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 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.
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.
Also included in the set are several live discs, as well as (on the Blu-Ray/DVD versions) a copy of the long out-of-print film Journey Through the Past, directed by Young in the early 1970s.
Volume I was released as a set of 10 Blu-ray discs in order to present high resolution audio as well as accompanying visual documentation.
Covering an eleven-year period from 1976–1987, Volume III included, among other tracks, an album and film called Across the Water that further documents his 1976 tour of Japan and Europe with Crazy Horse; A Snapshot in Time, an "audio documentary" of a rehearsal with Nicolette Larson and Linda Ronstadt prior to recording American Stars 'n Bars; Windward Passage, a live album of tracks recorded with The Ducks in Santa Cruz; the unreleased album Oceanside Countryside; Union Hall, a recording of Young rehearsing with Larson and the Give to the Wind Orchestra prior to their November 12, 1977 gig in Bicentennial Park in Miami; an album and film documenting his 1978 Boarding House residency; songs from both his unreleased album Island in the Sun and earlier versions of Old Ways; a live album documenting Young's February 7, 1984, shows with Crazy Horse at The Catalyst; and a disc of live tracks and studio cuts Young recorded with the International Harvesters.
[5] On July 25, 2024, Young announced a pre-sale for members of his Archives website for the upcoming box set.
Members of Neil Young Archives that pre-ordered in advance received a 16 track CD sampler and a pin.
[7] As of 2024, Volume IV is currently scheduled to be the second to last Archives box set to be released, according to an article from Young that was published on the Times-Contrarian that day.
Currently in production and being worked on by the Neil Young Archives team, the specific timeframe is yet undetermined, though it is expected to start with songs culled from his first tour with the Bluenotes in the fall of 1987.
The album was released on CD, LP and DVD with high definition 24/96 sound accompanied by still images from the concert.
The shows featured Young backed by the Santa Monica Flyers and songs from the recently recorded Tonight's the Night.
II: 1972-1976 box set with an additional performance of "The Losing End" not present on the original release.
A live show that was recorded on November 13, 1990, at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, California, with Crazy Horse, Young has previously shown all the concert video footage as part of the Movietone section of his Archives website.
Young has previously shown all the concert video footage as part of the Movietone section of his Archives website.
On October 7, the first six entries of the Official Bootleg Series were announced,[15] as well as that Niko Bolas will be helping Young in the production of these releases.
An article on the Neil Young Archives site announced a target release date of September 10, 2021.
In addition, the albums were reissued as limited edition box sets on 24 November 2009, in both 180-gram vinyl and 24k gold CD versions.
In 2003 and 2004, Neil Young released On the Beach, American Stars 'N Bars, Hawks & Doves, and Re·ac·tor on HDCD-mastered compact disc and DVD-Audio for the first time.
[citation needed] Neil Young has also announced a part of the archives known as the Special Release Series.
The 10 songs featured on this album were all recorded in 1969 with the original Crazy Horse line-up of Danny Whitten, Ralph Molina, Billy Talbot, and Jack Nitzsche.
Originally scheduled for release on April 17 as part of that year's Record Store Day, it was delayed until June 19 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
[23] Volume 03: Dume A double LP with Crazy Horse drawn from the 1975 Zuma sessions, including most of the material that would appear on Zuma, alternate versions of songs that appear on Rust Never Sleeps, Homegrown, and Hitchhiker, as well as other unreleased songs from the period.
After not being satisfied with the results initially, it was set aside so Neil could focus on recording Are You Passionate?, his album with Booker T. & the M.G.'s.