Neil Young’s PonoMusic Shatters Kickstarter Goal in One Day

Well, it’s official. Neil Young’s PonoMusic has broken Kickstarter, and has its eyes set on the Internet next.

Okay, maybe that’s a little over dramatic, but what Riffyou.com can tell you, is that it took only 10 hours for PonoMusic’s $800,000 Kickstarter crowd-funding goal to be met. As of 10am EST today, pledges totalled over $1.3 million.

In order to encourage audience support, the PonoMusic crew pulled out all of the stops. Their Kickstarter page has an endorsement video for the hi-resolution audio player and service that features the likes of Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and others.

What’s more, there are a ton of great incentives for those supporting the cause. Perhaps the coolest items up for grabs are PonoPlayers that feature laser-engraved signatures of certain artists, as well as two of their favourite albums already loaded onto the device. These are offered to those willing to pony up $400. All models featuring Neil Young’s signature have been snapped up, but ones featuring the John Hancock of Foo Fighters, Beck, Patti Smith, and Dave Matthews Band are still available.

As per Kickstarter rules, just because PonoMusic has reached its goal, that doesn’t that they’re able to close the book on their crowd-funding campaign. Like any other company that surpasses their target, they must continue on through the deadline date previously decided on. In the case of PonoMusic, they’ll remain on Kickstarter through April 15.

“The PonoPlayer offers a digital-music listening experience that transcends the limitations of a multi-function smartphone,” reads a statement issued by the company. “The PonoPlayer will bring this experience to you in your home, car, or through your headphones. PonoMusic.com will offer the finest quality, highest-resolution digital music from both major labels and prominent independent labels, curated and archived for discriminating PonoMusic customers. The Pono desktop media management application allows customers to download, manage and sync their music to theirPonoPlayer and other high-resolution digital music devices.”

The PonoPlayer has 128GB memory, which in simpler terms, means that listeners would be able to store 100-500 high-resolution digital-music albums, “depending on the resolution and length of the original recording.”

-Adam Grant

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