Qobuz Download Store
Hetty Calin
One year ago, Qobuz launched Qobuz Club, an exclusive online platform designed to provide a space for open discussion among all music and hi-fi enthusiasts. A year later, Qobuz Club has successfully brought together a community of music lovers and audiophiles from around the world, establishing itself as a hub for varied and thought-provoking discussions related to music of all kinds.
Just one year after its launch, Qobuz Club has established an authentic and vibrant community of music enthusiasts sharing musical discoveries and recommendations, as well as advice on HiFi audio equipment. Qobuz Club includes:
And to embrace and live your passion for high-quality music even more fully, Qobuz presents Qobuz Lifestyle, an online store where customers will find a line of stylish Qobuz and Qobuz Club-branded clothing and accessories, including seasonal collections in Qobuz colors. Discover here:
I am running over ethernet cable into my router on fibre broadband with 850mbps speed. I am able to stream Youtube content to my TV over the same connection but cannot access anything on the RS150b, e.g. Rose store, Rose tube, Qobuz, other than internet radio.
Can you please liaise with the UK distributor, Henley Audio, to discuss buy back of my 150b. The unit is two years old and outside of warranty but it is now no more than an expensive radio and I will need to replace with a streamer/DAC which works.
Can you please advise what security or IP changes you have made either on the 150b software or on your servers, which caused my main router to start blocking connectivity. I would also like to understand if there are any considerations I need to be aware when configuring my main router to allow access to your servers.
"You won't find MP3 files here!" is the claim from Qobuz, which now offers thousands of singles and albums in CD-quality and above, alongside its streaming music service (the first such service to deliver CD-quality FLAC files).
The new Qobuz downloads store - which launched in the company's native France and is now available in the UK and various other European countries - offers all tracks at a minimum 16-bit/44.1 kHz (lossless CD-quality), while many 'Studio Masters', delivered as 24-bit/192kHz high-resolution audio files. A quick look on the Qobuz site seems to indicate that there are the best part of 20,000 albums available in high-resolution formats.
In an effort to counter some of the accusations around HD music download sites, Qobuz has also made clear it will only be selling bona fide high-res files: "The albums sold by Qobuz in 'Qobuz Studio Master' quality are supplied to us directly by the labels. They are not re-encoded from SACDs and as such we guarantee their pedigree. We refuse to accept suspect offerings simply to enlarge our offering."
Album prices seem to vary from around 10 to 15 for high-res releases, with a few quid discount on the CD-quality downloads. The CD-quality, 'Qobuz Hi-Fi' music subscription service remains at 19.99 per month, or 9.99 per month for the 'Qobuz Premium', 320kbps MP3 version.
If Qobuz was a member of your circle of friends, it would be the strong-minded one. You know the type, the slightly eccentric leader who's ferociously talented and admirably principled. Qobuz is the friend who does things their own way and in their own time, or not at all.
The French music service (which also offers any music lover the chance to rent and purchase hi-res music even if they don't subscribe) was founded in September 2007 but took its sweet time to travel and expand. In fact, it only launched in the US in May 2019 and only arrived in Australia in April 2021.
All of which is pretty refreshing, no? Add to this the clear Hi Res Audio stickers on all available content along with clearly displayed resolution on each track, plus the fact that Qobuz ditched MP3s years ago to focus solely on lossless streaming and it's a compelling proposition.
It's not the most sociable choice out there mind you (you won't find any AI DJs or Wrapped-style festival lineup posters for sharing on social media) but if you know what you like and you're as strong-minded as Qobuz itself, you may have met your ideal musical match.
For balance, it's worth noting that since June 2021 Apple Music's offering has included Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos as well as fun extras such as Apple Music Sing and even a free-to-subscribers Apple Music Classical app, all of which is made even better if you own an Apple source device and a set of the best AirPods to listen with. There's none of that with Qobuz. It is toying with THX, but at the time of writing there isn't an awful lot of it.
Ultimately, it'll come down to whether you like Qobuz's admirable commitment to the best resolution and interesting extras such as a magazine, which includes news pieces and interviews with artists, all for slightly more than Spotify or Apple Music per month. We like Qobuz a lot. It's kookier than Tidal, the interface is less jumbled than Apple Music and the music quality easily trounces anything in Spotify's catalog. Oh, and it's cheaper than Tidal's similar offering.
Qobuz can lay claim to being the first ever service to offer 16- and 24-bit audio files for both streaming and download, and having the biggest hi-res catalog right now, but it does come at a slight premium compared to several of its rivals.
Also, the ecosystem is stronger than you might think, especially if you've yet to become acquainted. There's a web player (to listen direct from your browser), applications for Mac, iOS and Android, integration with hi-fi heavy hitters such as Roon software, Bowers & Wilkins and Bang & Olufsen hi-fi products, Chromecast (to listen to Qobuz on all your devices using Google Cast) and Samsung TV to stream Qobuz direct from the TV. Oh, and you can listen to Qobuz directly in your car with CarPlay or Android Auto.
So basically, this is Qobuz moving away from AI and algorithm recommendations (think Spotify's counterfactual machine learning) and over towards the advice, tips, enthusiasm and opinions of actual, real-life human beings. And we like it.
Qobuz also offers Studio Duo, Studio Family, Sublime Duo and Sublime Family tiers, which start at $14.99 / 14.99 a month for Studio Duo (when you pay for a whole year upfront). Yes, it's a little confusing, but if you and your significant other both want hi-res streaming, Studio Duo is probably the best value option there is here.
Both Qobuz Studio and Qobuz Sublime get you Studio quality streaming (FLAC 24-Bit up to 192 kHz), over 100 million tracks, original editorial content and offline listening. What does Sublime get you that Studio doesn't? Discounts on hi-res purchases of up to 60%, so if you're planning regular visits to the download store on Qobuz, it's good value.
Refreshingly, along with the Hi-Res Audio yellow sticker you'll see as you scroll albums and tracks, Qobuz gives you the figures too (with 24-bit/44.1kHz coming up a lot, in our searches) or sometimes just 'CD-quality' written underneath a track. Other streaming services group the vague resolution using terms such as 'lossless', 'SD' and 'HD'; Qobuz gives it to you straight up.
Now, if you're listening on even the best noise-cancelling headphones, you might want to go wired and maybe nab one of the best portable DACs to boot when listening to Qobuz's beyond-CD offerings. Why? Because as with Apple Music's Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless tracks, Bluetooth connectivity applies its own limitations on quality and it still isn't quite good enough to get those hi-res files at their full potential.
Although several streaming services are following suit with better quality audio, certain platforms also offer more immersive content with Spatial Audio (Apple Music), 360 Reality Audio (Tidal) and Dolby Atmos (both of the above).
Qobuz is still relatively slow on the uptake with three-dimensional audio, but when it does go 3D, it prefers THX. Available to anyone listening from a device of their choice over any headphones, THX Spatial Audio uses advanced signal processing to place sounds "out of the head" and transform conventional audio with realistic acoustics ensuring a unique listening experience.
As well as the web player (to listen directly from your browser), there are applications for Mac, iOS and Android integration with hi-fi heavy hitters such as Roon software, Bowers & Wilkins and Bang & Olufsen hi-fi products, Chromecast (to listen to Qobuz on all your devices using Google Cast) and Samsung TV to stream Qobuz direct from the TV. Oh, and you can listen to Qobuz directly in your car with CarPlay or Android Auto.
In terms of discovering new music, Qobuz is not a front-runner in the way Spotify is. For example, the big green giant can curate niche mixes especially for you if you discover a penchant for goblincore or pagode, say. Qobuz cannot do that. And neither does it ask for you to select ever multiplying bubbles containing the names of genres or acts you already like in the way that Apple Music does upon first signing up.
Thanks for the suggestions! Unfortunately, I can only get the information from what's available on the page. I don't see the UPC or ISRC when viewing releases on the website. Also, the 600x600 album artwork is the best available from the website, as far as I can tell.
Of note: I believe that each qobuz album has a qobuz "store" page and a qobuz "streaming" page and I think each of those pages has some unique metadata, or at least they used to. Might be worth a peek if you are interested. In the meantime, I will start poking around myself.
I'm not currently happy with the way COMPOSER is extracted. Inconsistent fields are causing problems. Case in point: Beyond the Call: A Musical Tribute to Courage, Honor and Sacrifice, Various Artists - Qobuz
In the above case (Track 2), instead of the credits displaying as "William Arce, MainArtist - Mark Shultz, Composer - Cindy Morgan, Composer", they display as "William Arce, MainArtist - Mark Shultz, Cindy Morgan, Composer". So by removing all roles except the "Composer" role using RegexpReplace, it removes Cindy Morgan in this case. The only way I can think of to get around it is to remove all the spaces from the credit roles, which requires knowing the credit roles. (I'm sure I'm not accounting for everything yet.)
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