If Neil Young has his way, the future will be Pono. The 66-year-old singer is planning to take on Apple's iTunes Music Store, launching a "high-resolution" downloads service and releasing his own line of portable players.

Earlier this year, Young said that he and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs had been discussing ways to bring better quality audio to the iPod. But since Jobs's death in October 2011, Young claims Apple has stopped returning his calls. Accordingly, Rolling Stone reports, the title of Young's new memoir is a reference to the looming audio wars; it's called Waging Heavy Peace. "[We] will force iTunes to be better and to improve quality at a faster pace," Young wrote, adding that he wants "to save the sound of music".

According to Rolling Stone, Young has teamed up with Craig Kallman, chairman of Atlantic Records, to create the Pono project. Presumably a riff on "mono", Pono seems to encompass audio protocol, music hardware, conversion software, and a cloud-based music service – though nothing has been confirmed. Warner Music Group, Atlantic's parent company, has reportedly signed on for the project. And the other major labels, Universal and Sony, have been "approached", Kallman said. The hope is that they will all convert their catalogues for hi-fi distribution. "This has to be an industry-wide solution," Kallman explained.

For now, Young has been trying to promote his technology using a single spruced-up Cadillac. He took the Pono-enhanced Eldorado to last year's Bonnaroo festival, playing songs for Mumford & Sons, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others. "It's a drastic difference," Flea said. "MP3s suck." But My Morning Jacket's Jim James highlighted what is perhaps the biggest flaw with plans for a new audio format: "I've already bought Aretha Franklin's Respect a lot of times," he said. "Do I have to buy it again?"

Alexis Petridis talks to Neil Young in next Friday's Guardian.