advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Neil Young thinks you want to stream high fidelity audio

Rock legend Neil Young has looked at the music industry and decided that what we all need is another music streaming service.

This won’t be just any music streaming service however, like Jay-Z’s Tidal, Neil Young’s Pono platform would allow users to stream high fidelity music.

“We’re setting up partnerships for a Pono high-res streaming service,” Young told Rolling Stone in an interview. “When we get our streaming service up we’re going to re-emerge as a streaming service and a high-res download offer.”

Pono was originally a prismatic music player and high fidelity audio download service.

The singer goes on to say that the company is looking to create a presence on smartphones. The trouble with this is that FLAC is the compression method of choice for high fidelity audio and only a small number of smartphones support that compression, though that may change over time.

Something else Young and Jay-Z fail to mention is that not everybody would be able to tell the difference between an MP3 with a 320kbps bit-rate file and a lossless FLAC file.

Unlike high-resolution visuals, high-fidelity audio is something you can either hear, or you can’t and if you’re considering picking up a Tidal subscription or Pono when it sees the light of day take this test compiled by NPR Music.

There are of course audiophiles out there that might enjoy this type of service, but considering that FLAC files are often far larger than MP3 files, those audiophiles would also need to afford the data costs that come with downloading high quality files, as well as a device with enough storage for them all.

If you simply want to listen to the latest Taylor Swift single however, Google Play Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify and even Tidal’s base subscription package all provide a great experience without the high data transfer rates.

[Via – Rolling Stone] [Image – CC BY SA Daniel Knecht]

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement