Neil Young has created something that will help rival the iPod, CDs and all other listening devices. How do you compete with something that has been handled by Apple and Android for the greater sense of a decade? Well the crowdfunding campaign for Young’s Pono Music set the goal on Kickstarter at $800,000 to get the music player off the ground. After putting it out to recording artists, musicians, bands, and others, the praise was unanimous amongst all who listened. Word quickly spread and when the campaign ended on Kickstarter Pono had raised more than $6.2 million.
The compressed digital music experience has bothered Young and other artists for years as the sounds that musicians here in the recording studio are simply heard as a shell of their originals once it gets to the consumer—a term Young calls “underwater listening.” Pono will change digital music to 192-kHz sound which presents the information in a brighter and clearer sound the most closely resembles the music originally laid down in the studio.
Similar to the iPod, Pono will have its own online store as well as a pocket sized music player. Coming with 128 GB of storage, the PonoPlayer will be sold at $399. The iPod touch at 64 GB sells for the same price and with twice the storage capacity, the PonoPlayer will deliver a unique experience.
Hundreds of artists are on board and the online music store will start to take shape soon. High-resolution digital albums will be available on the website with prices ranging from $15 to $25. Young has confirmed that all of the major record labels will participate.
Ponomusic.com will feature the online store once it debuts. On the website currently are testimonials and information that you should check out. This information came from a CNN article.