Neil Young talks Pono in cars, gives vague release date for Q1 2015

Neil Young interview canvasIn an interview with “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer, Neil Young revealed that Pono Music has an in-car strategy. He said the company is working with Harman to give Pono access within the 2016 Lincoln Continental. Tesla is also expected to bring Pono into its digital dashboard once the music store is ready.

The connection with Harman, which works on noise reduction systems for cars, makes sens for Pono. High-res music is wasted in a noisy environment. More curious is the promise of a Lincoln Continental for 2016, which is un-announced by Ford, and has oddly made Neil Young the talk of auto enthusiast publications this morning.

 

Young also projected the official launch of the entire high-definition Pono Music audio ecosystem for the first quarter of 2015.

We haven’t heard any launch announcements directly from the Pono camp, but the beta version of the music store to accompany the player is up and running. The beta launch might have only been announced to Pono’s scores of Kickstarter and Crowdfunder backers.

Young also spoke about comparisons between his work with Pono and the musical activities of Apple under Steve Jobs. “Steve Jobs would have loved this,” he said. “I talked to him about it, and he understood why we were doing this.”

Anna Washenko