London - Unsatisfied with the sound quality of MP3 and other current digital audio formats, veteran rocker Neil Young has been talking with record companies on "licensing an alternative digital platform that he had been working on -- something, he claimed, of far higher quality that could provide an alternative to the download world and perhaps even a new business model for music," the Financial Times reported.

Young told FT he has been experimenting for the past 15 years with new technologies.

"[The MP3 alternative] has every media component you could want, and they're all married together in a platform. That means other artists could use it, other record companies could use it and gain the knowledge of our 15-year development curve," Young told FT.com.

Young recently announced plans to release his entire catalog on Sony's Blu-ray Disc format -- evidence that he is keen on seeing his work released in high-fidelity formats.

Meanwhile, fellow veteran rocker and producer T-Bone Burnett has also been working on a new, higher-fidelity digital audio format, "CODE," which will first be used on John Mellencamp's forthcoming album due out later this month on the Hear Music imprint.

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bb1e7eba-47d0-11dd-93ca-000077b07658.html