08/05/2014 - Will Neil Young’s PonoMusic be a Success?
One of the most iconic musicians of our generation, Neil Young launches his PonoMusic streaming service in October, this year. A new innovative digital music service with the following mission statement:
“PonoMusic's mission is to provide the best possible listening experience of your favorite digital music.”
With many dismissing the service before its release, how will it fair against other digital powerhouses in this extremely competitive marketplace? Unsurprisingly, PonoMusic is getting slammed at present for it’s less than innovative approach and its failure to deliver on its promises.
Digital Music News criticized the service, in which they dedicated an entire article on the failings of said device. Noting its design flaws, lack of groundbreaking features and its inability to hold a significant amount of music, being its major flaws.
And unfortunately for Young and his PonoMusic project, it doesn’t look promising ahead of its imminent release, regardless of a heavily backed Kickstarter campaign which has seen over $6million dollars being pledged. But there is more important variables that PonoMusic will have to face once it is launched: the stiff competition in a market that’s growth increasingly spikes each year. As ultimate-guitar.comreported, “It’s easy to understate the cultural effect of the mobile app market since Apple’s game-changing App Store launch in 2008.” It’s this “growth in mobile internet that is one of the most powerful trends in the Internet landscape”, reported gaming developer Gaming Realms, which created the online portal Pocket Fruity. This mobile Internet directly affects the chances of PonoMusic prevailing in a market that is leaning more and more towards the mobile-based streaming services such as Spotify, Soundcloud and iTunes.
Can Neil Young’s PonoMusic succeed in a market that music and technology hacks believe will be spearheaded by the more mobile-friendly devices? And is this just a stab at nostalgia packaged in a gleaming 21st century case?
