Neil Young’s music system baby “Pono” is now Live on Kickstarter, the world’s largest crowdfunding platform. The company’s mission is to help bring creative projects to life.
Righteous! (what Pono means in Hawaiian).
Woah! Check out the who’s-who of famous musicians talking up Pono in this video:
According to Kickstarter the project will only be funded if at least $800,000 is pledged by . The counter is clicking away. As of 8 p.m. on March 11 close to $700,000 has been raised by 2,133 investors who bought in. Minimum pledge was $1.
There are gifts for pledging. $5 pledgers get love and thanks! It goes up from there with T-shirts, posters, discounts on the Pono player, and artist series signatures Ponos from the likes of Willie Nelson,, Beck, CSN&Y, Tom Petty, Patti Smith, Pearl Jam and More.
Cost of the system is $399.
According to Neil: The record companies set their own digital music prices, label by label. High-resolution digital albums at PonoMusic.com are expected to cost between $14.99 -$24.99, and there may be exceptions. For this price you get the best quality digital music available anywhere, you own these albums forever – they don’t live only in the cloud, but also on your computer and backup disc, and you can play them anytime you wish on your PonoPlayer or other compatible devices.
We will also be offering many of your favorite individual songs. We’ll let you know the pricing soon.
About the shape:
“This triangular shape also has additional benefits: it can be held upright for one-hand operation or it can sit flat on your desktop or home stereo system. The display automatically rotates depending on the orientation of the device. But the best thing about this shape is that we were able to include the best sounding audio components with absolutely no compromises. The PonoPlayer will certainly be recognizable on your desk as the unique product it is – the world’s best sounding portable digital music player.”
It’s enough to make your head spin.
March 11, 2014 – (Santa Monica, CA.) – PonoMusic, a revolutionary movement conceived and founded by Neil Young with a mission to restore the soul of music, announced today that it is officially moving out of the R&D phase and is “open for business” with the launch of its Kickstarter campaign for thePonoPlayer.
Music veteran to unveil ‘highest resolution’ digital music service to take on Apple’s iTunes in SXSW keynote.
The Guardian writes that Neil Young will launch a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for his new PonoPlayer device on 15 March, with early buyers getting a discount on its planned $399 price.
The device will be supported by an online music downloads store called PonoMusic, which will sell files at a higher resolution than rivals like Apple’s iTunes.
“It’s about the music, real music. We want to move digital music into the 21st century and PonoMusic does that. We couldn’t be more excited about bringing PonoMusic to the market,” said Young in a statement accompanying the announcement.
PonoMusic is working with US hardware firm Ayre Acoustics to produce the device, which will ship with 128GB of memory to store music, as well as accepting memory cards to boost its capacity. The company will also sell earphones and headphones from its website.
There are critics: Twitter is abuzz with jabs at the system and it’s design (Like a Toblerone candy car).
Writes http://www.makeuseof.com/service/web-based/: “The design and pricing have been heavily criticized on social media, but the bigger problem may be timing. The PonoPlayer is surely a little too late to market, with the days of dedicated personal media players having been succeeded by the all-encompassing smartphone.”
“In fact, it could be said that the PonoPlayer is about as relevant today as Neil Young.”
Rock legend and SXSW Music Keynote alumnus Neil Young sits down this coming Tuesday for an interview to discuss his streaming audio brainchild, a high-quality music service called Pono.
SXWS writes: “Young has long been an advocate for studio-quality music in the digital age, and laments the relatively inferior quality offered by the status quo services. Pono, built from the ground-up, is his attempt to remedy this problem, and deliver to the listener the exact, full sounds the artist intends. He is also sure to share some great stories from his amazing career.”
The interview is scheduled from 5 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11 at the Austin Convention Center during the 27th annual South by Southwest Festival, which gets under way Friday in Austin. The 10-day event is expected to attract more than 30,000 to its tech, music and film segments, according to USA Today.
SXSW, as the conference is known, kicks off with the tech portion, targeted toward emerging start-ups and hard-to-get-into sessions that feature panelists pondering the latest tech trends.
More Pono news: A press release from Warner Brothers posted at Computer Audiophile announces the launch of Pono. The music system is getting very mixed reviews from Neil fans. (read the comments at the above link)
(Although it is now only March 8) >>> March 10, 2014 – (Burbank, CA.) – PonoMusic is a revolutionary movement conceived and founded by Neil Young. Our mission is to bring the highest-quality digital music to discerning, passionate consumers, who wish to experience music the way the artists intended, with the emotion, detail, and power intact.
“It’s about the music, real music. We want to move digital music into the 21st century and PonoMusic does that. We couldn’t be more excited about bringing PonoMusic to the market,” said Neil Young, founder and chairman of PonoMusic.
PonoMusic encompasses both an online music store (PonoMusic.com) and a playback device (The PonoPlayer). The PonoPlayer is a digital-music experience unlike any other, offering the finest quality, highest-resolution digital music from both major labels and prominent independent labels, curated and archived for discriminating PonoMusic customers. The Pono desktop media management application allows customers to download, manage and sync their music to their PonoPlayer and other high- resolution digital music devices.
“Our goal was to offer the highest quality digital music available from all the major labels with the world’s greatest sounding, user-friendly portable music player. We’ve achieved our goal and we are excited to launch our Kickstarter campaign next week to invite music lovers everywhere to join the PonoMusic community and reserve a PonoPlayer for their own enjoyment,” said John Hamm, CEO of PonoMusic.
“You gotta keep changing. Shirts, old ladies, whatever, I\\\'d rather keep changing and lose a lot of people along the way. If that\\\'s the price, I\\\'ll pay it. I don\\\'t give a shit if my audience is a hundred or a hundred million. It doesn\\\'t make any difference to me. I\\\'m convinced that what sells and what I do are two completely different things. If they meet, it\\\'s coincidence. ” by NY, from the Cameron Crowe Rolling Stone interview, Aug 14, 1975.
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
memphish on 
Albert Stromann on 
liza on 
Baz on 
