[Copied from the PonoMusic site]
February 19, 2015
We’ve been hard at work here at PonoMusic as we move into the next phase of growth and development. There are lots of exciting things happening and we wanted to keep you updated on our progress. We have launched the sale of the PonoPlayer in selected retail stores across the US, our music store has opened its doors, and we just hit the milestone of our 40,000th community member! There are a lot more great things to look forward to this year, and we appreciate all the amazing support that has taken PonoMusic to where we are at now!
The PonoPlayer
Positive reaction
Since our appearance at CES we have been seeing some very positive reviews for the PonoPlayer. We prepared a sales sheet for CES, which included quotes from some of the positive reviews already out there. We have now posted the sales sheet in the Knowledge Section of the site. Additionally, there has been a very positive reaction in the community to features like the balanced output mode. If you would like further information, check out the Tech Sheets in the Knowledge section.
https://ponomusic.force.com/_ui/knowledge/ui/KnowledgeHome There have been a few not so positive reviews and some less about PonoMusic and more about the high-resolution music movement as a whole. We know there is a difference in audio quality and stand by that. There are some more positive articles that will hit the newsstands very soon that report on the really great sound quality that our player delivers. These will be in the mainstream HiFi press and we will share them as they become available.
Implemented improvements
Since the last general update, there have been some intermediate announcements. We delivered gapless playback for the PonoPlayer ahead of schedule and the feedback about that has been very positive. Last week we released Firmware 1.0.5. that fixes some known issues and brings full DSD playback to the PonoPlayer. DSD playback places the PonoPlayer very firmly in the arena of serious Digital Audio Players – not just of the portable type.
Retail
We now have PonoPlayers available regionally in the U.S., including locations such as Frys Electronics and other key retail partners:
https://ponomusic.force.com/ccrz__CCPage?pageKey=retailers Our retail packaging and promotional materials are being rolled out as part of the program and we have been receiving valuable feedback from the stores and community members. Such feedback is really important to us, as it helps us improve what we do and how we do it. We will post the artwork for the retail PonoPlayers in the Knowledge section shortly. Additionally we are looking to create a Street Team of community members to help us with the retail effort and will be reaching out on that soon.
Kickstarter LE PonoPlayers & Pre-Order units
After a great amount of detective work we have managed to track down almost all of the pledgers of the KickStarter campaign for the Limited Edition PonoPlayers. There remain 80 players that are unclaimed, and we will be offering these for sale on our site starting Saturday 2/21/15 at 9am PST. There are very limited quantities of these players, and they will be sold on a first come first serve basis. These players are numbered limited editions and come with the custom Bamboo Box, 64GB card, leather carrying case, charging cord and the pre loaded albums from the artists. The sale of these units is limited to within the U.S., and the players will retail for $499 plus tax and shipping. (Note that there is a limit of 2 players purchased per order). For any initial pledger that does eventually come forward and provide their contact information, we will still honor their pledge with a Yellow or Black PonoPlayer throughout the remainder of the year.
Additionally, we have delivered all of the PonoPlayer Pre Orders and are now selling PonoPlayers from our site.
PonoMusic Store
Pono Provenance
We have just started a Provenance Group in the PonoMusic community, and Bruce Botnick will be contributing to that and discussing what the issues are and what we are doing about new releases etc. For example, Bruce is working on making sure that we get the best version of Bob Dylan’s new album. More to follow on that…
New Music Acquisition
Alongside the provenance initiative, we are continuing to acquire new music. We will be pre-announcing what will be new in the store each Friday for the following Tuesday. (As you may know, Tuesday is the day when new releases become available.) We are also in negotiations with additional independent record labels and will be able to make some more announcements soon on this front.
We have had several requests to have a section in the store for truly independent artists, i.e. those who have no recording contracts and may just be starting out. Having such a place is really in the spirit of what Pono is all about. We are looking at the best way of doing this and will keep you informed.
PonoPromise Resolution Upgrades
We are pleased to announce that the PonoPromise Resolution Upgrade feature is now released for PonoPlayer KickStarter backers in the US. This will allow us to issue free resolution upgrades on purchased albums from the PonoMusic store when higher resolution versions become available. Initially this will be for albums from Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. Upgrades for purchases from albums within Sony Music should follow shortly. If you are eligible for a resolution upgrade, you will receive an email when the upgrade is issued and the files will download to PonoMusic World next time you log in.
Music on the Limited Edition Players
We have been attempting to reissue music that was missing from a few of the LE players using the PonoPromise Upgrade feature, but there were a few legal and technical issues that prevented us from doing that, so we will be issuing the missing content via an email that contains a one time, one click link to download the music. This includes the Crosby Stills & Nash – Déjà Vu album, Neil Young – A Letter Home and a track from the Foo Fighters album Wasting Light that a few folks had issues with. The Moderators had posted an update on this recently and this is the latest outcome since that update. Our apologies that this taken some time to implement. The number of players affected is small, but we want to make sure we can replace these files in a proper and supportable way.
Pono Album Review Feature
Pono is all about a community focussed on music. We really want to let anyone who listens to an album on a PonoPlayer to share the experience with others. It helps those looking to buy an album to hear the views of others. It’s a way of recommending albums and of sharing how the Pono version compares with others. The Pono Album Review feature is for our community members to post their personal listening experience as heard on their PonoPlayer.
To create a review, choose your favorite album. Then from that album page in the PonoMusic Store you can: •Rate the album. This is the rating that an individual listener provides, not accumulated, so that is not aggregated and averaged across many reviews.
•Comment on the hardware used for the review – Sharing, for example, the amplifier, speakers, headphones, cables etc. that were used
•Review details – include your comments about the album
•Action links included ◦Add to cart
◦Show all reviews for album
◦Add your own review
•Automatic creation of topics - so that the review can be found across the community
•Automatic sharing of the review - with community members following the: ◦Artist/album
◦Album reviews
◦Reviewer
A Tech Sheet with more details about how the feature works is being produced. Expect to see it in the Knowledge section in the next few days
UK/CA Store Release & Player Distribution
It was always our intention to launch the Pono Music Store in Canada and the UK during the first quarter of 2015. We have worked hard toward this goal, but the complexities that need to be ironed out, and the web of legal, commercial and contractual issues have proven to be more significant than we anticipated when we made our forecast. It is now clear to us that we will not be able to meet the target we set ourselves. This is a real disappointment for all of us, but we feel we must let you know as soon as we realize that we could not launch during this quarter. We are looking at the whole situation, and at the moment we cannot give you a confirmed opening date, but will do so as soon as we can. The goal of opening the store outside of the US is still a very high priority for us.
PonoMusic World
Overview/Update
The Tech Sheets for the software are in the final stages of preparation; expect to see them in the Knowledge Section very shortly
Download Issues
We are aware that some of our customers have had some problems downloading tracks. If you have experienced problems, please reach out to support at ponomusic. We tackle each of these problems individually. If something slips through our net, please let us know, or inform the moderators who will raise the flag with us.
