After years spent whining about how the iPod was killing the music industry, rock legend Neil Young pulled his albums from Apple Music and launched his own iPod killer, the Pono Player. It was a weird pyramid shaped device that specialized in high-resolution audio, sold through its own music store, which Ars Technica memorably declared a tall, refreshing drink of snake water.
Anyone surprised to hear, then, that even as iPod sales die, Young’s Pono Player is having trouble keeping pace with it?
In a new post on Facebook, Young says that while the company has shipped “tens of thousands” of its $400 Pono Players to fans, and despite the fact that users have purchased “hundreds of thousands” of tracks from their store, Pono just can’t scrape together money to expand in more markets.
“Today we are trying to set up stores in multiple countries and are restricted by a lack off resources,” he wrote, claiming that Canada, Great Britain, and Germany would be the first targets. “This is our highest priority. As soon as we have the funds, those stores will open. We wish it could be faster than that.”
The company’s also looking for a CEO to replace tech alum John Hamm, who left the company in July 2014. Young claims the “search continues” for a replacement, during which time he will continue to act as interim CEO. Something tells me it’ll be hard to get a proven leader to take over, as long as listeners can’t really tell the difference between this and regular iTunes files. What do you think?
Source: Facebook
Via: Macworld
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
7 responses to “Neil Young admits his iPod competitor is having a hard time”
Had this product been released between 2001 and 2010 it might have done well. Anyone who owns an iPhone is likely to use it for music rather than carry around another device just for music. To me, this is a no-brainer.
Tough time? Not touch time? (Photo label text)
What the heck is “snake water”?
“Tell ole Neil that the Southern Man don’t need him around anyhow.”
I use my iphone for music it’s just OK. My ripped stuff in Apple Lossless is fine but MP3s and AACs aren’t stunning. I’d love the option to buy lossless from iTunes.
Unless you’re listening on studio quality headphones or in-ears, lossless is pretty much pointless. This is why iTunes won’t sell lossless tracks.
I use some mid range Shure inner ears, about US$300. They are pretty nice. I’d like the model up but I’ve washed 2 pair already.