Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Exclusive: Paul McCartney Reboots Beatles Catalog for Neil Young’s Pono Music Player

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All you need is cash: I am told that Neil Young’s high end music player and library, Pono, has scored a coup. They’ve secured the Beatles catalog for download in what’s known as loss-less digital.

Paul McCartney himself is said to be supervising the transfer of the Beatles’ crown in the jewel recordings so they can be added to the Pono catalog which can then be purchased and downloaded into the $399 Pono player.

This could be huge for Pono, which is already offering a wide selection of music on its site at 192 khz. But the Beatles will kick it over the top. Even last night when I ran into the Black Eyes Peas’ will.i.am the first thing he said to me about Pono was “Wait til you hear Sgt. Pepper on Pono. It’s going to blow your mind.” The Pono people have already played the classic 1967 album for him on their device. One thing he did tell me was that you don’t need very expensive head phones to enjoy it. “Just regular good headphones.” (Me, I have Grado and Sennheiser.)

So more to come later this week on Pono. You can also download high end music from a very good site called hdtracks.com, which can be played on an iPod or the Sony Walkman or your cell phone.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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