Pono Music announced that it will upgrade customers’ purchases to higher resolutions as they become available from labels at no charge. This new policy, dubbed the PonoPromise, is meant to avoid the cycle of re-purchasing songs as they become available on better or more convenient formats, such as from cassettes to CDs to MP3s. Continue Reading
Tidal may still be a small player in subscriber numbers, but the high-res streaming platform is taking up a lion’s share of news in recent months. Today, we have more information about what Tidal will look like under the helm of Jay-Z and his business enterprise. The idea of being a streaming service for and by the artists is a fine one, but it still needs to make a pitch to listeners in order to stay afloat. Continue Reading
Deezer’s first foray into the U.S. was a much-discussed Elite plan that centered on an exclusive partnership with Sonos. As previously forecast, the Elite offering is now available in all of Deezer’s markets, but still only on Sonos speaker hardware.… Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Most innovative companies in music; Onkyo announces expansion. Continue Reading
The first rumblings of skepticism about Pono Music and its promised revolution in sound quality emerged last month, and since then the critics have become more visible and more vocal. Professional musician and journalist David Pogue is the latest to turn his ear to the question of how much different hi-def listening can really offer. In the interest of science, he conducted a blind experiment. Continue Reading
Tidal has rolled out in five new European markets. The hi-fi streaming service is now available in Ireland, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The service promises a library of more than 25 million tracks at lossless, CD quality. Listeners in the new markets will pay the same subscription price of $19.99 per month for access. Continue Reading
As hi-rez listening solutions continue to pop up (Neil Young’s Pono Music being the best-known), RAIN senior writer Anna Washenko test-drove the newly launched Tidal streaming platform from European company Wimp. It costs twice as much as other on-demand services ($20/month). Is it worth it? Continue Reading
Deezer has made significant inroads in the streaming ecosystem of Europe, but soon it will make its first landing in the U.S. The first service it will offer to American listeners is called Deezer Elite. For a monthly subscription of $19.99, listeners can stream lossless FLAC files. Initially, the plan will require listeners to use a Sonos speaker system to stream the tunes, although those people will get a discount on the monthly fee. Continue Reading
In what could be characterized as a noble attempt to bridge the mass market’s preference for convenience over quality, and the audiophile’s choice of pristine audio over mobility, a Scandinavian streaming music service called WiMP has introduced lossless streaming. Lossless… Continue Reading