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Neil Young Targets Audiophiles with Crowdfunded Portable Music Player

Neil Young PonoMusic Pono Portable Music Player

Despite being relatively pricey for a portable music player, Neil Young’s PonoMusic reached the $800,000 target within a day since the campaign started, fact that emphasizes the capabilities of this device.

Having raised more than three times the initial goal, the PonoPlayer developed by Neil Young and his company, PonoMusic, seems to have a lot of fans among the users of the crowdfunding platform. Considering the benefits brought by this high-fidelity portable music player, the success of the Kickstarter campaign started by Neil Young shouldn’t surprise anyone.

While exhibiting the product at the SXSW music convention, Young explained that “This is rescuing music. It’s an artist-driven movement to take it back.” The singer declared war on MP3 files a while ago, as he considers that these degrade the music listening experience, which really should be something sacred.

The Canadian singer-songwriter pointed out that youngsters who rely on MP3s are deprived from the three-dimensional, immersive sound that they should experience: “They can identify the name of the song and they can learn the melody from listening to it, but inside their souls they’re just not getting what we got because there’s just nothing there for them. The human body is so sensitive….when it sees great art, it feels good. (So) with our music, we were deprived and we started getting very little, a minuscule 1/20th of what we listened to.”

The PonoPlayer and the companion music store PonoMusic are meant to offer an alternative to the iPods and iTunes Stores, with a focus on high-resolution music similar to the one produced in studios. PonoMusic and the PonoPlayer will be capable of playing back music with a 9,216 kbps bitrate, while iTunes delivers songs with 256 kbps. As Young put it, “So now you’ll hear the nuances, the soft touches, and the ends on the echo – the texture and the emotion of the music the artist worked so hard to create.” Sir Elton John emphasized the difference by saying that “I haven’t heard a sound like that since vinyl. It was wonderful.”

PonoPlayer’s Kickstarter campaign still has 32 more days to go, so if you want to secure one for yourself, back the project with $300. For $100 more, you can get a player signed by one of the following artists: Patti Smith, Tom Petty, Beck, Arcade Fire, Dave Matthews Band, The Foo Fighters and others. The cost of the albums, on the other hand, will range between $14.99 and $24.99.

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Neil Young’s PonoMusic to Launch on Kickstarter (Bow-Chica-Wow-Wow)

Neil Young has been talking up his forthcoming high-fidelity music service and music player for a few years. That service and the player will now be launching via Kickstarter and it is called PonoMusic. That is a horrible name, each time I see it I think PornoMusic and hum bow-chica-wow-wow to myself.

ponomusic player 620x441magnify

The device, made by Arye, is said to use zero feedback circuits and a digital filter to stop unnatural pre-ringing. I’m no audiophile, so this is Greek to me. I assume that means it sounds really good. The music player will have a substantial 128GB of storage and the triangular design looks really uncomfortable to carry in a pocket, so it’s probably best used in a backpack.

The 128GB of storage should be enough to store 100 to 500 high-resolution albums. Storage expansion is possible using memory cards. The high-resolution music service promises tracks from top labels and independent labels. The PonoPlayer (bow-chica-wow-wow) will sell for $399(USD), but the price will be discounted for pre-orders.

Young is launching the triangular player on Kickstarter on March 12.

[via Computer Audiophile]

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Neil Young’s Pono music service wants to democratize high-quality audio (video)

Neil Young's Pono music service wants to democratize highquality audio video

Neil Young isn't shy when it comes to embracing new technology, something he put beyond question with his latest appearance on The Late show with David Letterman. The artist took the opportunity to reveal plans for his high-fidelity Pono music service. The aim is to tackle the poor quality in which he believes most people receive their music these days -- the humble MP3. Young's offering would comprise a three-pronged approach, including a music store with high-resolution recordings, a digital-to-analog style conversion technology, and portable hardware to listen to it all with. The simple intention is to offer music as it was originally intended to be heard, but at this time there's no detail as to what this actually entails (sorry specification fans).

According to Rolling Stone, the big three labels are interested, and the goal is to unify, rather than diversify, the quality of recorded content. The Pono players (that yellow wedge you see above) will serve up your existing catalog, but you'll likely need to re-buy some of your collection if you want the holistic experience. With no cards fully on the table, we're at the ransom of Young's celebrity endorsements, which all claim that the benefits are tangible. Young, of course, says "You can't get better than this, this is what they do in the studio," but until we get some details, or ears on, everybody knows this is nowhere.

[Image credit:CBS]

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Neil Young's Pono music service wants to democratize high-quality audio (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 07:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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