Pono Is Coming!

[soulster]

OK gang! The Pono music store is coming soon, and is expected to be up at the beginning of next year. They are busy loading up the albums and select singles, and will be the U.S.'s first real competitor against Apple's iTunes. Say goodbye to lousy mp3s and AAC "Mastered for iTunes" crap, because there are NO lossy files on Pono! None! Zilch! Nada! There never will be!

Take a look around: https://ponomusic.force.com/ccrz__HomePage

All three major record labels are on-board, and are stocking the shelves, so to speak. BTW, just for you guys, I went to the Diana Ross/Supremes page and checked out the album selection and listened to some samples. They sound great! I checked out Fleetwood Mac, Chaka Khan, Marvin Gaye, and Grand Funk. They sound great! Already, this will be my new place to buy and download music. Soon, Americans won't have to duck and hide their ISP address and location just to buy lossless from Quboz. Pono offers the same music iTunes does, so soon, there will no longer be any reason to download iTunes' crap. The Pono store is easier to navigate, too, and looks snazzy.

Neil Young's Pono music service, and his new line of portable players. should help put a few more nails in the coffin of the CD, hurt vinyl, and damage the already ailing iTunes. I hope so.

Here's a Rolling Stone article on Pono, and hi-rez, which Pono will certainly offer: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...rvice-20120927

For those here in the U.S. who don't mind downloading music, the time is just about here to step up the game. Even the labels are busy converting their vaults to hi-rez and getting ready for the new audio revolution. This will almost certainly force Apple to offer lossless, too, which will force all of its customers to up the quality too. We must say goodbye to loud, hyper-compressed, and lossy files that literally throw away sound. I want the dark ages to be over.

I don't work for any of the labels, nor do I work for Pono. I am just an enthusiastic, music-loving audiophile, and I want the industry, and consumers, to move back up to quality sound. We liked it in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, why not today? Buy a REAL stereo with an amp and speakers, or dust off the one you have! Chuck those ear buds and get some good headphones and something that will play lossless music on the run! Open your ears back up and listen!

[ejluther]

I LOVE this idea but hope they end up being clearer in the listings; in the "About" page it says "CD quality or higher" so I'm guessing most of this will be losslessly ripped from CDs so I won't have to replace those and, if it is culled from a higher quality source, I'm also assuming they'll tell us that at point of purchase. The last thing I want to do is replace lossless CD-ripped music I already have for the same thing. Bring on the digital music revolution!

http://www.cnet.com/products/ponoplayer/

[westgrandboulevard]

Although I'm generally still happy with my CDs, the future is beginning to look brighter......