Article: Qobuz Tugs on Superman's Cape, Makes Bold Move With Industry's Best Pricing

[The Computer Audiophile]

8 hours ago, Masterstroke said:

According to todays What Hi-Fi this offer is available to UK users, but no mention of the rest of the EU

  Studio Premier will only be .textClipping 5.54 kB · 35 downloads

I saw no mention of territory in that article. In fact it quoted the US managing director. 

[mansr]

9 hours ago, Masterstroke said:

According to todays What Hi-Fi this offer is available to UK users, but no mention of the rest of the EU

Doesn't seem that way. Maybe after Brexit.

 

[Masterstroke]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I saw no mention of territory in that article. In fact it quoted the US managing director. 

True, but it gave the subscription price in £s, which indicates UK.

[Polyglot]

Anyone knows how the French, German and British catalogs compare or whether they are identical? I want to commit long-term to the best classical catalogue, in respect of which the U.S. version is lacking.

[yaslam]

2 hours ago, Polyglot said:

Anyone knows how the French, German and British catalogs compare or whether they are identical? I want to commit long-term to the best classical catalogue, in respect of which the U.S. version is lacking.

 

You can compare the number of catalogs by searching in each store.
After searching in one of the country stores, you can easily compare by copying the URL and rewriting the country path directly. (fr-fr, de-de, gb-en, us-en, etc)
As an example, results of searching for word "beethoven" in the classic genre is as follows.

 

French: 15556
https://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/search?q=beethoven&i=boutique&f[gi]=10#results
German: 15609
https://www.qobuz.com/de-de/search?q=beethoven&i=boutique&f[gi]=10#results
British: 15379
https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/search?q=beethoven&i=boutique&f[gi]=10#results
US: 11978
https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/search?q=beethoven&i=boutique&f[gi]=10#results

 

Although US search results are very few compared to other countries, consider that there are many identical albums with different labels in European catalogs.

[miguelito]

16 hours ago, Masterstroke said:

According to todays What Hi-Fi this offer is available to UK users, but no mention of the rest of the EU

Eh... Your internet is going down after Brexit anyway, y'all.

[miguelito]

7 hours ago, mansr said:

Doesn't seem that way. Maybe after Brexit.

 

299 Quid for Sublime+ ??? MOVE!

 

[rando]

19 hours ago, miguelito said:

I intended to get rid of TIDAL. However, I have found the TIDAL catalog in some areas (eg electronic music) to be deeper.

Deeper or broader?  Or both?  In your opinion.

 

Electronic is not a studio album heavy genre.  Collecting November 2019 remixes worth listening to vs all November album releases would be a lopsided effort.  With nearly every bit in both piles being new material.

[mansr]

4 hours ago, miguelito said:

Eh... Your internet is going down after Brexit anyway, y'all.

That's one of the few areas we actually have some leverage. Almost all the transatlantic data cables terminate in the UK.

[miguelito]

1 hour ago, rando said:

Deeper or broader?  Or both?  In your opinion.

 

Electronic is not a studio album heavy genre.  Collecting November 2019 remixes worth listening to vs all November album releases would be a lopsided effort.  With nearly every bit in both piles being new material.

 

I don't mean remixes, but the electronic genre. There are probably more "studio" albums in this genre than any other...

 

Examples:

https://tidal.com/browse/album/71515060  (released 2017)

https://tidal.com/browse/album/16849992  (released 2006)

[miguelito]

1 minute ago, mansr said:

That's one of the few areas we actually have some leverage. Almost all the transatlantic data cables terminate in the UK.

Well, maybe you should be making the argument you will cut off Europe if they don't do what you ask...

[monteverdi]

In had a French account which got switch to US and I lost the ability to play around 40% of my favorites (which are often not main stream). Looking at the unplayable albums I doubt that these are based on rights issues but on user frequency. So I think the US version is a more dumbed down version for at least classical and esoteric taste.

I might get an European subscription when mine expires even if it would be more expensive or forget about Qobuz!

 

[Daccord]

7 minutes ago, monteverdi said:

In had a French account which got switch to US and I lost the ability to play around 40% of my favorites (which are often not main stream). Looking at the unplayable albums I doubt that these are based on rights issues but on user frequency. So I think the US version is a more dumbed down version for at least classical and esoteric taste.

I might get an European subscription when mine expires even if it would be more expensive or forget about Qobuz!

 

 

Yes, Qobuz implemented a Snob Filter to justify higher prices in some countries. It's a proven marketing strategy.

[mansr]

7 hours ago, monteverdi said:

Looking at the unplayable albums I doubt that these are based on rights issues but on user frequency.

It could be that they didn't bother to negotiate US rights for less played labels. The regional distribution rights madness needs to stop.

[miguelito]

On 11/13/2019 at 5:20 AM, miguelito said:

I don't mean remixes, but the electronic genre. There are probably more "studio" albums in this genre than any other...

 

Examples:

https://tidal.com/browse/album/71515060  (released 2017)

https://tidal.com/browse/album/16849992  (released 2006)

Rereading I realize maybe I posted too quickly... The albums listed above are NOT available in Qobuz US. There are quite a few misses, especially in the electronic genre, in Qobuz US. Many are available - at least for download - from Qobuz UK.

[dmackta]

22 hours ago, monteverdi said:

In had a French account which got switch to US and I lost the ability to play around 40% of my favorites (which are often not main stream). Looking at the unplayable albums I doubt that these are based on rights issues but on user frequency. So I think the US version is a more dumbed down version for at least classical and esoteric taste.

I might get an European subscription when mine expires even if it would be more expensive or forget about Qobuz!

 

This is absolutely not true @monteverdi. There are massive differences in licensing between the US and Europe. As I've often said the better benchmark is whether one of the mainstream services in the US has something, then we should too. 

[monteverdi]

1 minute ago, dmackta said:

This is absolutely not true @monteverdi. There are massive differences in licensing between the US and Europe. As I've often said the better benchmark is whether one of the mainstream services in the US has something, then we should too. 

I don't understand that statement. You mean you should have everything Spotify has or how you define mainstream service?

[mansr]

5 minutes ago, dmackta said:

There are massive differences in licensing between the US and Europe.

And that is why piracy continues to flourish.

[dmackta]

7 hours ago, miguelito said:

Rereading I realize maybe I posted too quickly... The albums listed above are NOT available in Qobuz US. There are quite a few misses, especially in the electronic genre, in Qobuz US. Many are available - at least for download - from Qobuz UK.

@miguelitoThe two Tidal examples you posted are not available on Qobuz UK. There are still a few independent aggregators and labels that haven't licensed us yet. Generally we are trying to get everyone on board. I will look into those labels specifically and try to find out who distributes them. 

[dmackta]

3 minutes ago, monteverdi said:

I don't understand that statement. You mean you should have everything Spotify has or how you define mainstream service?

Yes we should have everything they have. We are still maybe 10 million tracks behind but we are adding 10,000 albums a day. 

[davide256]

have made the change, was only CD quality before. Worthwhile if you have an iPhone and use headphones with 24 bit capable external DAC like Audeze cipher although

getting occasional hiccups at 192k data rates on LTE connections. Would be nice if the Qobuz app were enhanced to allow the option to buffer current track before play

[Polyglot]

16 hours ago, mansr said:

And that is why piracy continues to flourish.

 

Absolutely. If something is missing from streaming services those who wish to listen to it won't sit there with their arms crossed, and in the process might become accustomed to obtaining their music by other means for free. Labels need to put an end to this BS of regionally restricted catalogues. Everything needs to be available to any listener regardless of where they are located.

 

16 hours ago, dmackta said:

Yes we should have everything they have. We are still maybe 10 million tracks behind but we are adding 10,000 albums a day. 

 

I hope this includes classical as presently there is an tremendous amount of recordings not available on Qobuz U.S..

[KenG]

17 hours ago, dmackta said:

Yes we should have everything they have. We are still maybe 10 million tracks behind but we are adding 10,000 albums a day. 

 

I've been moving playlists over (via Soundiiz) from other services (mostly Tidal) and there is very very little that Qobuz does not have. Most of the errors I've noticed are pretty obscure tracks that may have been part of compilations on Tidal. 

Also Very impressed with the Qobuz hi-res selection. I wish that Soundiiz would seek out the Hi-res matches during the playlist transfer but it seems to be hit or miss.

 

[Sal1950]

I'm holding my breath till after Jan 1 before I pull the plug on a years sub between Amazon and Qobuz.  If Qobuz holds the price line I'll go there, they have the Win app with the ablitiy to direct the data stream without resampling. If they raise the price I'll go to Amazon. Yep, I'm a cheapskate.  LOL

[adam2434]

Thanks for this article and thread!  This has really brought Qobuz to my attention!

 

Given that it's been 2 months since the Amazon Music HD launch, and the hardware device compatibility issues have not been improved/addressed, trying Qobuz is very tempting.

 

For the streaming device platforms below, I understand the following.  Please comment if I am wrong or if there is other relevant info.

 

• Heos - no native compatibility within Heos or with Qobuz Connect using the native Qobuz app.  I wonder why?

 

• Chromecast Audio - the native Qobuz app can be used to cast up to 24/96 FLAC to a CCA.
  • For 24/192 FLAC from Qobuz, does the CCA of Qobuz server downsample to 24/96 FLAC?

 

• Sonos - not sure on the details.  I believe you can use a Qobuz app within the Sonos app, but not sure if you can use the native Qobuz app with the Connect feature.  
  • Does anyone know if the native Qobuz app works with Sonos?
  • Of course, the max resolution on Sonos is 16/44.1.