Neil Young’s Kickstarter campaign for his new Pono MP3 player reached its conclusion on Tuesday, and ended up bringing in a lot more than expected.
Rolling Stone reports that the over $6 million was raised by over 18,00 backers by the end of the campaign on April 15th. Young had set an original goal of $800,000, which was met ten hours after the campaign went live on March 11th.
Pono is Young’s initiative of bringing high-quality sound to digital music, something that he’s been advocating for the past few years.
“Pono means righteous. It is a Hawaiian word, the one, the pureness. On behalf of Pono, we thank you for helping us give music a voice,” Young wrote in a message on the Kickstarter page. “You have helped set the stage for a revolution in music listening. Finally, quality enters the listening space so that we can all hear and feel what the artists created, the way they heard and felt it.”
Pono earned the distinction of being the third most funded project in Kickstarter history. A release date for Pono has not yet been set.