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 at 320 kbps, CD-DA 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,

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 ...

, 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 softwa ...

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

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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 la ...

; 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, whi ...

with recent versions of

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. Qobuz also provides Android and iOS 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 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-semicondu ...

. The company has a partnership with the British classical music magazine ''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'', 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.

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control Online music stores of France Music streaming services 2007 establishments in France