Neil Young is releasing his entire archive of recordings for free

Neil Young is weeks away from launching one of the most complete archival services in musical history.

The Neil Young Archives launches on December 1, offering up an exhaustive trove of Young's music with notes, "associated credits, memorabilia, films or videos, press and photographs." Initially the service will be free.

"December 1st will be a big day for me," Young wrote on Facebook. "The Visitor will be coming to your town. I will be going to my town. You will be able to hear me and see me.

"My archive will open on that same day, a place you can visit and experience every song I have ever released in the highest quality your machine will allow. It’s the way it’s supposed to be. In the beginning, everything is free."

The collection will feature everything Young has ever recorded, and will act as a living document. He built the collection "for myself as much as for everyone else", and is seeking those with rare ephemera and such to contact him.

In August, Young described the thinking behind the exhaustive service.

“Every single, recorded track or album I have produced is represented. It is always current.

“You can browse though the music I made between today’s date and 1963, when I made my first recording in Canada and it was released as a 45 RPM single. You can zoom in to the timeline and see a particular period in detail, and pull back to view the surrounding years. View all albums currently released and see albums still unreleased and in production just by using the controls to zoom through the years.”