International singing star Neil Young’s Kickstarter campaign for his new digital music player, the Pono Player, has skyrocketed past its $800,000 goal within hours of being launched.
By noon on Wed. Mar 12th the campaign had reached $1.5 million and raised another million by noon on Thurs. Mar 13th. The campaign is scheduled to run until April 15th.
Young’s inspiration for this project was his strong distaste for the audio quality of most digital music, CBC reports. He says that this project will offer a higher-quality alternative.
Young has been working with electrical engineers on the development of the player for several years. He believes his product is just as portable and convenient as others already on the market.
The device itself will have headphone and auxiliary capabilities as well as a touch screen face.
Young and his co-workers have offered several donation incentives on the Kickstarter campaign. For instance, the first 30 people who make a $5,000 pledge will receive a personal VIP invitation to a dinner and listening party in California with Young himself.
Young and his team are aiming for an October release of the product. The Pono will cost $399 US and will hold 128GB of music memory.
Young stated on the Kickstarter site that, “Pono is about the music, it’s about the people who make the music, and the way it sounds to us when we’re in the studio making it.”
