Qobuz (,
commonly mispronounced: ) is a French commercial music streaming and downloading service. It was founded in 2007 by Yves Riesel, expanded to a limited range of overseas markets, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain, and launched in the US in May 2019.
History
In 2013, Qobuz received the Hi-Res Audio certification, awarded by the Japan Audio Society (JAS). This certification guarantees that the audio streams delivered by Qobuz meet the criteria and standards defined by the JAS.
At the end of 2015, after a period of financial uncertainty, Qobuz attracted a new investor, which allowed the service to continue operating.
In April 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 crisis, Qobuz supported artists by giving 100% of the revenue from each new subscriber’s first paid month back to the rights holders.
On June 3, 2020, Qobuz announced the signing of a financial and industrial partnership with Quebecor, a Canadian leader in telecommunications, entertainment, news media and culture. QUB Music, a streaming platform launched in Quebec by the Quebecor company, was born out of this alliance.
On June 15, 2020, Qobuz ended its MP3 quality streaming offer, focusing instead exclusively on lossless streaming. All Qobuz subscriptions give access to high resolution quality (Hi-Res) and CD quality. However, MP3 listening is available as an option for conserving storage space or using less bandwidth.
In June 2020, the subscription offerings were increased with a family plan, Qobuz Family, which allows the customer to share six accounts among members of the same household.
Qobuz currently offers four plans: Studio Premier (Base subscription, monthly as well as annual with discount), and Studio Sublime (An annual-only subscription that adds a discount on downloads,) as well as Family variants, with up to six users, of each plan and Duo plan.
Qobuz is available in 25 countries.
Qobuz offers all music in
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
at 320 kbps,
CD-DA
Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named ...
quality lossless (16-bit/44.1 kHz) as well as hi-res quality lossless (up to 24-bit/192 kHz) for certain music; downloads are offered in either
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced "wave") is an audio file format standard, developed by IBM and Microsoft, for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. It is the main format used on Microsoft Wind ...
,
AIFF
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File ...
,
ALAC, and
FLAC
FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software p ...
for hi-res quality, with
lossless WMA also available for CD quality music only, and MP3,
standard WMA, and
AAC in 128 kbps or 320 kbps for lossy quality.
The streaming service can be accessed via a web player, or by using a desktop player for
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
and
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
; the Windows version may also work on
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
with recent versions of
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
. Qobuz also provides
Android and
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
applications. Qobuz is also provided natively on a range of
High fidelity equipment from brands such as
Cambridge Audio
Cambridge Audio is a British manufacturer of high-end audio equipment. As the name suggests, it has its origins in Cambridge, England, where in the early 1960s a group of young technology graduates established a high-technology R&D and prototypin ...
,
Linn Linn may refer to:
People
* Linn (surname)
* Linn (given name)
* Linn da Quebrada, stage name of Brazilian singer, actress, screenwriter and television personality Lina Pereira dos Santos (born 1990)
Places Germany
* Linn (Gangkofen), a part ...
and
Naim
Naim (also spelled Na'im, Nayeem, Naeem, Naiem, Nahim, Naheem, Nyhiem, Nihiem, Nyheim, Niheem, or Nahiem) ( ar, نعیم, he, נעים) is a male given name and surname.
Notable persons with the name include:
*Naim ibn Hammad (died 843 AD), H ...
, as well as Roon, and
Sonos
SONOS, short for "silicon–oxide–nitride–oxide–silicon", more precisely, " polycrystalline silicon"—"silicon dioxide"—"silicon nitride"—"silicon dioxide"—"silicon",
is a cross sectional structure of MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconduc ...
.
The company has a partnership with the British classical music magazine ''
Gramophone'', under which the magazine uses Qobuz to publish recommended playlists.
Locations
Open in France since 2007, Qobuz extended its reach in 2014 to eight European countries: United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands then, in 2017, in Spain and Italy.
In 2018, Qobuz was active in eleven countries. In 2019, Qobuz opened its subsidiary in the United States.
On April 15, 2021, Qobuz made its streaming and downloading offers available in six new countries: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Australia and New Zealand.
On May 4th, 2022, Qobuz, continues its global expansion with the opening of its service in six new countries: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and, in Europe, Portugal.
Application
The Qobuz application can be downloaded for free on the AppStore, Google Play. Accessible on mobile and tablet, it is also available on computer for Mac, PC and web player. The application allows listening to 30-second clips for free, however, a paid subscription is required to listen to full tracks. Users of iOS and Android smartphones can access the platform after signing up for a Qobuz Studio subscription. The Qobuz app is compatible with Google Cast/Chromecast built-in.
Hardware
Qobuz streams lossless FLAC files, up to 24-bit/192 kHz, provided by labels, distributors/aggregators, and rights holders.
Since January 22, 2019, Qobuz has been available for listening on Roon.
On January 15, 2020, Naim Audio started integrating Qobuz into its hardware, such as the Uniti Atom, Star & Nova systems as well as the ND5 XS2, NDX 2 and ND 555 network players.
In June 2020, a new update was made for the Mu-so 2nd Generation and Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation wireless systems.
On March 24, 2021, Qobuz became the first music platform to offer high-resolution 24-bit audio streaming on Sonos.
Investment
In August 2019, the French platform raised €12 million from Nabuboto and the Quebecor Group. Qobuz recorded a +45.3% growth in its last fiscal year 2019-2020. In September 2020, the two historical shareholders, Nabuboto and Quebecor, renewed their confidence in the company by raising a further 10 million euros.
Catalog
In 2022, Qobuz offers more than 80 million tracks in CD and "Hi-Res" quality (24 bits up to 192 kHz). All the tracks purchased are offered without any DRM restrictions.
See also
*
Comparison of music streaming services
The following is a list of on-demand music streaming services. These services offer streaming of full-length content via the Internet as a part of their service, without the listener necessarily having to purchase a file for download. This type o ...
*
Comparison of online music stores
Digital music stores sell copies of digital audio, for example in MP3 and WAV file formats. Unlike music streaming services, which typically charge a monthly subscription fee to stream digital audio, digital music stores download songs to the c ...
*
List of Internet radio stations
This is a list of Internet radio stations, including traditional broadcast stations which stream programming over the Internet as well as Internet-only stations.
General
BBC
Radio France
Indian Internet Radios
* Boxout.fm
* R ...
Notes
External links
*
{{Authority control
Online music stores of France
Music streaming services
2007 establishments in France