Neil Young Announces Expansion of Pono Digital Music Service

Neil Young is continuing his crusade for better sounding music. Young recently announced that he is working to expand his music service, Pono, which provides higher quality music to listeners. Pono is set to launch next year and will feature a download service similar to iTunes, software to convert files from digital to analog and a new portable player....  read more

The Curmudgeon: Down With Downloads

I make the following argument knowing full well that it’s in vain. Music is going digital, and there’s nothing I can do about it. In the future most music will arrive via downloads or more likely will reside in a sky full of clouds. Physical recordings—whether CDs, DVDs, vinyl or tape—won’t disappear completely, but will became a very small niche market. As a result of these changes, however, something valuable is being lost—and an argument must be made on that something’s behalf. The most obvious casualty is sound quality. I’m sorry, but mp3s sound like shit. The sampling rate loses...  read more