One possible feature could be to enable automatic downloading of any track or album purchased on your smartphone onto any connected servers you have at home. Qobuz is currently working with partners such as Aurender and Bluesound to find ways of improving the download experience. Downloading hasn't been totally neglected, not least as Qobuz expects downloaders to move to streaming eventually. Others are pushing mainstream music, whereas we try to push emerging artists and not just pop music.” Arguably that's what its subscriber base, largely comprising music enthusiasts aged over 40, wants.ĭespite a decline in the popularity of downloading music, Rébus claims that Qobuz's download service, Sublime+, is doing well. Rébus acknowledges the shortcomings of its service, saying: “We differentiate ourselves with our catalogue. While it claims to have the biggest library of 24-bit tracks among its competitors – almost double Tidal's number – we would often find albums on Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer that weren't available on Qobuz at all. Differentiation: catalogue, downloads, partnersīut, as our recent review of the service noted, Qobuz won't be perfect for everyone. "But with Family Plan, we think parents are more likely to get rid of Spotify, because something better exists,” he adds. "Our customers tend to accumulate services: Qobuz for themselves, and maybe Spotify or Apple Music for the kids," says Rébus. Qobuz is also attempting to bring down costs by introducing a Family Plan. Now, we have to deal with each label in each country, so it takes time… but our interest is in democratising hi-res." However, until it can achieve this, Qobuz remains pricier than its hi-res streaming rivals in other markets. "Before reducing the price, we had to make sure we could keep our margins, so we talked to the labels and this new price allows us to do that. The beauty of the US relaunch is that now it’s one single subscription of $15 per month, which is below Tidal and Deezer," says Rébus. "We thought four tiers were too many – Qobuz customers come here for hi-res, not MP3s. "Our issue was price, so we reduced it with our Studio Premiere plan," says Rébus. Meanwhile, in the US, Qobuz has relaunched with just one competitively priced tier. Qobuz’s Premium (MP3) and HiFi (CD-quality) subscriptions will soon be gone, leaving just the Studio (£25/$25 per month) and Sublime+ (£250/$300 per year) packages.īoth offer access to a CD-quality and hi-res catalogue, but the latter is an annual-payment-only option that also offers discounts to its download store. Qobuz recently announced that it was going to ditch MP3s altogether: "It has been 20 years, it’s time to move on," says Rébus. Best music streaming services: free streams to hi-res audio.
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