Have you ever wished you could hear digital music the way the artist recorded it in the studio, without the degradation of MP3 compression? So has Neil Young.
For the last several years, he has been working with a team on a technology that would enhance the quality of MP3s, which inherently lose sound quality during compression. The high-end device and software "[liberates] the music of the artist from the digitial file and [restores] it to its original artistic quality - as it was in the studio," Young said. "It has primal power."
Young announced on PONO's Facebook page a few days ago that the technology will be available early in 2014. The company will live as an online music store with software that coverts digital audio files into analog-quality recordings. The enhanced songs can then be played using a triangle-shaped device.
According to the Facebook page, a British company known for producing high-performance speakers and home entertainment systems, Meridian Audio, will manufacture the PONO music player.
But will people who are accustomed to listening to music on their Smartphones care enough about sound quality to make the switch? Young argues that the experience is worth it.
"Hearing PONO for the first time is like that first blast of daylight when you leave a movie theater on a sun-filled day. It takes you a second to adjust," he said. "Then you enter a bright reality, of wonderfully rendered detail. This music moves you. So you can feel. That's why so many musicians are behind PonoMusic - this is important work that honors their art. This is the way they wanted you to hear their music."
To make all of this happen, PONO gets permission from artists to use their studio masters then, with the help of Meridian Audio, "unlock[s] the richness of the artist's music to you."
His plan is to make PONO-quality music as readily available as any other digital music by having an online library where people can purchased the enhanced songs.
What Young explain his product on "The Late Show with David Letterman":
More information should be available soon, according to the post. Music Times will keep you updated.
What do you think of the idea behind this technology? Would you buy it? Do you think people will even know the difference? Let us know in the comments section below.
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