Courtesy of YouTube
In the last 20 years, the music industry has seen a dramatic shift in the way people access songs. Napster was the original villain, once providing a system in which anyone could theoretically access an album online for free. Sites like PirateBay and IsoHunt took on the same role with little resistance, and where they have left off, others have replaced them. It would seem as though this is an inevitable cycle in which both the producer and consumer are subjected to less than favorable conditions.
Even with the easy access of MP3s, there was always something missing from the sound. Sure, you can fit it in your pocket, but it is pretty obvious that the MP3 is inferior, even to the CD. Music nerds would call this a “compressed” sound, in which the larger, higher quality recordings were crunched once for CD and then crunched again to fit into MP3. Along the way, the intended sound created by musicians is lost in a fuzz of digital manipulation.
It would appear that this issue has been recognized, and a large demographic of people are ready to facilitate a change. Audiophiles everywhere have been waiting for the easy access of MP3s to merge with the high quality sound of less practical formats like vinyl, and it would appear as though Neil Young has developed a music system that addresses this perfectly.
Pono (which is the Hawaiian word for righteousness) is a type of music file designed to reproduce high-resolution music, and a format further developed by Young and researchers to take back the sound. Young mentions his appreciation for iTunes because of its ability to reach so many listeners, but finds himself disappointed by the quality of the files that people are being offered. For the cost of a typical CD ($14.99 to $24.99), listeners will be able to download up to 500 songs on the PonoPlayer. Although the file sizes of these songs are considerably larger than the typical MP3, the sound is supposed to unparalleled. In his marketing campaign Young invited a collection of musicians to experience Pono for the first time in his decked out Cadillac Eldorado, equipped with a Pono player in the dash. After hearing the quality, Elvis Costello said MP3s are like a Xerox of the Mona Lisa, and that Pono helps bring back the sound musicians intended when they recorded the songs originally.
By striking up deals with Warner, Sony, and Universal, Young will have access to the master tapes of some of the most famous recordings in history. With this kind of support from both the music industry and musicians, there is no telling what kind of potential that Pono holds.
But things are looking pretty hopeful after the company set a goal of $800,000 for their Kickstarter site, and destroyed it by making almost $2 million in just two days.