Pono Music – A Week Later
It’s been a week and the response to Neil Young’s Pono Kickstarter project has been incredible.
They have now surpassed US$4 Million when their original goal was US$800,000. And many of their first Pono players have already sold out.
The official Pono Music site has been updated with a special video from Neil Young along with additional information on the player and music service.
By the way, a second VIP Dinner and Listening Party with Neil Young has been added to the project. This event will again happen in New York.
Pono Music Player Update
Neil Young is planning on starting a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for his new high fidelity music device on March 15th, according to his March 10th, 2014 press release.
The PonoPlayer, which was developed by engineers at Ayre Acoustics (of Boulder, Colorado), will feature a 128 gigabyte hard drive and will convert digital music files to analog.
It will retail for $399 and will be coupled with software and a music service that will sell 192 kHz, 24-bit recordings.
Neil Young is scheduled to speak about Pono at the SXSW 2014 Music Conference in Austin, Texas today from 5 pm to 6 pm, Central Time.
Update – The Kickstarter campaign was moved forward is is currently active. The device is currently available to people who donate $300 or more. Click here for details.
Turntable.fm Closing
Turntable.fm will be closing on December 2nd, 2013 according to the official blog.
The company wishes to concentrate their efforts on their “Turntable Live” operations, a service that streams live performances, world wide.
Goodbye Winamp
Winamp will be no more as of December 20th, 2013.
The once popular, 15 year old mp3 software had been purchased from Nullsoft by AOL in 1999 for $80 million. But the company will discontinue the software next month and is allegedly hoping to sell it to Microsoft, along with the Shoutcast music streaming service.
Although I haven’t used Winamp for over five years, I’m a bit sad to see it go.
Winamp was my favourite mp3 software for years, until iTunes came along for Canada. And I had used it to rip the vast majority of my CD collection even after windows media player offered that ability.
I loved compiling my favourite music to CDs for my multi-disc carousels and I am still listening to music I had ripped a decade back using this software.
Hopefully it’ll find a new home at Microsoft. But I’m guessing it’ll probably be rebranded for the X-Box.
Ottawa Rocks !
A special exhibit celebrating Ottawa’s rock & roll history has been organised by the City of Ottawa Archives at the James Bartleman Centre.
Six decades worth of photographs and other memorabilia have been placed on display at 100 Tallwood Drive, which is located at the corner of Tallwood Drive and Woodroffe Ave, approximately half of a kilometer south of the Baseline Transitway station and Woodroffe Campus of Algonquin College.
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This exhibit will be open on weekdays from 9 am – 4 pm and on Saturdays from 10 am – 5 pm until December 31st, 2013 and events will occasionally be held at the James Bartleman Centre that are related to this exhibition.
One such event, “Music Mania!”, will occur on November 2nd, 2013 from 9am to 12 pm for children aged 10-14.
During that particular event children will experiment with lyrics and will have an opportunity to design concert posters for their favourite bands.
Admittance to the exhibit is free but a course fee of $10 for residents or $12.50 for non-residence is required for “Music Mania!”, whose space is limited to 20. The code required to register for “Music Mania!” online or by phone at 613-580-2588 is 878960
Youtube Music Subscriptions ?
Billboard has reported yesterday that Youtube is working on a new premium service that may enable individual subscribers to view music videos offline and/or without adverts.
Apparently Google has already secured licenses with Warner, Sony and Universal. But I’m guessing a Canadian service will take so time to be implemented.
Additional information on the American service can be found on the Billboard article. I will post information related to a Canadian service as soon as it becomes available.