Neil Young Launches Pono at SXSW 2014

The quest of Neil Young to revive the magic that has been squeezed out of digital music has now been realised with the launch of his portal listening device and digital music service called Pono [meaning righteous in Hawaiian].

Young has been working on the service and music player for last several years, chasing the goal of restoring music to its original artistic quality – as it was in the studio. The 128GB triangular, touchscreen gadget named PonoPlayer makes use of zero-feedback circuitry, a minimum phase digital filter and a whole lot of other technical stuff to eliminate the “unnatural pre-ringing” that can often be heard on digital tracks.

The PonoPlayer comes alongside the online music store PonoMusic.com , which will offer downloads of songs formatted from artist-approved master recordings. Young officially launched both products at the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas with a Kickstarter campaign complete with video endorsements from a plethora of music stars and offering preorders of the PonoPlayer at a discounted price.

Pledgers are given the option to purchase a special edition “Artist Signature Series” PonoPlayer with autographs from the likes of Young himself, Arcade Fire, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, as well as being pre-loaded with the artist’s all-time favorite two albums.

Just don't ask Mr Young about what cut he gets, things will just get awkward.