Article: Qobuz Announces Opening of US Beta

[Hugo9000]

Thanks, Chris!  I signed up for the beta.  Nice to see that they want to compete with Spotify for the more casual streaming customer, by offering the $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr lossy tier, as well as having CD-quality lossless and Hi-Res tiers for those who want that.

 

I currently use Spotify for music discovery and occasional times when I'm lazy or away from my CD collection, so as long as the user experience is decent on Qobuz, I'll probably drop Spotify.  Who knows, they might interest me in the higher service tiers if the classical selection includes enough of my favorites to make it worthwhile.  At any rate, the variety of tiers and choices of monthly or yearly plans is appealing!

[Hugo9000]

Too late to edit my post above, but it seems I wasn't using "music discovery" correctly.  I don't use suggestions based on genre or tracks or albums I listen to.  I look on arkivmusic.com by composer or performer or composition, and if a recording looks like it might be interesting, I try to locate it on Spotify, which is sometimes a chore as they don't list things consistently with classical.  I do all the work, and then use Spotify to check if a recording meets my artistic standards and to get a basic idea of sound quality before deciding to buy the album on CD or SACD.  So my use of Spotify is just a bit more convenient than using youtube haha!

 

Qobuz is said to actually be useful for classical fans, so if they let me into their beta, I'll be giving it a try.  No email yet to acknowledge my joining the waiting list.  (If I don't get to join their beta, then I'll remember the snub for all time, and never ever ever ever use their service and will advise everyone I know to stay away!  haha!    )

[Hugo9000]

I haven't received any emails at all, and nothing to my spam folder.  One would think they would have an automated reply sent to everyone who submitted an email address to join the wait list.

[Hugo9000]

I signed up for the beta about 6 hours after it was first announced.  Today I received an invitation email, and I've been checking it out for the past couple of hours or so.  I chose Qobuz Studio for my trial period.  I'm using the Qobuz app for Windows.  WASAPI exclusive mode, up to 24/192 playback.  So far no albums have played gaplessly, which is annoying.  I don't see anything regarding gapless in the settings.  Googling now, no solution found so far...

[Hugo9000]

Just as a followup to my post above, yesterday's update of the Qobuz app fixed the gapless playback issue, as noted by @David Craff here:

 

I've been listening happily ever since!

 

I am one of those people who always reads every CD booklet, so I'm pleased that Qobuz took the effort to include "digital booklets" with such easy access in the app!

[Hugo9000]

Quote

About Qobuz
Founded in 2007, Qobuz is a Paris-based commercial online music streaming and downloading service that addresses the needs of curious and discerning music lovers across the globe. Live in eleven European markets and launching in the US in early 2019, Qobuz offers an exceptional range of music genres as well as exclusive editorial content independently curated by a team of experts. Qobuz offers subscription to streaming services with genuine CD quality audio of more than 40-million tracks and over 2 million Hi-Res tracks up to 24-bit/192k resolution from all genres. For more information: www.qobuz.com.

@The Computer Audiophile & @R1200CL

This is from the bottom of their press release about the U.S. Beta.  Those numbers are based on their European service, and as they haven't completed all of the licensing for the United States, they probably don't have the same numbers here yet.  I imagine they anticipate being able to add most of those here, since it's the same small group of conglomerates that hold most of the rights.

[Hugo9000]

The quoted part was directly from their press release that Chris shared.  How can I be "totally wrong" when it's obviously there, and all I did was quote it.  I made no claim about the actual numbers, I don't work for them or for any auditing service.  Perhaps Qobuz was "totally wrong" to include that.

 

You might brush up on your manners.

[Hugo9000]

Good lord, this comment thread is for the press release!  smh

 

 

[Hugo9000]

22 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

 

Would you be kind enough to give me a link to that press release ?

 

This one ?

https://shorefire.com/releases/entry/qobuz-prepares-for-us-launch-announces-pricing-plan

 

And this one ?

https://shorefire.com/releases/entry/qobuz-announces-roon-integration

 

I can’t find similar press releases on Qobuz news room in their website. And for sure not the 2 mill hires. 

 

Here is an example with correct information 

http://blogsv2.qobuz.com/qobuz-blog-en/2018/10/10/qobuz-studio-launch-the-first-monthly-and-unlimited-hi-res-streaming-subscription/

 

or this one. 

 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/qobuz-to-preview-high-res-audio-music-streaming-and-download-service-at-cedia-expo-300705472.html

Try the press release that this very comment thread is about... 🙄

 

Hint:  It helpfully has the heading "Press Release" at the start...