Project Update #27: Important Amazon Payments Update Posted by the PonoMusic Team Black heart (cards) Like
Dear PonoMusic Kickstarter supporters, here are a few important notes about the payment of your pledges:
1. If you received an email notification from Amazon Payments that you were charged by Ivanhoe, this notification is CORRECT and refers to your pledge to PonoMusic, which is an Invahoe (DE) Inc. dba.
2. If you received an error message from Amazon Payments, please address this IMMEDIATELY. If you log in to your Kickstarter account you can follow the Fix Payment button at the top of your screen, which will lead you to update your payment info. If any of you are having difficulty, please look through the Kickstarter FAQ and contact Kickstarter directly for assistance.
After seven days, all backers that have not resolved their payment issue will be dropped and NO LONGER longer be able to support PonoMusic Kickstarter, which means you will NOT receive your reward.
3. As Kickstarter is a donation-based crowdfunding platform, your donation is collected now to help us jumpstart PonoMusic. Our promise to you is to deliver your reward by the delivery estimate date of your reward.
4. We will be reaching out in the next week or so with surveys to get mailing addresses, shirt sizes, shipping addresses, ... for those that pledged their respective rewards. Please make sure you fill them out promptly.
Thank you again for your support.
I wonder how much money came off the table with payments not coming through. They're acting like it's a more than they bargained for after counting their $6M in unhatched chickens.
09/08/1992 - Phoenix, AZ 07/08/1998 - Phoenix, AZ 10/21/2000 - Phoenix, AZ 11/19/2013 - Phoenix, AZ 10/22/2014 - Denver, CO 05/09/2022 - Phoenix, AZ 09/22/2022 - Denver, CO
I've always loved that lyric. That was an excellent article. His response article to critical comments was even better. Check that out if you haven't already.
0
Options
on2legs
Standing in the Jersey rain… Posts: 14,419
I've always loved that lyric. That was an excellent article. His response article to critical comments was even better. Check that out if you haven't already.
I think that lyric is very simple yet brilliant. And it seems appropriate here because it seems like NY is hyping Pono beyond what it's really capable of delivering. I think people will be impressed with the quality over mp3's but might be let down that it's not the revolution they're being promised.
Maybe I should have changed it slightly...
I never knew Pono made you taller.
Post edited by on2legs on
1996: Randall's Island 2 1998: East Rutherford | MSG 1 & 2 2000: Cincinnati | Columbus | Jones Beach 1, 2, & 3 | Boston 1 | Camden 1 & 2 2003: Philadelphia | Uniondale | MSG 1 & 2 | Holmdel 2005: Atlantic City 1 2006: Camden 1 | East Rutherford 1 & 2 2008: Camden 1 & 2 | MSG 1 & 2 | Newark (EV) 2009: Philadelphia 1, 2 & 4 2010: Newark | MSG 1 & 2 2011: Toronto 1 2013: Wrigley Field | Brooklyn 2 | Philadelphia 1 & 2 | Baltimore 2015: Central Park 2016: Philadelphia 1 & 2 | MSG 1 & 2 | Fenway Park 2 | MSG (TOTD) 2017: Brooklyn (RnR HOF) 2020: MSG | Asbury Park2021: Asbury Park 2022: MSG | Camden | Nashville 2024: MSG 1 & 2 (#50) | Philadelphia 1 & 2 | Baltimore
I've always loved that lyric. That was an excellent article. His response article to critical comments was even better. Check that out if you haven't already.
I think that lyric is very simple yet brilliant. And it seems appropriate here because it seems like NY is hyping Pono beyond what it's really capable of delivering. I think people will be impressed with the quality over mp3's but might be let down that it's not the revolution they're being promised.
Maybe I should have changed it slightly...
I never knew Pono made you taller.
I'm managing my expectations.
At a very minimum, the pono player will be an alternative to the iPod at a relatively comparative cost. My iPod sucks shit and I hate managing my music through iTunes for reasons I don't even wish to get into. If the product delivers a crisper sound in the slightest... then awesome!
This device was introduced at a good time for me.
"My brain's a good brain!"
0
Options
on2legs
Standing in the Jersey rain… Posts: 14,419
I've always loved that lyric. That was an excellent article. His response article to critical comments was even better. Check that out if you haven't already.
I think that lyric is very simple yet brilliant. And it seems appropriate here because it seems like NY is hyping Pono beyond what it's really capable of delivering. I think people will be impressed with the quality over mp3's but might be let down that it's not the revolution they're being promised.
Maybe I should have changed it slightly...
I never knew Pono made you taller.
I'm managing my expectations.
At a very minimum, the pono player will be an alternative to the iPod at a relatively comparative cost. My iPod sucks shit and I hate managing my music through iTunes for reasons I don't even wish to get into. If the product delivers a crisper sound in the slightest... then awesome!
This device was introduced at a good time for me.
Agreed
1996: Randall's Island 2 1998: East Rutherford | MSG 1 & 2 2000: Cincinnati | Columbus | Jones Beach 1, 2, & 3 | Boston 1 | Camden 1 & 2 2003: Philadelphia | Uniondale | MSG 1 & 2 | Holmdel 2005: Atlantic City 1 2006: Camden 1 | East Rutherford 1 & 2 2008: Camden 1 & 2 | MSG 1 & 2 | Newark (EV) 2009: Philadelphia 1, 2 & 4 2010: Newark | MSG 1 & 2 2011: Toronto 1 2013: Wrigley Field | Brooklyn 2 | Philadelphia 1 & 2 | Baltimore 2015: Central Park 2016: Philadelphia 1 & 2 | MSG 1 & 2 | Fenway Park 2 | MSG (TOTD) 2017: Brooklyn (RnR HOF) 2020: MSG | Asbury Park2021: Asbury Park 2022: MSG | Camden | Nashville 2024: MSG 1 & 2 (#50) | Philadelphia 1 & 2 | Baltimore
This whole discussion has actually gotten me back to listening to my CDs. I mostly listen to audience-recorded live shows of many bands and iTunes while I work, but I've rediscovered my CD album collection.
This whole discussion has actually gotten me back to listening to my CDs. I mostly listen to audience-recorded live shows of many bands and iTunes while I work, but I've rediscovered my CD album collection.
I never left em' but this whole discussion, including my own thoughts, have given me major pause. What I've got sounds pretty fucking amazing to my ears. PONO is probably gonna be a NOGO for me.
I never left em' but this whole discussion, including my own thoughts, have given me major pause. What I've got sounds pretty fucking amazing to my ears. PONO is probably gonna be a NOGO for me.
I still think it serves a purpose (playlists and collections in lossless and hi-fi quality), but the design doesnt make it a portable player. They might as well have made it even bigger, maybe like a tablet. I'll still need my iPod for working out/traveling, so this doesnt really replace that. I think the artist LEs are a cool idea though.
(sorry if these things have already been mentioned. I didnt follow all 30 pages)
If you dropped some cash into this project you could consider yourself a stakeholder in the project. I can certainly understand the feeling that these artists have enough money to fund the project themselves but this makes it even more special. They are asking you to be a part of something which may or may not work. Either way those invested in this are a part of it and I think that may be some of the thinking behind offering to fund this through the consumers who are interested in it.
I used to tape shows in high resolution 24/192 and then switched to 24/96. These files would take up a DVD size disc in order to fit an entire show on. The problem with this high of a resolution is that your normal players don't recognize the higher resolution audio for playback. This Pono may solve that issue. At least for me and all those who download live recordings now may have the option of being able to listed to these shows as they were intended when originally recorded. That would be great!!!
Soldier Field, Chicago, IL 7-11-1995; United Center, Chicago, IL 6-29-1998; MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV 10-22-2000 ~PJ10~; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 4-1-2003; Cricket Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ 6-7-2003; United Center, Chicago, IL 6-18-2003; Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI 6-21-2003; Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO 10-5-2004; The Gorge, George, WA 9-1-2005; United Center, Chicago, IL 5-16-2006; United Center, Chicago, IL 5-17-2006; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 7-2-2006; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 7-3-2006; United Center, Chicago, IL 8-23-2009; United Center, Chicago, IL 8-24-2009; Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC 12-4-2013; Key Arena, Seattle, WA 12-6-2013; iWireless Arena, Moline, IL 10-17-2014 ~No Code Show~; Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN 10-19-2014; Bradley Center, Milwaukee, WI 10-20-2014 ~Yield Show~; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 10-22-2014 ~PJ24~: Wrigley Field 1 & 2, 2016; Safeco Field, Seattle Home Shows 1 & 2; Wrigley Field, Chicago Away Shows 1 & 2....
Alright! I ordered one black PONO t-shirt and one yellow one. I may eventually frame the yellow t-shirt with one of the signed Neil posters and wear the black one. There ended up being only 1,010 signed posters ordered so maybe Neil is done signing them by now. Sure hope he can still play guitar after all that!
Project Update #30: Pono Team's Progress - June 2014 Backer white For backers only Posted by the PonoMusic Team Black heart (cards) Like
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 RecordingState 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.
We thank you for your support and patience as we work on bringing you the best Hi-Res music experience by October.
0
Options
on2legs
Standing in the Jersey rain… Posts: 14,419
I really wish Neil Young would have appeared on Shark Tank with this Pono thing just so Mr. Wonderful could tell him "you're dead to me."
1996: Randall's Island 2 1998: East Rutherford | MSG 1 & 2 2000: Cincinnati | Columbus | Jones Beach 1, 2, & 3 | Boston 1 | Camden 1 & 2 2003: Philadelphia | Uniondale | MSG 1 & 2 | Holmdel 2005: Atlantic City 1 2006: Camden 1 | East Rutherford 1 & 2 2008: Camden 1 & 2 | MSG 1 & 2 | Newark (EV) 2009: Philadelphia 1, 2 & 4 2010: Newark | MSG 1 & 2 2011: Toronto 1 2013: Wrigley Field | Brooklyn 2 | Philadelphia 1 & 2 | Baltimore 2015: Central Park 2016: Philadelphia 1 & 2 | MSG 1 & 2 | Fenway Park 2 | MSG (TOTD) 2017: Brooklyn (RnR HOF) 2020: MSG | Asbury Park2021: Asbury Park 2022: MSG | Camden | Nashville 2024: MSG 1 & 2 (#50) | Philadelphia 1 & 2 | Baltimore
I really wish Neil Young would have appeared on Shark Tank with this Pono thing just so Mr. Wonderful could tell him "you're dead to me."
Haven't seen that show before but I do see Dragons' Den http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/ here in Canada all the time before my CBC evening news. To see Neil Young pitch his Pono Player to the Dragons would of been fun.
Reading all the comments to this article made my head hurt! )
2013 Wrigley, Pittsburgh, Buffalo
2014 Cincy, Detroit, Moline, & Milwaukee
2015 Central Park
2016 Lexington, Ottawa, Toronto 1 & 2, Boston 1 & 2, Chicago 1 & 2 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 2018 Seattle 1 & 2, Missoula, Chicago 1
I was so excited for this until I saw the size. They really "phoned" that in. It should have been at least 1TB. I know that is huge, but if have over 4k CDs and many more downloads, etc. I need so etching to hold as much as possible.
I just hope the Pono Music store doesn't go the route as HDtracks.com . Folks outside of the USA can't download many of their HD albums anymore. "This product is not currently available due to region restrictions" is now showing up for many new & older releases. Totally BS!!
If you're trying to improve the sound of music, it helps to have a rock 'n' roll legend on your side.
When that legend is Neil Young, with support from other rock royalty like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Sting, you get Pono.
Pono is the triangle-shaped music player, set to be released late this year, that backers hope will bring the quality of hi-fi stereo sound back to the mainstream in the age of the iPod.
And even if its $399 price tag proves troublesome for some consumers, there appears to be, at the very least, a healthy niche market developing. A Kickstarter project to fund the device raised $6.2 million -- the 3rd-biggest campaign in the crowdfunding site's history.
"You have helped to set the stage for a revolution in music listening," Young wrote in a thank-you note to backers. "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."
Digital music sales and online music streaming have crippled the physical sale of CDs in much the same way CDs moved folks past vinyl albums. But with each step, we sacrificed a little sound quality.
For digital music, sound files get compressed to make them take up less storage space, squeezing out some of the music's more delicate details.
In Pono's Kickstarter video, rocker Elvis Costello compares the end effect to looking at a Xerox copy of the Mona Lisa.
Pono will stream music in 24-bit, 192-kHz sound, which is far cleaner than mp3s and even better than CDs.
Young had been a critic of digital music, particularly Apple's iTunes store, for years when he decided to do something about it in 2012. That's when he teamed up with Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur John Hamm, who now serves as Pono's CEO.
A handful of high-definition music players already exist. But they're super-expensive, sometimes going for more than $1,000, and there's very little music available for them. And that, in the end, might be Pono's most practical innovation.
The company says it has agreements with all major record labels to make music available in its online store and that it's working with independent labels to help them do the same.
Project Update #33: Pono Update- July 2014 Backer white For backers only Posted by the PonoMusic Team Black heart (cards) Like
Dear Pono Supporters,
We want to give you another update on Pono to let you know how things are progressing.
T-Shirts and Posters
For those that pledged for posters and T-Shirts, we will begin sending them out this week. Below you can see some images of the items. While the posters are beginning to go out this week, as well, some may be delayed a couple of weeks due to Neil Young’s tour schedule in Europe with Crazy Horse. Since Neil signs each individually, it’s taking a little longer than planned – we have about half of these signed and will work diligently to get the rest signed and sent as soon as we get Neil back from tour. For those that ordered both a poster and shirt, they will be sent together.
One of the things we learned is that as popular as Kickstarter is, a majority of those that pledged for Pono were first time Kickstarter backers. So, we’ve received thousands of questions from those still wanting to buy things after Kickstarter ended, to those wondering why they didn’t get their player yet, to many wanting to change their addresses, etc. While this is a great problem to have, we were not prepared for the deluge of backer inquiry after our Kickstarter campaign ended. We apologize for the delays in getting back to you. But please remember we are still a very lean startup primarily focused on developing the products you’ll love. It is challenging to staff and train for this spike of inquiries, and we appreciate your patience as we work our way through the back log.
The best way to reach us is at support@ponomusic.com.
For other inquiries use these addresses:
Press: press@ponomusic.com
Artists: artists@ponomusic.com
Jobs: jobs@ponomusic.com
Kickstarter Exclusive Limited Edition Players
Sales of the limited edition signature series players are over and no more will be sold publicly. Even though you may still see that some show availability on the Kickstarter site, the site is now frozen, and in fairness to all of you who pledged during the campaign, these are no longer for sale. For those limited editions with fewer than 500 sold, we will be producing a lower number that will be shown on the unit but may round that up to an even number for the series. For example, if a player had 390 pledges then the fourth pledge may get an etching that reads “4 of 400”.
PonoMusic Pre-Order Store Will Launch Soon
We are thrilled to announce the upcoming launch of the PonoMusic Store in the U.S. in mid-July. This will allow our supporters who missed Kickstarter to pre-order a PonoPlayer, albeit at full price. Any players pre-ordered through the PonoMusic store will be delivered before December 25, 2014. This store will also allow you to order Pono shirts.
Note: We will also roll out the pre-order store to UK and Canada shortly thereafter.
Kickstarter Backers’ PonoMusic Accounts
We will be automatically creating a PonoMusic account for backers who pledged for PonoPlayers. You will receive an email notification informing you how to login. Your reward will appear as an order under your account (for tracking purposes) once we have your complete and valid shipping info (see below).
Mailing Address & Phone Issues
In order for us to mail your rewards via UPS, we require a valid mailing address as well as a recipient phone number, both of which you will be able to enter or complete on the account page that we will set up for you. Unfortunately, we didn’t ask you to provide your phone number on Kickstarter. Also, Kickstarter does not validate mailing addresses entered and we’ve discovered that some of addresses supplied may be invalid. So once your new account is available, we’ll be asking you to verify your mailing address and to provide us with a contact phone number. All of this information is for shipping your order only, as required by UPS, and the information will not be shared or sold. This is really important and we ask that you pay special attention to confirming a valid shipping address as to avoid additional delays.
Distribution
One of the most frequent questions is: In what countries will the PonoMusic store be available? We are rolling out the product and service in the United States, the UK and Canada in October. PonoMusic will be available in additional territories throughout 2015. Which countries and what dates have not been determined yet. This is primarily due to the intricate licensing arrangements associated with the content rights holders in various countries.
Our priorities for the upcoming locations will be Europe, Japan, and Australia.
In the Press
We were excited to see that CNN selected Pono as one of this year’s top 10 Game-Changing Inventions. (http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/06/tech/cnn10-inventions/) Quoting from CNN, “. A lot of factors must align for someone to invent something that’s truly groundbreaking. Which is why when a lone tinkerer or a team of engineers captures lightning in a bottle, it should be celebrated for the rare achievement it is… As part of our continuing focus on innovation, CNN once again is honoring 10 new inventions in technology and related fields. ….. All have the potential to shake up industries, to save lives, to make our daily existences a little bit easier.”
Special Dinners
For those that pledged for the special VIP dinners with Neil, the dates are as follows:
San Francisco October 21
New York City October 29 and 30
Chicago November 1
Details will be sent to those who pledged for this reward level. Neil is excited to host these gatherings and we look forward to seeing those backers at these events.
Comments
http://www.dansdata.com/gz143.htm
07/08/1998 - Phoenix, AZ
10/21/2000 - Phoenix, AZ
11/19/2013 - Phoenix, AZ
10/22/2014 - Denver, CO
05/09/2022 - Phoenix, AZ
09/22/2022 - Denver, CO
Wind this thing up.
I never knew soap made you taller.
Maybe I should have changed it slightly...
I never knew Pono made you taller.
At a very minimum, the pono player will be an alternative to the iPod at a relatively comparative cost. My iPod sucks shit and I hate managing my music through iTunes for reasons I don't even wish to get into. If the product delivers a crisper sound in the slightest... then awesome!
This device was introduced at a good time for me.
Posters for Sale: http://community.pearljam.com/discussion/117469/posters-for-sale
T-Shirts for Sale: http://community.pearljam.com/discussion/149289/pj-t-shirt-trade-or-sale
(sorry if these things have already been mentioned. I didnt follow all 30 pages)
Posters for Sale: http://community.pearljam.com/discussion/117469/posters-for-sale
T-Shirts for Sale: http://community.pearljam.com/discussion/149289/pj-t-shirt-trade-or-sale
I used to tape shows in high resolution 24/192 and then switched to 24/96. These files would take up a DVD size disc in order to fit an entire show on. The problem with this high of a resolution is that your normal players don't recognize the higher resolution audio for playback. This Pono may solve that issue. At least for me and all those who download live recordings now may have the option of being able to listed to these shows as they were intended when originally recorded. That would be great!!!
I ordered one black PONO t-shirt and one yellow one.
I may eventually frame the yellow t-shirt with one of the signed Neil posters and wear the black one.
There ended up being only 1,010 signed posters ordered so maybe Neil is done signing them by now.
Sure hope he can still play guitar after all that!
"Our team in action designing the #PonoPlayer"
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=765371890163180&set=vb.471854269514945&type=2&theater
Project Update #30: Pono Team's Progress - June 2014
Backer white For backers only Posted by the PonoMusic Team Black heart (cards) Like
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 RecordingState 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.
We thank you for your support and patience as we work on bringing you the best Hi-Res music experience by October.
Will the $400 Pono Music Player sound like a $27,500 stereo preamplifier? http://cnet.co/1iFOzEs via @CNET
2014 Cincy, Detroit, Moline, & Milwaukee
2015 Central Park
2016 Lexington, Ottawa, Toronto 1 & 2, Boston 1 & 2, Chicago 1 & 2
2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
2018 Seattle 1 & 2, Missoula, Chicago 1
I hope it does well, so they make a bigger one.
fingers crossed it delivers the goods
Posted by the PonoMusic Team Black heart (cards) Like
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/06/tech/cnn10-inventions/?hpt=hp_c2
Enjoy!
Your PonoMusic Team
Pono
By Doug Gross, CNN
If you're trying to improve the sound of music, it helps to have a rock 'n' roll legend on your side.
When that legend is Neil Young, with support from other rock royalty like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Sting, you get Pono.
Pono is the triangle-shaped music player, set to be released late this year, that backers hope will bring the quality of hi-fi stereo sound back to the mainstream in the age of the iPod.
And even if its $399 price tag proves troublesome for some consumers, there appears to be, at the very least, a healthy niche market developing. A Kickstarter project to fund the device raised $6.2 million -- the 3rd-biggest campaign in the crowdfunding site's history.
"You have helped to set the stage for a revolution in music listening," Young wrote in a thank-you note to backers. "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."
Digital music sales and online music streaming have crippled the physical sale of CDs in much the same way CDs moved folks past vinyl albums. But with each step, we sacrificed a little sound quality.
For digital music, sound files get compressed to make them take up less storage space, squeezing out some of the music's more delicate details.
In Pono's Kickstarter video, rocker Elvis Costello compares the end effect to looking at a Xerox copy of the Mona Lisa.
Pono will stream music in 24-bit, 192-kHz sound, which is far cleaner than mp3s and even better than CDs.
Young had been a critic of digital music, particularly Apple's iTunes store, for years when he decided to do something about it in 2012. That's when he teamed up with Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur John Hamm, who now serves as Pono's CEO.
A handful of high-definition music players already exist. But they're super-expensive, sometimes going for more than $1,000, and there's very little music available for them. And that, in the end, might be Pono's most practical innovation.
The company says it has agreements with all major record labels to make music available in its online store and that it's working with independent labels to help them do the same.
Backer white For backers only Posted by the PonoMusic Team Black heart (cards) Like
Dear Pono Supporters,
We want to give you another update on Pono to let you know how things are progressing.
T-Shirts and Posters
For those that pledged for posters and T-Shirts, we will begin sending them out this week. Below you can see some images of the items. While the posters are beginning to go out this week, as well, some may be delayed a couple of weeks due to Neil Young’s tour schedule in Europe with Crazy Horse. Since Neil signs each individually, it’s taking a little longer than planned – we have about half of these signed and will work diligently to get the rest signed and sent as soon as we get Neil back from tour. For those that ordered both a poster and shirt, they will be sent together.
One of the things we learned is that as popular as Kickstarter is, a majority of those that pledged for Pono were first time Kickstarter backers. So, we’ve received thousands of questions from those still wanting to buy things after Kickstarter ended, to those wondering why they didn’t get their player yet, to many wanting to change their addresses, etc. While this is a great problem to have, we were not prepared for the deluge of backer inquiry after our Kickstarter campaign ended. We apologize for the delays in getting back to you. But please remember we are still a very lean startup primarily focused on developing the products you’ll love. It is challenging to staff and train for this spike of inquiries, and we appreciate your patience as we work our way through the back log.
The best way to reach us is at support@ponomusic.com.
For other inquiries use these addresses:
Press: press@ponomusic.com
Artists: artists@ponomusic.com
Jobs: jobs@ponomusic.com
Kickstarter Exclusive Limited Edition Players
Sales of the limited edition signature series players are over and no more will be sold publicly. Even though you may still see that some show availability on the Kickstarter site, the site is now frozen, and in fairness to all of you who pledged during the campaign, these are no longer for sale. For those limited editions with fewer than 500 sold, we will be producing a lower number that will be shown on the unit but may round that up to an even number for the series. For example, if a player had 390 pledges then the fourth pledge may get an etching that reads “4 of 400”.
PonoMusic Pre-Order Store Will Launch Soon
We are thrilled to announce the upcoming launch of the PonoMusic Store in the U.S. in mid-July. This will allow our supporters who missed Kickstarter to pre-order a PonoPlayer, albeit at full price. Any players pre-ordered through the PonoMusic store will be delivered before December 25, 2014. This store will also allow you to order Pono shirts.
Note: We will also roll out the pre-order store to UK and Canada shortly thereafter.
Kickstarter Backers’ PonoMusic Accounts
We will be automatically creating a PonoMusic account for backers who pledged for PonoPlayers. You will receive an email notification informing you how to login. Your reward will appear as an order under your account (for tracking purposes) once we have your complete and valid shipping info (see below).
Mailing Address & Phone Issues
In order for us to mail your rewards via UPS, we require a valid mailing address as well as a recipient phone number, both of which you will be able to enter or complete on the account page that we will set up for you. Unfortunately, we didn’t ask you to provide your phone number on Kickstarter. Also, Kickstarter does not validate mailing addresses entered and we’ve discovered that some of addresses supplied may be invalid. So once your new account is available, we’ll be asking you to verify your mailing address and to provide us with a contact phone number. All of this information is for shipping your order only, as required by UPS, and the information will not be shared or sold. This is really important and we ask that you pay special attention to confirming a valid shipping address as to avoid additional delays.
Distribution
One of the most frequent questions is: In what countries will the PonoMusic store be available? We are rolling out the product and service in the United States, the UK and Canada in October. PonoMusic will be available in additional territories throughout 2015. Which countries and what dates have not been determined yet. This is primarily due to the intricate licensing arrangements associated with the content rights holders in various countries.
Our priorities for the upcoming locations will be Europe, Japan, and Australia.
In the Press
We were excited to see that CNN selected Pono as one of this year’s top 10 Game-Changing Inventions. (http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/06/tech/cnn10-inventions/) Quoting from CNN, “. A lot of factors must align for someone to invent something that’s truly groundbreaking. Which is why when a lone tinkerer or a team of engineers captures lightning in a bottle, it should be celebrated for the rare achievement it is… As part of our continuing focus on innovation, CNN once again is honoring 10 new inventions in technology and related fields. ….. All have the potential to shake up industries, to save lives, to make our daily existences a little bit easier.”
Special Dinners
For those that pledged for the special VIP dinners with Neil, the dates are as follows:
San Francisco October 21
New York City October 29 and 30
Chicago November 1
Details will be sent to those who pledged for this reward level. Neil is excited to host these gatherings and we look forward to seeing those backers at these events.