolen by the cheaper and easier to use Wii. But, adoption rates have picked up. This is the Trojan horse. The PS3 is why Blu-Ray won.

And as of today, the PS3 is the Blu-Ray device to buy, because it’s updatable! Neil talks about updating via Java… A DVD never has to be finished. You can download additional content as it becomes available.

But the reason we all care is that Neil Young has a body of work. From the Springfield (and before!) to "After The Gold Rush" to "Rust Never Sleeps" all the way to "Greendale".

Today, as a result of MTV and now the Net, all people care about is the track. Forgo the hit, figure out how to penetrate a fan’s consciousness, to make him a fan of your career. That’s where the satisfaction and the remuneration truly reside.

Neil Young rocks JavaOne
(scroll down to watch the video)