Qobuz

For the ancient Kazakh string instrument, see Kobyz.

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 and Germany.[1] It offers a tiered subscription service but, unlike its competitor Spotify, does not provide free-of-charge streaming other than for a trial period.[2]

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 Basic, Qobuz HIFI, Qobuz HIFI Classical (at a reduced rate) and Qobuz HIFI Sublime (an annual subscription that offers 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 OS X (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/44.1kHz). 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 downloads in "Hi-Res" (High-resolution_audio) quality (24 bits) as well as CD-quality (16 bits).[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).

External links

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