Qobuz price reduction

Streaming Audio
62

It’s true… it costs more to buy a decent record here than to sub to a couple of music services… system cost more than a secentnused car and I’m still balking an extra $15 a month to run Qobuz and Apple Music :joy:…

To be honest if apple sort out airplay or bring out an Apple connect function then I would imagine tidal Qobuz and Deezer will all be on borrowed time. I already get Spotify free with my phone so it’s hard to compete with that for small companies - if their isn’t an op charge for their hifi layer music becomes essentially free even for an audiophile

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63

I tend to agree, if they are having to compete price wise to retain/attract members to remain viable it probably doesn’t bode well unless their older pricing was bringing in decent profits which I doubt.

The one thing they have in their armoury is the ability to purchase CD/hi-res quality downloads which seems to be lacking from teh big players (apart from Tidal).

Equally, I suppose music companies/rights owners might be offering better rates to streaming companies across the board now that there’s a shift towards lossless/hi-res from Apple/Amazon (neither of whom currently have simple ways to deliver it for audiophiles).

Not sure I’d pay double (and their family package is really overpriced), as although I’ve always been happy to pay more for better quality/service, the reality is if you do this in multiple areas you may well be paying far more than needed.

65

I’ve got Apple Music Family (only me and my daughter really use it, mostly her), Qobuz Sublime (CD quality streams) and Tidal.

Combined the cost of these services is only that of 2-3 new vinyl LPs each month which is mind boggling, however I suspect I could get most of what I need from Apple Music (once a simple strategy for streaming hi-res to Naim is available). It would be without the ability currently to purchase in hi-res, though increasingly I’m not certain I don’t actually prefer CD quality for many titles.

Tidal is probably used least and that could be an instant £240 per annum saving, hmmm…

I do enjoy comparing items from Qobuz and Tidal in Roon however and the catalogues are to some extent complementary. I’ve started noticing recently that certain Tidal titles are not streaming in the quality they are supposed to me - for example Roon trells me Tidal have a 24/44.1 version but when played it’s actually 16/44.1.

I think I need to attack mobile phones, mobile broadband and utility costs first!

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66

I used Bandcamp many years ago to buy stuff from local fledgling bands - so long ago my old credentials/purchases are no longer recognised which puts me off a bit as my account seems to have ‘expired’.

Are more mainstream artists using Bandcamp much? I’ve certainly seen a few high profile artists using them, but is it becoming more common?

68

Thanks for the heads-up @Bokermonz. I didn’t get the e-mail but was able to update my subscription here in Germany. P.S. This may be of interest to you @BertBird as a Qobuz subscriber, in case you haven’t seen it already.

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69

Yes, I think I changed from monthly to annual billing about 3 weeks ago.

70

The current changes are the result of a new $10M investment round at Qobuz, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on how you look at it.

The previous management team has been largely replaced, i think it’s safe to assume the investors weren’t entirely happy with how things were going.

“The French service closed its last fiscal year with over 45% growth”

This is a bad result, Qobuz only has around 200K paying subscribers and $12M yearly revenue, so a 45% growth is only about 100K extra subscribers.

Spotify 160M subscribers ($10.8B revenue)
Youtube Music 50M subscribers
Amazon Music 60M subscribers
Apple Music 80M subscribers
Tidal 3-4M subscribers

etc.

Press report:

Qobuz is setting up a new management team and launching a recruitment plan that is unprecedented in the company’s history.

Internationally, for Qobuz’ Paris HQ, Georges Fornay, the executive behind the development and success of the PlayStation in French and Swiss territories, has been appointed Deputy CEO.

At his side, Céline Gallon joins Qobuz as Chief People Officer. Finally, Raphaël Awóṣéyìn, who has held the position of Head of Quality Assurance within Qobuz for over a year, is appointed Chief Customer Officer.

On the US side, music veteran Rachel Silton has joined as Acquisition and Marketing Manager. Rachel brings a range of expertise from her roles across the music industry including Marketing Director at NYC Winter Jazzfest & Sound Mind Live, Project Manager at Motema Music and Marketing Consultant for GRAMMY-nominated artists.

Other major recruitments are planned to take place by the end of the year.

“We are very proud of our latest fundraising milestone of 10 million euros, which shows our historical shareholders’ confidence in our model. The end of the year promises to be full of exciting projects for Qobuz. We are also very pleased with the arrival of Georges Fornay, Céline Gallon, and other experienced professionals who are committed to upholding the ambitions of our brand. We are ready to step up our international presence to offer a unique offer to those who do not compromise on musical quality,” declares Denis Thébaud, Chairman and CEO of Qobuz.

If you are familiar with corporate speak, the last paragraph above does not sound good. A company should be proud of their achievements and growth, not of the fact that their investors have not abandoned ship.

Since they have now chosen to compete on price, it seems unavoidable that this will gradually also result in reduced payouts to artists.

I’m hoping to be proven wrong and that Qobuz will succeed without negatively affecting artists, but it seems like a difficult business model to sustain.

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71

I’ve been using Tidal for a while now but think the time is right to try Qobuz.

Please can someone clarify the difference between Premier and Sublime; as far as I can tell both stream Hi-Res, but Sublime allows for purchase of material - is that the only difference?

Also, do downloads sound different to streamed versions of the same music?

Thanks.

72

Yes, it is just the discount on downloads that differentiates. Personally a download from Qobuz via my Core does sound a bit better. But it’s not enough imo to bother with downloads unless it is a must have album. The other consideration for purchases of cd’s and downloads is if your broadband goes down do you have back up music……i have a few thousand on my uniti Core.

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73

Thanks for the quick reply Gazza. I’m going to give Premier a go I think then and compare with Tidal. I’m expecting Qobuz to be better due to Nam’s lack of MQA compatibility although in my case Roon does the first unfold.

I asked the second question about sound quality and then thought what have I done as it gets into the “bit are bits” territory, do cables or switches make a difference realm…

74

You can purchase music with any tier in any available quality - Sublime gives you discounts of roughly 40-60% on many hi-res downloads, but no discount for CD quality - this often makes buying hi-res cheaper (you can download multiple times in multiple formats and quality up to what you purchased).

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75

but you can import as many albums as you want for offline listening which covers you for broadband failure for free. tho only if you don’t have to log out of qobuz - which seems to be naim’s standard response to problems with the app

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76

Some bigger artists still release stuff on it but not major artists. Most of the releases j have bought from the last 2 years I have got from Bandcamp.

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77

Do you mean offline listening via the Qobuz app for stuff you have not purchased or your purchases via Qobuz. You can’t play offline streaming through any source other than the Qobuz app itself as they are protected with drm as you don’t own them so not much use unless you use their app via a DAC or Chromecast, Airplay.

78

but very useful if you do use their app - the naim app isn’t compulsory - and we are talking about a temporary workround to cover for loss of broadband

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79

Thanks William - already had a yearly subscription, which will be less in Mai now, which is nice…

80

Back to my bug bear about the amount artists get paid. Does anybody know how much they get if you actually purchase a download from Qobuz? I like the idea of paying the artist where I can…

81

Agreed, that’s why I buy CD from either Bandcamp or the artists official store.

82

And the best bit is it’s often a cheaper option too.

83

I feel bad for the artists. I would gladly pay double or triple each month for Qobuz if I knew it was going to the artists. However, I’m not going to buy CDs and downloads of digital music thinking it will help, when I don’t really need them. Streaming Qobuz meets my needs for digital. I don’t feel the need to purchase anything I can stream. As it is I have a library of over 4000 LPs and have attended plenty of concerts, so I have done my part supporting the artists. I can’t solve the problem with royalties from streaming. I hope the artists can.

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