PRESS RELEASE: PONO Launch @ SXSW by Neil Young
UPDATE #2: Here is the correct, single line change in final para: "The PonoPlayer has 128GB of memory and can store from about 100 to 500 high-resolution digital-music albums, depending on the resolution and length of the original recording."
UPDATE: Here is the revised official Press Release for PONO which will be launched next week at the SXSW Conference in Austin, TX by Neil Young.
From Neil young announces the launch of ponomusic | Computer Audiophile Forum:
For Immediate Release:Already, the PR has kicked up a fair amount of discussion over pricing, storage, etc.
NEIL YOUNG ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF PONOMUSIC
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 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 exactly 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 PonoMusic 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.
The PonoPlayer is a purpose-built, portable, high-resolution digital-music player designed and engineered in a "no-compromise" fashion to allow consumers to experience studio master-quality digital music at the highest audio fidelity possible, bringing the true emotion and detail of the music, the way the artist recorded it, to life. It also features a convenient, easy-to-use LCD touch screen interface that is totally intuitive. The audio technology in the PonoPlayer was developed in conjunction with the engineering team at Ayre, in Boulder Colorado, a leader in world class audio technology.
PonoMusic and Ayre have collaborated their ideas to achieve their goal -- to make the power and majesty of music available to everybody. "We are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this project. We will always be grateful to Neil Young for changing the landscape of recorded music," said Charlie Hansen, CEO of Ayre Acoustics (www.ayre.com).
The PonoPlayer has 128GB of memory and can store 1000 to 2000 high-resolution digital-music albums. Memory cards can be used to store and play different playlists and additional collections of music. The PonoPlayer will be sold at PonoMusic.com for $399 MSRP and is available for pre-order at a discounted price on Kickstarter.com as of March 15th. PonoMusic recommended earbud and headphone products will also be available for purchase on PonoMusic.com.
Contacts:
PonoMusic: John Hamm / CEO, Pono Music
650-464-7766 /john@ponomusic.com
Neil Young: Rick Gershon at Warner Bros. Records
818-953-3473 / rick.gershon@wbr.com
www.ponomusic.com
www.neilyoung.com
Also, the whole Digital Rights Management (DRM) issue is no longer part of the Pono ecosystem.
As noted in comments, since the format will be 24/192, the issue of compression (to meet the device capacity and realistic download goals), implies a new compression format needing support.
Another interesting angle on the launch is that it will involve a Kickstarter fundraising campaign.
And more from Computer Audiophile Forum:
More info about Ayre's contribution to the PonoPlayer.Regardless of the hardware side, PONO will demonstrate true high resolution music. If more people become appreciative of high quality music, than both artists and consumers will benefit.
1) Ayre's custom designed and implemented digital filter. It is minimum phase, with no unnatural (digital sounding) pre-ringing. All sounds made always have reflections and/or echoes after the initial sound. There is no sound in nature that has any echo or reflection before the sound, which is what conventional linear-phase digital filters do. This is one reason that digital sound has a reputation for sounding "unnatural".
2) All circuitry is zero-feedback. Feedback can only correct an error after it has occurred, which means that it can never correct for all errors. By using proprietary ultra linear circuitry with wide bandwidth and low output impedance, there is no need for unnatural sounding feedback.
3) The DAC chip used is the ESS ES9018, widely recognized in the audio and engineering community as the best sounding DAC chip available today.
4) The output buffer used to drive the headphones is fully discrete so that all individual parameters and circuit values and parts quality can be fully optimized for the absolute finest sound quality. The output impedance is very low so that the Pono Player will deliver perfectly flat frequency response to any headphone made.
As with all things Neil, we'll just have to see how this all plays out over time. We certainly wish Neil good luck on his latest endeavor in the never ending quest for that perfect note.
Labels: neil young, pono
by thrasher@PermaLink: 3/08/2014 11:56:00 AM
46 comments
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46 Comments:
Think I want one with all Neil Young songs in the finest quality, highest-resolution digital form on it.
Maybe it's gonna be the yellow one.
well if Neil offered a pono @ that price point with all his releases pre-loaded, I might just bite. The thing is 40 yrs a Neil fan is an expensive obsession. every time he re-releases I buy the same recordings in different formats. I ain't made of money. this ATM is on E!
I also vote for the version that includes all of Neil's music.
Sorry Neil don't have money leftover from paying extra taxes for the "Green Energy Initiative” here in Ontario canada.
I will try and get a loan to pay for it
Regards
Fan since harvest
If it comes preloaded with archives 2 I'm in! (Somehow don't think so tho)
This seems kind of dumb. How can they claim higher quality when it's still compressed? Also, if it isn't compressed and is truly in the original format, then the player is pointless since traditional headphones won't be able to reproduce the "true" sound anyway.
I don't know how Compression got introduced into this discussion.
One of the big points of Pono and similar players is that they play uncompressed PCM audio.
High resolution in the best cases at 24/192, 24/176 and 24/96. NO compression of the audio files like MP3 and such.
Previously one had to purchase Blu-ray, DVD-A, HDAD another hard goods to get high rez audio.
Something like Pono makes access to audio like that portable and transportable.
Me? I'd like to learn more and look forward to seeing what they have a tSXSW this week.
Kickstarter?
Really?
I've loved Neil for almost ever, but c'mon - we're expected to share the risks with Kickstarter?
Love LPs, still love CDs and live in hope that Archives II will be released on blu, but I ain't diggin' in to Kickstarter to help millionaires get a new toy off the ground.
my math tells me that with 128 GB of space one could have about 800 songs @ 24/192 and about 1600 songs @ 24/96
Digital audio files in the most basic uncompressed format are WAV for PC, or AIFF for Mac. Think of these files as full size, taking up the necessary space to represent the audio samples of bit depth 16 bits or 24 bits times 44,100, 88,200, 96,000, 176,400, or 192,000 samples per second. Storing them this way takes the maximum amount of space. Compression is a way to make the digital audio file take up less space on the drive or memory.
Compression as it comes to digital audio can be lossy (think MP3, where data gets thrown away to make the file smaller while trying to keep the minimal info the brain needs to think its all there(phychoacoustics)), or lossless (FLAC files are an example of a way to store a digital audio file in a smaller size without throwing data away). There is an analogy in computing if you've ever used winzip to losslessy compress a big spreadsheet or something to email it to someone. You can compress it down and then uncompress it and have the exact original file back.
So lossless compression of digital audio is not a bad thing since you're not throwing data away to benefit from the reduced file size. Blu ray formats are using Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio formats which are lossless.
HDTrack.com and others sell high resolution digital downloads at 24/96 and 24/192 in FLAC or other lossless formats. This reduces the filesize to be downloaded/stored. These files are encoded in PCM format which is basically the bitdepth x sampling rate grid. Other formats like Direct Stream Digital (DSD) etc have a totally different encoding system/dimension.
Someone in the article above is making the statement that there must be some compression (lossless) algorithm associated with PONO to make the download and storing of the files realistic. I hope that it is not proprietary - FLAC is open source and works excellently and has increasing support in hardware.
Needless to say I'll be interested to see what problem PONO really solves that HDTracks and other high resolution sellers haven't already (other than having a large mainstream music library).
I don't really care for connecting PONO to my stereo through a headphone out jack. I guess a good shielded audioquest cable could keep noise down... I hope the other port (circle with arrow pointing out) is a digital output. Maybe there's a couple gold plated RCA connectors under that bottom flap by the USB port. Lets see what you've got for us Neil!
Common everyone I'm most of us have vinyl, cassettes & CDs of Neil. It's never been about how the music is delivered it's about the songs. Neil's bored with the blu ray concept which we shelved out for now we have this fad.
Just give us Archives 2 and all the unreleased stuff from 72-79.
I daresay the first listen of PONO might blow our minds - a road to Damascus moment where the scales are lifted from our... erm... ears.
But how deep is the average music-lover willing to dig for this new gadget without ever having heard it?
Wouldn't it be great if Neil got some demos of these devices out on tour this year, for fans to actually sample the new sound and decide for ourselves. Maybe a PONO demo zone next to the merch stand?
Kimball - thanks for the education. Most of that data is like calculus to me. But it's a bit easier to understand it now.
I am looking forward to testing this system. If it does what it claims it may be the start of something big. If not, well, it'll vanish as quickly as the minidisc did in the early 90's which flew as high as a swimming stone.
I can't believe Neil would be backing this if it didn't deliver the goods. He's a maniac about this, so I'm figuring it's gonna work. Like everything else, once it catches on the price will drop and the masses can get in on it. If it fails, we'll just call it Yoko Pono
I'm in for the all Neil version.
What are the dimensions? Every time I look at this triangle shaped thing I wonder, how will that fit in my pocket?
@Kimball - Thanks for all the details.
This feels like BluRay all over again. What is PONO? What's the format? What do I need? Why? I can't hear the difference. What's the value proposition, etc.
@Atom Smasher - good suggestion on the demo table. Maybe @ the LA shows?
@all - if PONO did come pre-loaded with Neil's catalog, that would seem to be a HUGE incentive. Or if deals could be made for various artist catalogs like Dylan, Bruce, Joni, etc. that would be cool.
I think it would be awesome to have a platform that emphasizes fidelity. In a generation we have gone from gorgeous, analogue vinyl records to kids listening to their music at as little as 64kbps.
I encode my own music for the internet at 320kbps, the level at which you can get a reasonable sound out of the mp3 algorithm (imo), but have no control over the itunes of this world compressing the hell out of it before offering it for sale.
I spend weeks working on each of my tracks, as I'm sure many artists do, working in a studio production environment of, say, 88,000hz and 32bits (cd audio is 44,000khz and 16bits).
CD sound, whilst trumpeted as "digitally perfect" sound, in fact represents a mauling of true hi-fidelity audio. Now, MP3 squeezes that musical data ever further.
We are in danger of coming to accept the crushed strangulation of the sound of MP3 as hi-fidelity, unless people like Young push for music platforms like this.
I'm very interested to discover more.
All tosh. Give me a mono record it really doesn't matter!
Thrasher - Regarding the questions you pose above, here's what we know so far:
1) PONO is Neil's name for a) an online store selling high-definition music (presumably 24/192), and b) a device designed to play those files at a very high level of fidelity.
2) We're not sure of the exact format yet, though it would appear some sort of lossless compression is involved given the album/song numbers that are being tossed around. And it also appears the format is non-proprietary (i.e., something like FLAC) since the release says PONO files will play on other high-res devices.
3)What you need are the high-resolution audio files (which Neil would like you to buy from him, though some are available elsewhere) and a player that can handle them (which Neil would like you to buy from him, though others are available). Oh, and you'd better have some pretty great headphones (which the PONO store also will be selling), or a sophisticated stereo system, to truly appreciate the sound quality.
4) If you can't hear the difference, PONO probably isn't worth it for you. But you might want to wait until the music/device are actually released before making that call.
@ LIFEISAMIRROR - thanks for that angle, there is a larger issue here than just a device and a format.
We're very interested to discover more, too.
@ 06:34:00 - thanks for the answers.
Good advice that folks should just wait until the launch and release before making their verdicts. Before this PR, lots of folks seemed to make all sorts of pronouncements on PONO's viability. This is only a PR and SXSW will be an actual demo so still much to be learned ... and heard.
Triangle - not a great shape for a pocket
Regarding a pre-loaded unit, it would seem that a purchase of various memory cards could provide that, maybe even with the ability to 'download' via the internet like the blue-ray feature of the Archives!. Though we know how that went....
I think what was meant here is that the PONO Music device will offer 128GB of storage not memory (RAM).
I am eager to learn more about the accessories, headphones etc. I also want to learn about PONO Music in a Linc Volt or a regular car ;)
Tuesday 3/11 at 5 pm Austin Time gets closer...
"1000 to 2000 high-resolution digital-music albums."
I don't think there are that many hi-res audio albums available yet. I can't wait to see what music we can download.
I wonder about PONO Music Cloud Edition....
Looks like a piece of Lego?
According to Computer Audiophile, the press release has been updated to say 100 to 500 albums, depending on resolution and length.
Let's see I spent $288 for a Blu ray player(because Neil Young's people aka Archive Guy said that was the way to go) in 2009 plus $300 for the Archives. Now $388 for Pono plus X amount for downloads, headphones etc. etc.. Well is this the end all or will Neil Young be moving on to something else in 2019.
@musicbuyingwearyguy - ok, so Bluray didn't quite live up to expectations.
But here's the thing. Neil's just trying to provide a better audio experience. Why hassle him about that?
Quality. Isn't that what we all want as well?
If you don't that's cool too. So just don't buy it. But at least back off until there are more details from the launch.
Did you really read WHP and the PONO chapters?
Did you read the Steve Jobs book? Only wondering if you feel wronged by Steve Jobs and his audio products?
peace
Thanks, Neil and the Pono team!
I will be buying one on day one, can't wait! I just hope the first Pono album release is a Neil Young album.
Also, thanks for making this device affordable.
Thrasher Wheat said...Did you really read WHP and the PONO chapters?
Yes ten times. Still very passionate about NY's music(and all RnR)just so wary and deeply troubled by NY's promises the last time. I really want Pono to work. Times are rough for me(as they were in '09) now so being extremely gun shy and skeptical is my mindset.
musicbuyingwearyguy - thanks and understand folks being reluctant.
Good luck and better days are ahead.
I would love one of these but do not have $400.00 to buy one. I would love to learn more about the Pono player because if its Neil Youngs then I know the quality of sound will surpass anything thats out there on the market today!!
That's not the revised release, Thrash, you've still got the old one - the new one says, "The PonoPlayer has 128GB of memory and can store from about 100 to 500 high-resolution digital-music albums, depending on the resolution and length of the original recording."
@03:09:00 - hmm. Thanks for comment. Right but not sure why this revised official PR that was distributed this AM is still incorrect?
Haven't seen the revised, revised, latest official PR.
At this point, we're just going to wait for the launch. Anyone know about a webcast?
Computer Audiophile updated their post overnight with the revised release, looks like that one sentence is the only difference:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-general-forum/neil-young-announces-launch-ponomusic-19703/
March 10, 2014 – (Santa Monica, CA.) - PonoMusic is a revolutionary movement conceived and founded by Neil Young with a mission to restore the soul of music - bringing the highest-quality digital music to discerning, passionate consumers, who hunger to hear music the way its creators 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 - not for ourselves, but for those that are moved by what music means in their lives," said Neil Young, founder and chairman of PonoMusic.
PonoMusic is a full system that includes both an online music store (PonoMusic.com) and a playback device (The PonoPlayer). The PonoPlayer offers a digital-music listening experience that transcends the limitations of a multi-function smart phone. The PonoPlayer will bring this experience to you in your home, car, or through your headphones. PonoMusic.com will offer 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 theirPonoPlayer and other high-resolution digital music devices.
"Our goal was to offer the highest quality digital music available from all the major labels and build the world’s best sounding, easy-to-use portable music player. We’ve achieved our goal and we are excited to launch our Kickstarter campaign this 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.
The PonoPlayer is a purpose-built, portable, high-resolution digital-music player designed and engineered in a "no-compromise" fashion to allow consumers to experience studio master-quality digital music at the highest audio fidelity possible, bringing to life the true emotion and detail of the music, the way the artist recorded it. It also features a convenient and simple LCD touch screen interface that is totally intuitive. The audio technology in the PonoPlayer was developed in conjunction with the engineering team at Ayre, in Boulder Colorado, a leader in digital audio technology.
PonoMusic and Ayre have collaborated to achieve a lofty goal -- to make the power and majesty of music available to everybody. “We are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this project. We will always be grateful to Neil Young for changing the landscape of recorded music," said Charlie Hansen, CEO of Ayre Acoustics. (www.ayre.com)
The PonoPlayer has 128GB of memory and can store from about 100 to 500 high-resolution digital-music albums, depending on the resolution and length of the original recording. Memory cards can be used to store and play different playlists and additional collections of music. The PonoPlayer will be sold atPonoMusic.com for $399 MSRP and is available for pre-order at a discount on Kickstarter.com as of March 12th.
Aretha Franklin - Respect Pono
Ha, ha, hell yes!
Bet the first PONO generation will come with Time Fades Away remaster. Or us ut just a dream?
NeVeR BuY A fIrSt YeAr ANYTHING!
unless you want the guinea pig treatment........
This will be worthless if the tracks are not mastered in a more dynamic way than the norm today. If not, then we'll just have hi-res, compressed audio. Some albums are mastered dynamically. Steven Wilson's recent album as a DR=15. Minimal listening fatigue, even when compressed to mp3. Rip that CD into Apple Lossless and use a fairly good set of headphones and you've got Pono.
What most don't understand is that we're looking at digital buffers, sample rate and DACs. Upped sample rates are not audible...like 24/92. Also, high end filters and DACs are already available in high end players that are $2500.
The reason SOME of the SACD issues sounded 'better' was because they were mastered more dynamically and from different sources than the standard red book version. Hi-Res is a moot point. We need better masters which sound good at 320 mp3. That would catch on and be a real alternative to what we currently have. That and maybe lossless files. Neil Young is just reinventing the wheel.
Is that a Pono in your pants? or are you just hyppy to see me?
Hey, hey, hey,
I got pono in my pants and I need to dance.
Time I dusted off my Betamax machine.
It appears the actual release date of the Pono player/online music store will be in October.
According to the info on the kickstarter page, the pono store music format is flac. And yes, flac is a form of compression, but its a lossless compression, meaning the transform used to shrink the file is completely reversible with no loss in quality. Anyway, that's all swell, but hardly revolutionary, I can buy hires flacs from HDTracks today. Flac has been my primary means of listening to music for years now. Hell, I have the bluray of archives converted to hires flac already. You don't need a pono to play 24bit flac files, your pc can do it, many bluray players and audio streaming devices support it as well. I'm sure the pono produces high quality audio, Neil would accept nothing less. But it isn't going to be magic. As an engineer who knows a thing or two about dsp, analog electronics, and audio, I can tell you the majority of everything in the "technical contributions by Ayre" section of the post is completely meaningless marketing speak.
The hype does annoy me a bit, but much like steve jobs didn't invent the mp3 but merely popularized it, perhaps there is some slim chance that pono can be for hires music what itunes was for lossy compressed music. The more popular it becomes, the better off we all are in terms of price and access to quality material.
Nate42
Hey world, I just backed a yellow one and i'm an electronic engineer as well :)
Eagerky waiting for october
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