Neil Young Bares All as Pono Struggles to Move Forward

Neil Young is remarkably upbeat and remarkably candid in a recent Facebook post about the problems facing his Kickstarter-funded company, PonoMusic.

Noting that many Kickstarter companies that don’t make it, Young writes: “The real world is challenging. But Pono has done it. We have no proven business leader at the head of our company, but the search continues for one who could do it to our liking and understand what our goal is and how big it is. We are still looking. We have a big goal.”

He is also open about the “lack of resources” that is hindering efforts to set up stores in multiple countries. “This is our highest priority,” he writes. “As soon as we have the funds, those stores will open.”

Young’s post oozes with passion as he singles out key employees, explains what each of its eight business partners does, and explains how Pono working to “preserve the history of recorded music in its highest form…We are restoring an art form.

“We strive to find or help create the highest quality level, either by searching through analog vaults with record companies and artists, or by tracking the historical provenance of existing digital releases, ensuring the highest quality available gets to the Pono Master library and further to the musical libraries spread around the world. This means that the music will always be heard at its highest level.”

The 69-year-old rock icon also talks about Pono’s success in building community and making its customers’ requests available to music companies and artists so they can “see where to start improving to please the music loving community that is finally speaking directly to them.”

Young addresses the struggles of starting and running a company in the first paragraph of his post: “It has not been easy but we are doing what we love to do: making music sound GREAT. We are a little company doing what only one giant corporation has been able to do before. And we are doing some things they have not done. We are serving Hi Res master files of your favorite music. We have an engaged and thriving online community. With no advertising we have put tens of thousands of players and hundreds of thousands of tracks in the ears of music lovers. We do this by working with many companies who help us to provide the quality we serve.”

Read Young’s post here.

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