Whatever happened to Pono?

Why is it so hard for quality audio to gain a foothold in the mainstream? I ask myself who doesn't want quality? Everyone wants better quality, the question, of course, is at what price. When Neil Young decried the quality of Apple's music service he decided to take matters into his own hands. He created Pono, a high-performance portable music player. He formed a company to build the players and he rallied a few labels around the idea of higher resolution downloads. Of course, Pono was doomed from the beginning: it was a goofy design executed by an even goofier corporate infrastructure. But that was never the point of Pono. Pono bravely waved the flag of high quality in the face of mass market media. Their yawning response was predictable: "I am unwilling to move a finger to get better sound". And, that's the thing. We all want better. A few of us are willing to work for it. The majority are fine with the taking but uninterested if it requires even a modicum of effort. A horse lead to water will only drink if she's thirsty.