Xstream: Neil Young’s New Streaming Service

Neil Young Keynote at DreamForce '14

As Neil Young’s self imposed 2017 sabbatical continues, we learn that innovators never sleep.

While it may appear that Pono has gone defunct, that does not seem to be the case as Neil continues to evolve the Pono product into a high-resolution  music streaming service.

From CBC.com:

"It's time to talk about Pono," the Canadian singer, musician and activist wrote in a lengthy missive that seemed to indicate an end to the online storefront — which has been offline since July 2016 — and posted to the Pono community website Thursday evening. 

"I'm still trying to make the case for bringing you the best music possible, at a reasonable price, the same message we brought to you five years ago. I don't know whether we will succeed, but it's still as important to us as it ever was."

"Our player won best digital portable product of the year from Stereophile Magazine, and we offered some of the best high-resolution content to be found anywhere. We sold tens of thousands of players, every unit that we made," he said. 

In 2016, upon the demise of Pono music store partner Omnifone, "we began work with another company to build the same download store. But the more we worked on it, the more we realized how difficult it would be to recreate what we had and how costly it was to run it," Young wrote.

"I also realized that just bringing back the store was not enough. While there was a dedicated audience, I could not in good conscience continue to justify the higher costs. When it comes to high-res, the record industry is still broken," he said, explaining that record companies charge a premium for the sale of high-res recordings.

"I believe all music should cost the same, regardless of the technology used."

He shared more details in his post, revealing that he's teamed up with Singapore firm Orastream to create "an adaptive streaming service that changes with available bandwidth" for "complete high-resolution playback." They've dubbed the service Xstream. 

"For more than eight months, I've been working with our small team to look for alternatives. Finding a way to deliver the quality music without the expense and to bring it to a larger audience has been our goal," Young said. 

"Xstream plays at the highest quality your network condition allows at that moment and adapts as the network conditions change. It's a single high-resolution bit-perfect file that essentially compresses as needed to never stop playing."

Young added that "every recording I have ever released will soon be available in Xstream high-resolution quality at my complete online archive."

Read Neil Young’s full statement on Xstream.

It’s time to talk about Pono and the initiative we all started. As you know, together we’ve been fighting a battle to bring high quality music back to the world that’s become used to mediocre, hollowed-out files. The cause seemed to be a win-win for everyone. The artists would allow their fans to hear what they hear in the studios, and the music lovers would hear the music the best it could be. This cause has been something I’ve written and talked about for over 20 years. I cared and I assumed that most of the world would care.

It’s been almost five years since we kicked off the campaign at SXSW to offer a player and download content that could fulfill my dream of bringing to you a music experience unlike any other for the cost. Thanks to our supporters on Kickstarter, the follow-on customers and some very good friends that supported the effort, we delivered on that promise. Our player won best digital portable product of the year from Stereophile Magazine, and we offered some of the best high resolution content to be found anywhere. We sold tens of thousands of players, every unit that we made. Thanks for that!

But, despite that success, I was not satisfied. I had to put up with lots of criticism for the high cost of music delivered in the way all music should be provided, at full resolution and not hollowed out. I had no control over the pricing, but I was the one that felt the criticism, because I was the face of it. And I pretty much agreed with the criticism. Music should not be priced this way.

Last year when Omnifone, our download store partner, was bought and shut down with no notice by Apple, we began work with another company to build the same download store. But the more we worked on it, the more we realized how difficult it would be to recreate what we had and how costly it was to run it: to deliver the Pono promise, meaning you’d never have to buy the same album again if was released at a higher quality; the ability to access just high res music, and not the same performances at lower quality, and the ability to do special sales. Each of these features was expensive to implement.

I also realized that just bringing back the store was not enough. While there was a dedicated audience, I could not in good conscience continue to justify the higher costs. When it comes to high res, the record industry is still broken. The industry was such that even when I wanted to remaster some of the great performances from my artist friends at high res, Pono had to pay thousands of dollars for each recording, with little expectation of getting the money back. Record companies believe they should charge a premium for high res recordings and conversely, I believe all music should cost the same, regardless of the technology used.

As you might imagine, I found it difficult to raise more money for this model: delivering quality music at a premium price to a limited audience that felt they were being taken advantage of with the high costs.

So now, sadly with Pono gone, for more than eight months I’ve been working with our small team to look for alternatives. Finding a way to deliver the quality music without the expense and to bring it to a larger audience has been our goal.

That effort has led to a technology developed by Orastream, a small company in Singapore that we’ve been working with. Together we created Xstream, the next generation of streaming, an adaptive streaming service that changes with available bandwidth. It is absolutely amazing because it is capable of complete high resolution playback. Unlike all other streaming services that are limited to playing at a single low or moderate resolution, Xstream plays at the highest quality your network condition allows at that moment and adapts as the network conditions change. It’s a single high resolution bit-perfect file that essentially compresses as needed to never stop playing. As a result, it always sounds better than the other streaming services and it never stops or buffers like other higher res services. When you play it at home with WiFi it can play all established low and high resolutions, including the highest, and thousands more levels of resolution in between. When you are in your car with poor cellular it might play better than an existing low res service, but at a location where robust wifi is available Xstream supports high resolution listening. Xstream is one file, streaming for all with 15,000 seamlessly changing levels of playback quality.

So, this is what we’ve been working on. But one of my conditions is that it should not have a premium price. I’ve insisted that there be no premium price for this service. Pono tried that with downloads and it’s not a good model for customers. And I’ve told the labels it’s not a good model for them to charge a premium for music the way it was meant to be heard. I firmly believe that music is in trouble because you can’t hear it the way it is created unless you pay a premium. No one gets to hear the real deal, so the magic of music is compromised by limited technology.

Good sounding music is not a premium. All songs should cost the same, regardless of digital resolution. Let the people decide what they want to listen to without charging them more for true quality. That way quality is not an elitist thing. If high resolution costs more, listeners will just choose the cheaper option and never hear the quality. Record companies will ultimately lose more money by not exposing the true beauty of their music to the masses. Remember, all music is created to sound great and the record labels are the one’s deciding to not offer that at the normal price. The magic of music should be presented by the stewards of that music at a normal price. Let listeners decide on the quality they want to purchase without pricing constraints.

I’ve been meeting with and speaking with the labels, potential partners such as the carriers, and other potential investors. For many it’s a difficult sell. There are already streaming services, some doing well and others not. While there’s nothing as good as Xstream, or as flexible and adaptive, it’s still proven a difficult sell for companies to invest in.

So, in my experience, today’s broken music industry continues to make major mistakes, but we are still trying. Bringing back the magic of great sound matters to the music of the world.

Thank you all very much for supporting Pono and quality audio. Thanks to everyone who is or was associated with Pono, especially the customers who supported us. Thanks to Charlie Hansen and Ayre Acoustics for the great PonoPlayer. It has been a labor of love. I want you to know that I’m still trying to make the case for bringing you the best music possible, at a reasonable price, the same message we brought to you five years ago. I don’t know whether we will succeed, but it’s still as important to us as it ever was.

Thankfully, for those of my audience who care and want to hear all the music, every recording I have ever released will soon be available in Xstream high resolution quality at my complete online archive. Check it out. We will be announcing it very soon.

Neil Young

More on Neil Young's PONO and Music Vision.

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Bob Lefsetz: Neil Young On Spotify

Neil Young on “David Letterman”: 'Pono' is Hawaiian for 'righteous'

So Neil Young has signed on with Spotify.

And what might this mean for PONO music?

Well, here's a take on this from the ever irascible Bob Lefsetz. Over the years, we've paid attention to Bob Lefsetz,fwiw. As folks may know, Lefsetz is quite an opinionated music business guy making all sorts of accurate and inaccurate prognostications.

For example, here's Lefsetz on Neil Young's interview on Howard Stern Show at "He was definitely not like anybody else".

And here's Bob Lefsetz on Neil Young's music being available now on Spotify:

Bob Lefsetz: Neil Young On Spotify

spoti.fi/2eHTA4Q

They all come back to the garden.

Let this be a lesson to those holding out, the streaming deniers, this is now, this is happening, get on the gravy train or be left behind.

It always happens.

Do you remember when acts wouldn't let their albums be released on CD? Hell, you still can't get that Buckingham/Nicks LP, the one on Polydor, with "Crying In The Night," it's arguably better than anything the duo has done since.

...

Everybody's so busy bitching about bread but when someone comes up with a fan-friendly way to make more they avoid it.

Pono was not fan-friendly. Its Toblerone box fit in no pocket and most people could not hear the difference. Hell, I A/B'ed it with Deezer Elite and my friends said the latter sounded better, there you have it. As for me... My house is loaded with stereo equipment but my listening device of choice right now is my cylindrical Amazon Echo speaker. Funny what we'll put up with in the name of convenience. I can't wait until Sonos goes voice-activated and my zones come alive.

I've been demonstrating the power of streaming services and Sonos for years, people didn't believe it existed, that the history of recorded music was at your fingertips. People still don't know how streaming works, seemingly every day someone e-mails me that they don't want to pay for data, what happens if they're out of cell range, when the truth is you can download thousands of tracks to your device and do it via wi-fi, but people don't want solutions, the early adopters start to rave and eventually it trickles down to the stuck in the mud Luddites.

Like those who lined up to embrace Pono.

First and foremost... Neil Young does not have 10,000 hours in device development, he doesn't know how to market electronic equipment. Why does everybody believe they can do everything? The truth is most people heard "Heart Of Gold" on systems so lame the Echo is probably superior in sound quality. Why penalize your fans? And, if you want to embrace higher quality audio, why not laud Deezer Elite? And Tidal? And implore Spotify and Apple and Amazon to offer a higher res option? You make much more progress inside the system, just ask the recently departed Tom Hayden. Then again, he never truly realized compromise was the key to forward movement.

Like Clayton Christensen says... The disruptive service starts off with low quality and then gets good enough to topple the standard. That's how MP3s beat CDs. It's how streaming is beating files. Get on board, it only gets better.

As for Neil... He gets tons of press but no sales, little listenership. What he needs to do is come out with one transformative track and then he could be king once again. Never mind "Ohio," which was written, recorded, pressed and shipped mere days after the Kent State tragedy, but there's the whole "Rust Never Sleeps" LP, which made him a hero amongst the grunge set, gave his career new legs. Neil, forget the albums, forget the concepts, just give us one good track, it's the streaming way, you were the breakout star of Oldchella, let the wind carry your new music into our consciousness.

No one is bigger than the system, you either join in or are left behind.

And speaking of Oldchella, I was stunned how many people didn't know that Neil was still this good, and that he even hit one over the fence in this century, with "Greendale," I loved that, both the album and tour, although the movie is irrelevant.

So, in honor of Neil making the move I'm gonna give you a playlist.

We're gonna start off with "Emperor Of Wyoming," from his solo debut. You won't even know it's him, this is a gem. And from the same record, arguably his best, I'm gonna include "I've Been Waiting For You," FOR SUCH A LONG TIME, it's my favorite of Neil's work, and "The Loner" and "The Last Trip To Tulsa"... The last...if you're under fifty you've probably never heard it, and you should, to see how artists used to test limits.

And from the second album I'm gonna include "Down By The River," its highlight. This was the solo record I bought first, I used to play this song on the guitar. Oh, what the hell, I'll include "Cinnamon Girl" and "Cowgirl In The Sand" too.

And from the third LP, the commercial breakthrough, "After The Gold Rush," I'll start with "Southern Man," so you know what Ronnie Van Zant was reacting to. And then my personal favorite, "Don't Let It Bring You Down," the rocking "When You Dance, I Can Really Love," and the two snippets, ""Till The Morning Comes," which I used to play with my freshman roommate, he on trombone, me on guitar, and "Cripple Creek Ferry."

"After The Gold Rush" is better than "Harvest," but the latter was the high point of Neil's career, it made him a dorm room staple. My favorite was "Are You Ready For The Country?," but I'll include "Heart Of Gold," "Old Man," "Alabama" and "A Man Needs A Maid," the last to show you how sensibilities have changed, and to demonstrate the earnestness once evidenced in music.

Unfortunately I don't see "Time Fades Away" on Spotify, the live album wherein Neil went on tour and all those expecting to hear country ditties, soft music, were barraged with rock and roll, previously unreleased material. Neil intentionally destroyed his career, to give himself artistic freedom, can you imagine anyone doing that today?

"Walk On" from "On The Beach," the 1974 album released right after I graduated from college, when Neil was finally free and could do whatever he wanted and only the hard core cared.

And then we come to "Tonight's The Night"...

"Bruce Berry was a working man
He used to load that Econoline van"

He was a roadie, he was Jan Berry's brother, of Jan and Dean fame. Neil had experienced too much death and wrote about it.

"Zuma" is not on Spotify, so you can't hear its highlight "Cortez The Killer," but as a special treat I'm gonna include Gov't Mule's version, which is special in its own way, if you know the original it will put a smile on your face.

But 1977's "American Stars 'N Bars" is up, so I'll include its legendary highlight, "Like A Hurricane."

And that brings us to 1978's "Comes A Time," wherein Neil tried to recapture the magic and go back to that country/"Harvest" sound, even though the looky-loos did not come back to him. I'm including the title cut, "Lotta Love," a hit for the dearly departed Nicolette Larson, and my personal favorite, "Look Out For My Love." Also, I'm going to include the even better cover of "Look Out For My Love" by Linda Ronstadt from her 1980 "New Wave" album "Mad Love."

And then comes "Rust Never Sleeps," with "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)" and "Powderfinger." And if you care, and you should, be sure to check out the double live album "Live Rust," the soundtrack to one of the great rock movies of all time, which was distributed with surround sound before that was de rigueur.

I'm gonna skip "Hawks & Doves" and "Re-ac-tor," but I am including "Sample And Hold" from "Trans," am I the only one who liked this album? Then again, I loved Kraftwerk's "Computer World."

Now we're gonna jump to "This Note's For You." Neil had this one right, with his anti-commercialism, the clip won MTV's Video of the Year award, despite getting scant airplay from the music video channel, and to show how little that award means, no one remembers he won it, but people do remember Neil stood up against selling out.

And then Neil tried to recapture the "Harvest" magic with "Harvest Moon," but Don Henley had it right, you can never go back, the tracks were not as magical, but I'm gonna include "You And Me" nonetheless, it's haunting.

And that brings us to "Greendale." Of course I skipped a bunch, not that they're worthless, although they do tend to run together, even though I own them all and played them. Anyway, "Greendale"'s got a story, but I'm gonna put the songs in order of accessibility, "Sun Green," "Double E" and "Devil's Sidewalk."

And there you have it, we're bringing Neil Young's music back alive, most people did not own it, most people didn't own much, but now it's accessible, now his legend can shine on, as it deserves to do.

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Visit the archive: lefsetz.com/wordpress/
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More of Bob Lefsetz on The Significance of The Buffalo Springfield Reunion: The Lefsetz Letter .

Also, see PRESS RELEASE: PONO Launch @ SXSW by Neil Young.

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Neil Young Launches PONO in Canada: "Canada is back"

Neil Young - Vancouver, Nov. 23, 2015
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
(Click photo to enlarge)Neil Young held a press conference in Vancouver, B.C., on Monday November 23, 2015 for the Canadian launch of the PonoMusic service.

Young said he doesn’t care if PONO is a “gigantic, fast-moving, super-success,” his mission is simply aimed at generating a resurgence in high-quality music. "The whole mission of this is a labour of love, and we've been banging against a lot of walls with this," he said. "But we're persisting because we have something that is going to endure. Music deserves to be preserved."

Zeke Young, Neil's 43-year-old son, who also works for PonoMusic, said he sees no signs that his father is slowing down as a musician, businessman or activist. "Nope," he chuckled. "He just doesn't stop."

The junior Young said his father's influence extends beyond his fans.

"He has a passion for trying to do better things for the planet and for families," Zeke Young said. "That's what keeps him going. And of course, music."

From The Canadian Press by Tamsyn Burgmann:

Neil Young has declared that "Canada is back" now that a Liberal government has taken charge in Ottawa.

"I'm very happy," said the 70-year-old Canadian who has lived in California for years.

The singer-songwriter was in Vancouver on Monday to debut his high-resolution audio player and online store, under the PonoMusic brand, in Canada.

Young said he's received many emails and phone calls from Canadian friends revelling in the new government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"Obviously people are delighted with the change that has taken place. It's very positive news."

He wished the newly minted cabinet well on the same day provincial premiers were meeting in Ottawa to discuss a national strategy on climate change, an issue he has also championed.

He said he's hopeful officials will take different action than the former Conservative government, but then said corporations have more money and power than governments.

"So really, it's up to the people to take the situation into their own hands," he said, explaining that consumers have buying power and can change the world through their habits.

"The politicians really don't have the power to change the world."

Young has been a long-time environmental crusader and stirred controversy last year when he used his celebrity status to amplify opposition to Alberta's oilsands.

He held a cross-country tour to get Canadians talking about First Nation treaty and environmental issues. Young later partnered with environmentalist David Suzuki and spoke out against oil pipelines.

Young reflected with optimism on Alberta's new carbon tax introduced by Premier Rachel Notley. On Sunday, Notley announced the province will also phase out coal-fired power plans and cap emissions from the oil sands.

"The carbon tax is capitalism working," Young said, heralding it as a mechanism for slowing down the release of carbon into the atmosphere.

"Anything that does that is a good thing."

The tax is also a good test for the public to see if the government has enough strength and sway to overcome the corporations he believes controls them, he added.

Of course, be sure to read the comments in the Canadian Press, as fellow Canadians bash Neil Young for having an opinion.

Funny thing is how so many of the comments make the case of "who cares what Neil thinks!" while missing the irony therein.

A somewhat typical tweet passing as deep analysis on the internets...

Does anyone actually give a shit to what Neil Young thinks? no? Didn't think so

— Morgan (@Morgo_82) November 24, 2015

Little do folks like Morgan realize how this sort of ridicule actually validate Neil Young's point and diminish his critics as nothing more than petulant 10 year olds.

Neil Young can take his 1940's homeless guy look and fuck right off https://t.co/RzRgfcNegp

— Joe (@Levi_Pride) November 24, 2015

The anger and fear over Neil Young's positions continues to demonstrate his long held proposition of "speaking truth to power" regardless of the consequences.

@nppolitics Neil Young is a bumbling fool who doesn't speak for anyone cept those that pay him.

— Mike Kirkwood (@MikeKirkwood4) November 24, 2015

As our friends might say: How could people get so unkind? Really?

More on PONO Music and tar sands and honoring the treaties.

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An Open Letter to Neil Young on Streaming | The Daily Rind

Neil Young
Keynote at DreamForce '14

Earlier this summer, Neil Young announced that he will no longer allow his music to be streamed.

There's been quite a reaction since the announcement, as the battle over the fundamental question of whether audio quality really matters (and can be heard) rages on. We thought the question had been settled centuries ago, but apparently not.

For example, here is an "An Open Letter to Neil Young on Streaming" from The Daily Rind by Dan Griffiths:  

To Mr. Young (or may I call you Neil?),

I have been a big fan of your music for years. I listen to you at home, at work, walking the streets of London, at friends’ houses and on my daily commute. But you recently removed all of your work from music streaming services and I wanted to point out why I think that was a bad move.

I’m aware your main issue with Spotify, Apple Music and other popular streaming services is that the quality in which the audio is broadcast is not of a standard that you feel represents your music fairly. As your music is available on MP3, CD and vinyl I’m going to presume that you consider these formats of a suitable standard. The majority of platforms available may not yet present audio to this quality, but I would argue that the average consumer generally does not care or simply can’t tell the difference. To demonstrate this I have included a video below in which some of the most popular streaming services were tested.

The test above actually includes Jay Z’s Tidal service that offers a premium lossless streaming tier, which is the same quality as a CD (at 1411 kbps). As you have seen in the video, nobody in the test can tell the difference.

What slightly upsets me about why you removed your music from streaming services is that your career to date has largely been about pushing boundaries. Your music was always very forward-thinking and ahead of its time. Your digital service Pono was a very interesting idea, even if it only spoke to a very select number of audiophiles. That’s what I love about you and your music, you have always been about evolution, and that’s why I think removing your music from streaming services was a bad move.

If you look back over the course of time and formats that have succeeded within music, the only thing that has remained true is convenience to the fan/consumer. Think about it, vinyl < cassette < CD < download < stream. As much as we would like to believe the mass consumer wants high quality audio, they don’t. I myself often find this hard to believe, but then again, I’m also not an average music consumer.

I buy almost all of my music on vinyl. I have three copies of your album Harvest — one on CD and two copies on vinyl. I think it’s that good! Up until recently I was also streaming that album (among others you have released) at work via my Spotify account. But since you removed it from the streaming service I have not been able to enjoy it at work. You have aggravated me as a fan but have also cannibalised a means of income for yourself.

But like I said, I’m not a typical music consumer and it can be hard to separate yourself from that mindset. The average music consumer simply won’t listen to any artist’s music via three different means of consumption and typically only has one preferred format. You have therefore alienated a specific type of listener, and future listeners, of your music.

What’s great about streaming platforms is that sharing is very much encouraged. The need to communicate is ingrained in human existence. If I find some music I love, I want to share it with friends. I can’t help myself! Streaming services help me achieve this with relative ease. So by not being on these services, you are also losing the ability for your music to reach new ears by the most organic means possible, word-of-mouth.

I respect your right as an artist to do whatever you like with your music; it’s your art. But the fact of the matter is that it’s my right as a paying consumer to listen to your music however I like! You can’t stop me from compressing an MP3 that I have paid for to a low bitrate and adding it to my phone (because I’m running short of space on the device and want to listen to more of your records), so why would you get protective about the audio quality of streaming services when very few can tell the difference?

You can’t change human intuition and you can’t stop evolution so why not come and ride the wave with me?

Thanks for listening and I hope to catch you when you are next on tour again in the UK (who knows, by then I may own my 4th copy of Harvest).

Dan Griffiths

For more writing by Dan Griffiths please visit musicvstech.com.

Lot's good points Dan. Let us know if you hear back from Neil and/or his PONO Team. We're all ears here at TW!

Like you, we're "not a typical music consumer"... thank goodness. :)

Lastly, we want to say thanks Dan for the "tone" of your letter. It's so nice to read a thoughtful, heartfelt, reasoned letter about a perceived injustice. Your politeness and respectfulness are truly commendable.

Maybe if more folks took the time to write a well reasoned letter to their friends and families, they would feel much better about their cause?

In contrast, to the rants and raves that so many make about every large and small injustice in the world. Rather than just shrieking anonymously into the vast internet echo chamber where no one listens there are only merely howls all along the watchtower. And the hour is getting late...

" It's a bad day to do nothin'"
~~"A New Day For Love" by Neil Young

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"Pono is a labor of love." - Neil Young's Facebook Posting

Pono is a labor of love. Not just for me, for everyone in and around our small company, producing Ponomusic players and...

Posted by Neil Young on Wednesday, August 19, 2015

“Music matters and sound matters. Not just any music or any sound. It needs to have all of its resonance, all of its echo, all of its soul and you can’t get it from downgraded super compressed files which are so ubiquitous today,” writes Neil Young on his latest Facebook posting.

“It has not been easy but we are doing what we love to do: making music sound GREAT,” Neil says.

But PONO is still looking for a leader.... “We want to spread Pono around the world and provide you all with music to fill your hearts and minds.”

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Neil Young's Pono Coming to Tesla & Lincoln Continental Cars | Digital Trends

Tesla Roadster 2.5

Well, when we started blogging on TW way back when, we never imagined that we would veer into such esoteric topics as hybrid car technology or Tar Sands or pristine audio or GMO's or whatever Neil's passion of the moment might be.

So once again, here we go with a post that doesn't exactly target the typical TW reader/Neil Young fan (however you may define that aside). That is unless you're in the market for a car with a MSRP of $109,000 or so.

The latest automotive news is that Neil Young's Pono is coming to future Tesla and Lincoln Continental cars via Digital Trends By Nick Jaynes:

Harman has been working to create eerily quiet cabins by installing its sound-cancelling technology into cars. With this revelation, we now know it’s working to do more than alleviate road-caused white noise. It also wants to fill your cabin with high-def music as well.

Perhaps most interesting, though, is the idea that the PonoPlayer’s hi-res music will go hand in hand with Harman’s noise cancelling tech, not only giving users a silent ride, but a cabin that is specifically enhanced to allow the driver to enjoy the precise detail and greater dynamic range afforded by hi-res music. We can only hope the rest of the system components will be up to snuff as well.

While we’re simply speculating at this point, we can imagine that Harman will install Pono’s high-def audio hardware into its in-car sound systems. Together with onboard LTE Wi-Fi, we can imagine owners will also be able to download tracks from the Pono music store directly to their car.

More on Neil Young's PONO and quest for the perfect note.

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Neil Young ORS 1 - 14: RELEASE DATE - Dec 23, 2014

In what can only be considered momentous Neil Young news, the release of the Neil Young Original Releases Series 1 - 14 has been announced.

From the Pono Community forum, comes word that Neil Young's first 14* catalog albums are due to be released on Dec 23, 2014 as digital downloads through the Pono Store at resolutions of either 24/176.4 or 24/192. This is a vast improvement from some of the current download quality of 96kHz/24bit.

Neil Young [PONO] {192/24bit}
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere [PONO] {192kHz/24bit}
After The Gold Rush [PONO] {192/24bit}
Harvest [PONO] {192kHz/24bit}
Time Fades Away [PONO] {192/24bit}
On The Beach [PONO] {176.4kHz} {24bit}
Tonight's The Night [PONO] {192/24bit}
Zuma [PONO] {192/24bit}
American Stars 'N Bars [PONO] {176.4k/24bit}
Comes A Time [PONO] {192/24bit}
Rust Never Sleeps [PONO] {192/24bit}
Live Rust [PONO] {192/24bit}
Hawks & Doves [PONO] {176.4/24bit}
re-ac-tor [PONO] {176.4kHz/24bit}

*As noted, many of these albums have not been digitally remastered since the original Warner CD editions issued in the 80's. More on Steve Hoffman Forums. (Thanks HoundsThatHowell!)

Neil Young Keynote at DreamForce '14

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VIDEO: Neil Young signing posters for PONO backers

Neil Young

Here's a fun little video of Neil Young signing posters for PONO backers.

The newly named PONO CEO is seen busily autographing posters in assembly line fashion. The video is on Pono Music | Kickstarter:

We are shipping posters this week, as Neil was on tour and we were faced with delays. We appreciate your patience and continued support. For making you wait a little longer, we thought we could share a video you might get a kick out of.

For those of you that doubted Neil would sign every single poster, here is proof that he did. Enjoy his wise words, too:

"When I first came up with the name Pono, people said, You can't do that! People are gonna think it's porno! I said, These people know the difference between music and pornography!"

Yes, we are sure you do.

Have a lovely weekend.

It's a real behind the scenes moment with Neil freestyling away in all of his ragged glory.

Full post and video at Pono Music | Kickstarter.

ps - be sure to look for the "Golden Poster/Ticket". ;)

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Pono Team Update - July 2014: Player Progress

Testing PonoPlayers for extreme temperatures

An update from the Pono Team - July 2014 on equipment testing:

Player Progress

Over the past six weeks we’ve built over 100 PonoPlayers in the US and in China that incorporate the Ayre audio design. This design uses discrete components rather than off the shelf Integrated Circuits for the amplification stage after the DAC (Digital-to-Analog Convertor). Charles Hansen, founder of Ayre, likes to compare the use of discrete components to baking a cake from scratch versus using a Betty Crocker cake mix.


The use of more than 100 additional components has provided a challenge to fit everything on the circuit board, but with a monumental effort from our Semaphore engineers, we managed to do just that in record time. We are using these units to run a gamut of testing including physical and audio.

One physical requirement we wanted is for the PonoPlayer to survive a 1-meter drop onto a wood floor on all five sides and 6 corners. Unfortunately we didn't quite achieve this in the first set of tests. We went back to our mechanical engineers at Lime Lab, who have made some changes to the mechanical enclosure. In tests just conducted we now survive the 1-meter drop. We don’t believe any of you will ever drop your PonoPlayer from 3 feet on to a hard surface, but we are engineering the case that way regardless!


We have conducted our preliminary EMI (electromagnetic interference) and ESD (electronic static discharge) tests that need to satisfy the regulatory authorities including FCC and CE. With a few changes that we will implement, we expect our design to pass when we test with production-level models.


Audio experts that include Charles Hansen, Neil Young, Bruce Botnick and others have analyzed the audio quality through listening tests. Based on theirs and our extensive listening testing, we have achieved a level of performance that is everything we have hoped for.
Bruce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Botnick) conducted his own tests and reported the following:
In my mixing studio, I listen to the best sound every day from Analog to the highest Digital sampling and highest bit rates.


My tests were to take a 30 ips NAB Analog 2 track stereo master and transfer it from a ATR-104 Analog tape recorder with Aria Class A electronics to Digital at 192k/24 bit ProTools XI • HDX, using Ayre and Black Lion professional A/D and D/A convertors.


The first process is to convert the 192k/24 bit WAV music files to 192k/24 bit FLAC and then convert the FLAC music files back to WAV and back into the Pro Tools session.


The second test is to stack the WAV and FLAC music files in Pro Tools, with one format out of phase and see if there is full bit for bit cancelation and the round trip is 100% accurate. There was full bit- for-bit cancellation.


The third step is to play both the WAV and FLAC music program against the original 30 ips NAB Analog 2 track stereo master and do a blind listen for differences in the sonic landscape between formats. That test was superb in that the listeners couldn’t tell which format they were listening to. For the final process we did the previous test, this time against the PONO player. The blind tests were amazing, as again the folks listening couldn’t tell which was which.


Charles Hansen’s no compromise analog circuitry for the PonoPlayer is open with beautifully accurate musical reproduction, excellent imagery with accurate room tone and reverb, true HiFi reproduction without compromise.
 
Charles Hanson has listened to ten players and he found the performance to be comparable to his own products that cost thousands of dollars.

Neil Young
PONO Launch @ SXSW

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PONO Update #30 - May 28, 2014 Pono Team's Progress - For backers only

Laser etching Limited Edition PONO player
(Click photo to enlarge)
A new update has been posted on Pono Team's Progress - Kickstarter, along with cool little videos of progress including the laser etching of Limited Edition PONO player, production electronics and more.

Here's the backers only update:

Pono Team's Progress - June 2014

First we want to thank all of you, again, for your tremendous support in our hugely successful Kickstarter campaign. We’ve been overwhelmed by your enthusiasm and reception of Pono. We know many of you have been spreading the word about Pono and we truly appreciate it. In fact, there have been hundreds of requests from those that missed the Kickstarter deadline. For those of you with any payment problems or special requests, contact us at support@ponomusic.com. Please give us a few days to get back to you due to the large volume of emails. We’re working diligently to reduce the backlog.

We are making great progress on the development of the new and improved PonoPlayer (the one you pledged for), as well as the on-line store, the content delivery system, and the desktop media center application. We have established a number of key partnerships to help us expedite our development process.

We are proud to announce that we have reached a strategic partnership with JRiver (www.jriver.com
), who will be providing us with a Pono-branded version of their world-class desktop media center software. This software will be similar to the iTunes® desktop app in that it will allow you to manage your music, create playlists, sync your music to your PonoPlayer, access the PonoMusic store, purchase & download music to your desktop, do player firmware updates, etc.

We are also thrilled to announce our partnership with CloudCraze (www.cloudcraze.com ), an eCommerce platform that runs natively on the salesforce1® platform; as well as our partnership with SalesForce.com where the PonoMusic store will be hosted. We are using the CloudCraze/salesforce1® platform to develop a world-class social music store. We expect to have our PonoPlayer pre-order store (for post-Kickstarter pre-orders of PonoPlayers and some accessories) up and running in mid-to-late June. We will be automatically creating user accounts on our store for each of our Kickstarter supporters. Look for an email notification in June once your account is set up. You will need to login and ensure that we have your correct contact information and billing address.

Lastly, we are days away from finalizing a partnership with a world-class content delivery partner who has great expertise in the content management and quality management issues near and dear to us at PonoMusic. We will notify you once our partnership is finalized and let you know why we are so excited about this partnership. We have also begun the work with the major music labels in order to have the PonoMusic store on line with a very large, relevant and interesting content catalog by October. Stay tuned for more news on this front. This work will be on-going at Pono as we will continue to add content to the PonoMusic.com store every day after the launch.

Last but not least, we are excited to announce that Bruce Botnick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Botnick ) has joined the PonoMusic leadership team. He is a legendary audio engineer and record producer known for his work with the Doors, Love, Buffalo Springfield, the Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye, and many other artists. Also, on Bruce's list of credits are numerous motion pictures including the Star Trek movies (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0098567/ ). Bruce is responsible for establishing our content strategy and ensuring that we provide you the highest quality version of each recording sold in our music store. Bruce recently shared with the team the following graphic, which captures the state of modern recording today and depicts his motivation for joining Pono to help us save music from the lossy formats such as MP3.

State of Modern Music Recording

As for the PonoPlayers, we’ve built our first batch of new circuit boards incorporating the Ayre audio electronics and are beginning to build dozens of PonoPlayers in both California and in Shenzhen. These units will be used for testing everything from audio performance to the durability of the player. We will be exercising every function of the player thousands of times and are building testers to do some of this automatically.

Our very first board went to Charlie Hansen, founder of Ayre Acoustics, and he was ecstatic with the results of his design. Ayre has designed our audio system electronics in the PonoPlayer using the same principles used on his company’s amplifiers, DACs, and preamplifiers that are revered in the challenging world of audiophile standards. These products are famous for the use of discreet components (rather than off the shelf ICs), fully-balanced circuitry and a zero feedback design. The PonoPlayer project is the first time in history that technology of this caliber has been designed and built into a portable device. And from our listening experience, the results are spectacular and well worth the effort. We are grateful to Charlie and his team. This is all part of the Pono commitment to bring you an unmatched audio experience in a hand-held device.

Several of us recently returned from Shenzhen, China, where our terrific team at PCH is hard at work in preparing for several successive product builds, as well as testing and manufacturing process improvements. We visited several of the factories that will supply parts for the player and the factory that will be doing the final assembly and testing. We also visited the labs where we are still working to perfect the finishing and laser etching on the Limited Edition players.

Many of you have inquired about the types of PonoPlayers that will be available once we fulfill our Kickstarter commitments. We are currently planning to offer four models: yellow and black with a soft touch finish, each retailing for $399, a version finished in brushed chrome at $499, and a clear model at $499. The latter two models will likely include some special packaging and accessories.

To those of you that have asked about headphones, we are working on several offerings that we are very excited about. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to experience the flawless sound from Pono soundtracks, and do so at an affordable price. We also will be testing headphones from many of the major manufacturers and posting our recommendations on our site in a few months.

We will soon be moving into our offices located in the Potrero Hill area of San Francisco (see pics below). Finally, the team will all be located together. For those of you that pledged for t-shirts and posters, they will go out in June as promised. Lastly, we are on schedule to meet our Kickstarter commitments to deliver players beginning in October. We will continue to provide updates as we move closer.

Pono Team Planning the Layout of New Office

Pono Team Using Every Opportunity to Work Towards October Delivery!
We thank you for your support and patience as we work on bringing you the best Hi-Res music experience by October.

Thanks for update and Good Luck PONO team!

PONO Team @ SXSW, Austin, TX - 3/11/14
(Click photo to enlarge)

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PONO Now 3rd highest Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign Of All Time

PONO Reaches #3 Top Campaign
Kickstarter Campaigns
(Click photo to enlarge)   Neil Young’s PONO Music Kickstarter campaign has become the 3rd highest Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign of all time.

PONO moved ahead of Veronica Mars with 5 days left in their funding project. PONO has now raised over $6,000,000 from over 17,000 backers. Congratulations PONO Team!

From the PONO Team:

Pono means righteous. It is a Hawaiian word, the one, the pureness. On behalf of Pono, we thank you for helping us give music a voice. You have helped to set the stage for a revolution in music listening. Finally, quality enters the listening space so that we can all hear and feel what the artists created, the way they heard and felt it.

This is done when the artist makes the best available, wanting to share it with you. It happens when the artist lets you hear and feel more than what is on your CD or MP3 of any song. CDs and MP3s are derived from the original masters, and now, with the PonoPlayer, you can finally feel the master in all its glory, in its native resolution, CD quality or higher, the way the artist made it, exactly. That’s the beauty of Pono.

It’s been a long time coming. It was not easy getting this far, but you made it happen by supporting Pono’s vision for better listening. We have been working with the labels, with the artists and producers, and we will continue to do that. We go to the source to find the best and bring it to you. Pono wants to preserve the history of music, in all of its beauty and expression, for all time. Forever.

There is a way to do this right, and we are going to do it. We will be sharing how we will do this with you over the next few months, while we build your first ever PonoPlayers. We are going to do some revolutionary things. We will make music available in a way that has never been done, a way that allows for constantly attaining the best listening experience.

Thank you to the artists, the recording companies, big and small, and most of all, thanks to you music lovers for making this happen with your amazing support.

Thanks for listening,

Neil Young & the PonoMusic team.

From Neil Young's Long Fight to Restore the Quality of Music by Seth Fiegerman:

The goal of the campaign wasn't to raise funds but rather to raise awareness by introducing the idea to a broader audience. Hamm says the company did quietly raise funding through traditional means to finance getting the player to prototype stage as well as setting up contracts with the major record labels. PonoMusic had been in talks with about 10 parties for a followup funding round, but he says "they probably wouldn't have been deals we would have liked at that point." Following the success of the Kickstarter campaign, the company is seeing more investor interest. The plan is to do an equity financing round in May or June.

The next step for PonoMusic will be to make good on delivering pre-ordered devices starting in October as well as to build up its content library of high-quality tracks provided by the major and independent labels. Beyond that, the company is evaluating whether and how to innovate with home stereo systems to car systems. The team argues that the Kickstarter campaign is validation that there is a market for high-quality music beyond just a handful of audiophiles.

"I'm gratified by the amount of pledges that we've had," Young says. "It's going to be challenging for us to keep up with the demand for Pono now that we have the ball rolling, but we will do it."

Neil Young
PONO Launch @ SXSW - March 11, 2014
Image: Dustin Finkelstein/Getty Images Entertainment
(Click photo to enlarge)

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Neil Young Wants You To Truly Hear Music | NPR

A video interview with Neil Young on PONO on All Songs Considered : NPR by Bob Boilen.

In the interview, Neil Young continues to press his case about being able to truly hear the music.

Also, here's a summary of PONO coverage:

Interview With Neil Young on PONO | Computer Audio...

Comments of the Moment: Audiophiles' Thinking and ...

Neil Young Shares Thoughts on Where Music's Headin...

Audiophiles' Thinking and Neil Young's PONO

PONO Launches @ SXSW with Neil Young: Kickstarter ...

TODAY: PONO Launch @ SXSW by Neil Young

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Comments of the Moment: Audiophiles' Thinking and Neil Young's PONO

PONO on KickStarter
A very impressive launch for Neil Young's PONO on KickStarter campaign page at the SXSW Conference in Austin, TX last week.

And with it, lots of good discussion on the merits of quality music and the viability of PONO here on Neil Young News: Audiophiles' Thinking and Neil Young's PONO. Some selected comments follow.

Blogger Harm said...

With all due respect, but I don't believe in PONO if PONO just means 24 bit, 192 kHz.

In that case there is no difference between Blu-Ray audio and PONO except the fact that it's portable. If that's the whole idea, to make Blu-Ray quality audio portable, then it might stand a chance.

However, anyone that's saying that 24/192 is a huge difference with respect to 16/44.1 is being mislead, or just doesn't know anything about how the Nyquist Sampling theorem works.

The problem with many CDs (loudness war apart) is that they haven't been mastered properly. CDs are a different medium than vinyl, so they require different mastering that benefits the CD. There is no reason why a CD shouldn't sound better than an LP. If you compare the remastered versions of EKTIN and the original LP, the CD sounds way better.

So if PONO means better mastering (I'm assuming Neil uses the same masters for PONO as he did for NYA) combined with a better DAC, than that's enough. No need for 24/192, as 192kHz digital music files offer no benefits. They're not quite neutral either; practical fidelity is slightly worse. The ultrasonics are a liability during playback.

From http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

Neither audio transducers nor power amplifiers are free of distortion, and distortion tends to increase rapidly at the lowest and highest frequencies. If the same transducer reproduces ultrasonics along with audible content, any nonlinearity will shift some of the ultrasonic content down into the audible range as an uncontrolled spray of intermodulation distortion products covering the entire audible spectrum. Nonlinearity in a power amplifier will produce the same effect. The effect is very slight, but listening tests have confirmed that both effects can be audible.

The clip that shows a number of musician rave wbout an new revolution is kind of misleading. First of all, are they listeing to the same recording, but a different sampling rate, or do the versions (MP3, CD and PONO) have different mastering too? This isn't mentioned in the clip.

If Neil would use the PONO files at 24/192 and downsamples to 16/44.1 and do an ABX test (double blind) I am 100% sure that when using the same DAC and speaker set up, at the exact same volume no-one would be able to tell the difference between 24/192 and the 16/44.1.

Untill that double blind test happens (which is a whole lot different than a 2 minute trip in the LincVolt), I'm unconvinced. Sorry folks, do your homework before spending 400 bucks.

To which we said:

Thrasher Wheat said...

@Harm - Thank you for that detailed analysis. Clearly, you have some serious technical knowledge and understanding of digital audio.

While we can't dispute what you've said or debate the merits of your points, can we ask you this in all due respect?

What would you suggest for the average music fan who wants a better experience but isn't technically savvy? That seems to be the market that PONO is aiming at.

Is there really a better, cheaper and *simpler* solution than PONO?

To which Harm replied:

Thrasher, for portable audio, no. But 24/192 is just a waste of space. 16/44.1 or even 24/48 will suffice. As I said before, a double blind test to see if people hear the difference between 24/192 amd 16/44.1 would be interesting. No previous test has shown that people do.

For home enjoyment, there are better options. They're called CDs. I did some further reading and most PONO releases won't be remastered, not in the traditional sense anyway, but just re-digitized to 24/192. In that case the same argument holds as stated above. The PONO Player is only a minor improvement on user convenience with respect to CDs. If there would be an iPOD like docking station that would allow you to operate the PONO player from your sofa using your receiver's remote, that'd be nice, THEN it could beat CDs. Not in terms of sound quality, it can only equal that, but convenience.

If a future version of PONO would be Spotify-like subscription, complete with a dedicated device that would also allow for other streaming possibilities, such as Netflix, with the same DAC as the PONOPlayer has, you got a real winner.

So far, all the advertising has been about resolution (i.e. 24/192) and the DAC. I say, lose the 24/192, keep the DAC, spend some time on mastering stuff right and problem solved. 24/192 isn't the answer.

By the way, did you know that new EKTIN remaster actually has less dynamic range than the 1990 CD?

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=&album=everybody+knows+this+is+nowhere

Same goes for Harvest:

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=neil+young&album=harvest

I'll tell ya, if any current vinyl release has a better dynamic range than a CD, it's inherent to the mastering, NOT the medium.

So thank you Harm for the detailed replies.

Seems like some good suggestions. It does seem like the PONO project has been a moving target which has evolved with feedback from industry, etc.

Who knows? Maybe PONO will still evolve before final release in Fall?

And, no, we didn't realize the differences between the re-masters.

Another word on the PONO subject here on Why Neil Young’s PonoMusic might actually be amazing | Econsultancy by Christopher Ratcliff:

Neil Young should be applauded for taking a stand against the stranglehold which companies like iTunes have over our digital music enjoyment.

I’ve just spent the last couple of weeks writing a series of articles called Death to iTunes where I’ve tried to find a better alternative. It’s harder than you may think. At least with PonoMusic there is a better alternative for sound quality.

In regard to the arguments about the negligible improvements in sound quality in terms of bigger files, these are missing the point. PonoMusic is about preserving the integrity of the original recordings. All of the extra information that is lost in studio recordings after being compressed to MP3, will be available again.

There’ll be sounds in songs you won’t have heard since playing the vinyl three decades ago or that you never knew were there in the first place.

In terms of memory, as well as the 128GB available in the player itself, PonoPlayer can accept microSD cards of up to 64GB each, so if you do need more music then you can always swap cards. It also has two output jacks, one for headphones and another stereo output specifically for your home audio system.

All in all, it seems like a pretty exciting package. Besides, I haven’t paid any attention to anything Eric Clapton has ever said, so I’m not going to start now.

It sometimes seems as if that quest for a perfect echo is just an illusion afterall...

And someday smog might turn to stars...

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Audiophiles' Thinking and Neil Young's PONO

PONO ARTIST SIGNATURE SERIES: NEIL YOUNG
After years of detractors sniping and scoffing, Neil Young successfully launched PONO at the SXSW Conference earlier this week. Again, congratulations to the PONO Team and their Kickstarter Campaign which exceeded their goal in less than a day. (And "fuck the doubters".)

Could PONO be a trick of disaster?

Even industry veterans like long time supporter Bob Lefsetz are suprisingly negative about PONO's prospects. And one of the primary sources of doubters of PONO's vision -- it would seem -- is none other than high end audio aficionados themselves, or "Audiophiles" as they often refer to themselves.

Just scroll thru the comments over on Computer Audiophile Forum or Steve Hoffman Music Forums. The sheer number and intensity of "Audiophiles" seeing failure and nearly wishing disaster is both disheartening and telling.

Once again, a small group of elites think they know what's best for the masses. Again, with the usual dismal results. Although, it is still premature to assess PONO's success given that the actual product and launch are months away, the certainty with which some speak is troubling. As Neil Young said himself, the goal isn't to create a new standard or even to make a huge profit. The only goal is to raise the sound quality of music.

Who can argue with that?

But here's a comment that aligns with our thinking on Computer Audiophile Forum | Neil young announces the launch of ponomusic - Page 14 by InfernoSTi:

Wow, it's clear folks are really getting worked up over nothing.

For me, the big complaints were that it looks too much like Neil Young (yellow model). That and my favorite band didn't sponsor one of the $400 limited editions...

The bottom line is this product is trying to fill a niche that isn't currently being filled. It isn't going to be "as something" as other products that fill a different niche. It won't make phone calls or play apps like my iPhone. It isn't small like my iPod/Sony Product/etc. It isn't really super expensive like my A/K. It won't play DSD like my dongle DAC.

But guys, it looks like it is going to be the best option for a hi res iTunes store that is still compatible with HDTracks and Acoustic Sounds, and all the other hi res storefronts. It only costs $300 early/$400 going forward. This is all a good thing. The issues about features that seem to make sense such as a 128GB card are likely to come out on the next model they release. Look at the iPhone's first model and look at it now. Look at the A/K's first model and look at it now.

These product evolve. I know folks know this but why pretend it isn't so? The whole "what will the twenty somethings think" thing doesn't worry me too much. They love vinyl for all the reasons the experts say they will hate Pono.

I believe there is a movement against convenience over quality and I see this as part of that universal movement that is open to all ages, all genders, and (I hope) all levels of income. Slow food, not fast food. Conversation, not shouting. Full audio, not lossy audio. This is part of something that says, "I want more than my fits in my pocket MP3 player while I text fight with strangers over a Big Mac for dinner." This says, "I want real music while I exchange ideas with my friends over a home cooked, health dinner."

The funny thing is that there is something that caught my attention and that thing was Neil Young back in May 2011 saying that 2012 was the year that the music industry would put the soul back in digital music. I posted that odd announcement on one of my audio forums back in 2011 asking if anyone knew what this was all about. It turns out that following Neil's vision progressed in 2012 and 2013 to the point where I was thinking about "what is Pono?" but knew that if Neil was pushing it, it had to do with putting the music back into digital audio. Now I see this is far more open and accessible to many than I thought it would be (no special format, no DRM…heck, they use an open source format for crying out loud).

This is a good thing if you love music…

Best, John

Well, what John said.

Here's a replay of Neil Young's launch talk at SXSW on NPR.

And here's a rant about rants about PONO - Where The Vulture Glides Descending: Missing The Point About Pono. Thanks PunkDavid!

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PONO Launches @ SXSW with Neil Young: Kickstarter Campaign Exceeds Goal in Less Than A Day

Neil Young
PONO Launch @ SXSW

Neil Young launched the PONO audio system yesterday at the SXSW Conference in Austin, TX.

In less than a single day, the Pono Kickstarter campaign has already exceeded its goal of $800,000 and is currently tracking at over $1.7 million. The two signed versions of the Pono are sold out. Even all 30 invitations of $5,000 pledges for a VIP dinner invitation & PonoMusic listening party hosted by Neil Young are already gone.

Here's a comment by Archives Guy on PONO Launch @ SXSW thread:

Quite a thread and conversation you have going here, Mr. Thrasher.

People talking about music, being passionate about their feelings, what they can/can't hear, speculating about the future of listening and enjoying recorded sound.

So great to see a conversation that elevates music beyond being wallpaper and background sound.

As you might expect the entire Pono team is thrilled with the response on Kickstarter within the first 24 hours.

Here in the tranches of the archives we are eager to get more music out to you, with the best digital sound ever.

Here's a comment by Dan1 on PONO Launch @ SXSW thread:

Admittedly I'm a tech neophyte, not much of an audiophile, and was also somewhat skeptical about Pono ... after watching the video and seeing the rollout of the past days my perspective is evolving ...

at its core this is Neil leading a movement dedicated to establishing a high quality digital music standard ... since the advent of CDs until today's MP3s it has literally been a race to the bottom in terms of digital music quality and both consumers and artists have lost out big time ...

probably, the average listener (like me) is 'tone deaf' to realize how watered down the music quality has gotten but nevertheless they're (we're) getting robbed ... for the artists its much worse, their art gets ransacked for the sake of mass distribution ... Neil to his credit is an audiophile extraordinaire / savant and is dogged enough to try to be a change agent in this respect ...

I have huge admiration for his vision and skill to take on this initiative and the video shows how necessary and revered this initiative is among his peers ... while the PONO device and the music ecosystem Neil envisions are both extremely ambitious initiatives, the heart of Neil's thrust is for an upgraded digital music standard ... if Neil is successful in an upgraded standard and helping it to become commercial / available / mainstream then he'll have given society a huge gift and help the trajectory of recorded music in our culture take a very significant step forward ...

Hats off to Neil for spread heading this, and I hope he'll be successful ... the naysayers will line up and complain about everything from A to Z, accuse him of being greedy, naive, ect .... all of those miss the point (Neil's not getting rich off this), we should all seek to evangelize this movement and help in what ever way we can ... maybe we don't have the $5,000 we wish we could spend to join the private dinner ... or even $400 to pre-buy the player but we can at least want it to succeed ...

in my view if 5 years from now iTunes is offering these higher quality digital files Neil will have been the one to ride in on a white horse to save the industry, changing its trajectory from a race to the bottom to a standard that honors the art of so many at the level it deserves to be presented at ...

Kickstarter Campaign Begins For Neil Young's Music Player : NPR

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TODAY: PONO Launch @ SXSW by Neil Young

Neil Young @ SXSW

An impressive promo video for Neil Young's PONO on KickStarter campaign page.

Neil Young will launch the PONO audio system today at the SXSW Conference in Austin, TX.

Webcast details are at http://sxsw.com/live. Neil Young is listed to be speaking on Tuesday 5:00 PM CST. Please post a comment below with link if you have details.

ARTIST SIGNATURE SERIES: NEIL YOUNG
Limited Edition Artist PonoPlayer in Chrome. Laser engraved with artist's signature. Comes pre-loaded with artist's top two favorite albums. Handmade leather case with presentation box
More info, see Neil Young News: PRESS RELEASE: PONO Launch @ SXSW by Neil Young.

Also, see Neil Young’s High-Fidelity Pono Music Player Is Still Coming, and It’ll Cost $399 | TIME.com.

Neil Young and “David Letterman” Show - 9/27/12
(Click photo to enlarge)

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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. Here's an advance 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:

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

Already, the PR has kicked up a fair amount of discussion over pricing, storage, etc.

It does look like there is at least one error in the PR that rustie folks have spotted: "The PonoPlayer has 128GB of memory and can store 1000 to 2000 high-resolution digital-music albums." The word "albums" should be "songs".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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