Before we discuss how to download Ys , we must address the elephant in the room: Joanna Newsom’s complicated relationship with modern digital distribution.
The good news: You can download Ys legally and in high quality. The bad news: You cannot do it through the apps already on your phone. Here is the definitive list of where the MP3 or FLAC download is available:
Newsom has cited a desire to preserve the album as a cohesive artistic object, as well as frustration with the economic model of streaming, which offers fractional royalties to artists. For the artist behind Ys —an album recorded with a 70-piece orchestra and string arrangements that cost over $70,000 to produce—the idea of devaluing that work to a 0.003 cent per stream model is anathema.