Showbiz Sandbox 165: Neil Young Sings The Praises Of His New Digital Music Format
October 1, 2012
Singer-songwriter Neil Young has never been a fan of digital music. The rock legend despises the inferior audio quality of MP3s and CDs so much that he released an anthology of his of his music on Blu-Ray; the only medium that could hold digital files large enough to offer the quality Young demanded. Taking his quest for high fidelity one step further, next year Young will launch Pono, a portable music player and audio platform that uses technology to provide studio quality sound.
Time will tell whether high quality digital audio and Young’s notoriety will be enough to attract consumers to Pono, though the Beatles aren’t waiting around to find out. EMI is releasing the bands entire catalog of albums on vinyl LPs. Remember those? Now all we need is a phonograph to play them on.
Meanwhile the movie awards season has begun to heat up leaving pundits speculating whether Disney might have not one, but three, entries in this year’s Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars; “Brave”, “Frankenweenie” and “Wreck It Ralph”. How ironic that Seth MacFarlane, creator of the hit animated television series “The Family Guy”, has been tapped to host this year’s Academy Awards ceremony.
Of course, we cover all the week’s top entertainment news including two more seasons of “The Voice”, Rachel Maddow’s big ratings and the Beach Boys break up… again.
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Foreign Box Office: ‘Looper’ Opens No. 1 Overseas With $36 Million, Worldwide Winner
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/foreign-box-office-resident-evil-retribution-hotel-transylvania-taken-liam-neeson-375216
Disney Looks To Score Oscar Animation Hat Trick
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/goldstandard/la-et-mn-disney-animation-oscars-20120925,0,2956626.story
Neil Young Expands Pono Digital-to-Analog Music Service
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/09/trent-reznor-abandons-diy-and-returns-to-a-major-label.html
Beatles Album Catalog Will Get Back To Vinyl Nov. 13
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-beatles-vinyl-album-catalog-reissue-20120927,0,4463869.story
MySpace Teases Totally Redesigned Fan & Artist Social Hub
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/09/myspace-teases-totally-redesigned-fan-artist-social-hub-video.html
Andrew Garfield and Director Marc Webb to Return For ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ Sequel
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/amazing-spider-man-sequel-returns-375025
Who May Wind Up Directing “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/58632
NHL: The Puck Stops Here Hockey lockout puts NBC Sports Network on thin ice
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nhl-puck-stops-here-143940
Seth MacFarlane to Host the 2013 Oscars
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/seth-macfarlane-hosting-oscars-375327
B&N To Launch Nook Video Service In the Fall
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/Apps/article/54101-b-n-to-launch-nook-video-service-in-the-fall-names-overseas-chief.html
NBC Renews ‘The Voice’ for Fourth, Fifth Seasons
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/nbc-renews-voice-fourth-fifth-373997
‘The Economist’ Sets Digital Rate Base Claims a first in magazine world
http://www.adweek.com/news/press/economist-sets-digital-rate-base-143969
Pearson Offers Early Access To Tech Titles
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/54150-pearson-offers-early-access-to-tech-titles.html
Brian Wilson Fired? No, But Beach Boys Will Tour Without Him
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-beach-boys-50th-anniversary-reunion-tour-eagles-20120928,0,7962939.story
Rachel Maddow Beats Sean Hannity’s Weekly Demo Ratings for First Time Since 2009
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/rachel-maddow-ratings-sean-hannity-msnbc-fox-news-373556
Newsies Historical Grosses
http://broadwayworld.com/grosses/NEWSIES#sthash.5HnUJMNq.dpbs
Congress Should Be Working to Raise Royalty Rates on Pandora, Not Lower Them
http://www.btigresearch.com/2012/09/24/congress-should-be-working-to-raise-royalty-rates-on-pandora-not-lower-them/
Neil Young is a great artist and a classic, fiddling in your garage tinkerer/entrepreneur so who knows? Maybe his new standard will take hold. If record labels were smart, they’d adopt it just to make their product better, rather than using it as an excuse to try and con us into buying our entire music library again or raise prices. PS Favorite Neil Young album is still Harvest but many, many others astound as well from every decade of his career.