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.
Where else can you find NSA leaker Edward Snowden, talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel, rock legend Neil Young, Chelsea Clinton and genetics expert Anne Wojcicki all under one roof?
(Snowden & Neil Together? The Baron’s Dream!)
It’s 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.
Most attention is headed toward Monday at 11 a.m. CT, when Snowden address the crowd via video-conference, in his first public chat since fleeing for asylum in Russia. He will appear via satellite, in a session moderated by the American Civil Liberties Union.
There are parties galore, and those hard-to-get-into panels. Astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson (Cosmos), Snowden, Chelsea Clinton and TV’s Adam Savage are some of the big draws, along with Young, who will be talking about his new Pono hi-resolution audio service, in a panel hosted by USA TODAY’s Mike Snider.
USA TODAY will be hosting a live show from SXSW Saturday, Sunday and Monday each day at noon ET, so be sure to go to tech.usatoday.com for the latest.
Billy Talbot, bass player for Neil Young & Crazy Horse, talks to Radio.com about his solo album, song writing, spirituality and the future of Crazy Horse. Also about PONO, Pearl Jam is a garage band, Nirvana.
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A snippet from the interview (~5 min 40)
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:: Billy Talbot’s website: BILLY TALBOT BAND. Including his latest solo album “On The Road To Spearfish”, audio & video.
Neil Young will launch his new music player PONO at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference in Austin, Texas in March. Young was awarded the President’s Merit Award from the Producers and Engineers arm of the Recording Academy and said Pono would be launched at SXSW.
Pono is a high quality digital music player that will play the sound as it was recorded in the studio. It will become the hi-tech alternative to low quality MP3 players such as the iPod.
In his speech for the Academy, Young said: “Being impressed by something, and how cool it is, and how sharp it is, and how snappy it is, is one thing, and that translates into almost any media. But when you’re singing something very soulful from your heart, and the echo is perfect and everything’s great and you’re using maybe an acoustic chamber and everything sounds great. And then you listen to it and you love it, but you hear it somewhere else and it’s gone – that’s terrible.
“We don’t like that. Not many of us like that, we’re not happy about it. So we’re trying to change that, and we’re trying to make it better. We’re trying to make music sound technically better, and that’s what I want to do. So we have a player that plays whatever the musicians’ made digitally, and that’s going to come out.
“We’re announcing that at SXSW, we’re introducing it, it’s called Pono, and that’s my commercial, thank you very much.”
Young also set the record straight about rumours of a Jack White duets album. Young states: “False Rumours: Neil Young and Jack White are not doing a record of duets as has been erroneously posted on various outlets. We are certain those rumours have no basis in truth.”
In March, Young will release a new album, A Letter Home, which he describes as “one of the lowest-tech experiences I’ve ever had.” Apparently this is supposed to appear on Jack White’s THIRD MAN record label.
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.
Neil Young to sell $399 PonoPlayer music device through Kickstarter
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