Qobuz

Qobuz is a French commercial music streaming and downloading service. It was founded in 2007 by Yves Riesel and has expanded to a limited range of overseas markets, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain.[1] It launched in the US in May 2019. It offers a tiered subscription service and, similar to its competitor Tidal, does not provide free-of-charge streaming other than for a trial period.[2]

For the ancient Kazakh string instrument, see Kobyz.

At the end of 2015, after a period of financial uncertainty, Qobuz attracted a new investor, which allowed the service to continue operating.[3][4]

Services

Qobuz currently offers four music streaming services: Qobuz Premium, Qobuz HiFi, Qobuz Studio (a monthly or annual subscription that offers 24-bit streaming) and Qobuz Sublime+ (an annual subscription that offers 24-bit streaming, 24-bit digital downloads at reduced cost in addition to the streaming service). The streaming service can be used via the web-based Qobuz Player, or by using the Qobuz Desktop player which is available for Microsoft Windows and macOS (the Windows version may work under Linux with recent versions of Wine). Qobuz also provides Android and iOS applications, as well as Sonos support.[5]

Qobuz offers digital music streaming in CD quality (FLAC 16-bit/44.1 kHz). Qobuz and Tidal are the only generally available CD quality streaming services (as Deezer Elite is restricted to Sonos users). Qobuz also provides a digital music downloading service, offering all downloads in CD-quality (16-bit) as well as some in "Hi-Res" (high-resolution audio) quality (24-bit).[6]

The company has a partnership with the British classical music magazine Gramophone, under which the magazine uses Qobuz to publish recommended playlists.[7]

See also

Notes
  1. Beuve-Méry, Alain. "Qobuz cherche à faire entendre sa voix aux côtés des grands du streaming". Le Monde. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  2. Cullingford, Martin. "The value of a recording is constantly changing". Gramophone (September 2014).
  3. "The latest news from your favourite online music service, Qobuz!". The Qobuz Blog. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  4. "Xandrie SA: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Businessweek.com. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  5. "Qobuz applications – Unlimited Music Subscriptions – Music downloads and streaming". Qobuz. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  6. Everard, Andrew. "High-resolution downloads for the same price as MP3s? That's more like it". Gramophone (October 2013).
  7. Jolly, James. "What a vintage!". Gramophone (December 2014).
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