Qobuz subscription price variations

[Dave2002]

I just had an email announcing a bump in the Basic (no longer available) Qobuz subscription to (effectively) £9.99 per month.

This is sufficient for me to cancel my subscription, and spend the money saved on CDs instead.

[Sir Velo]

I just had an email announcing a bump in the Basic (no longer available) Qobuz subscription to (effectively) £9.99 per month.

This is sufficient for me to cancel my subscription, and spend the money saved on CDs instead.

So one or two CDs a month is better value for you than unlimited listening to a virtually inexhaustible library of recordings, many of which in hi res.?

[Dave2002]

So one or two CDs a month is better value for you than unlimited listening to a virtually inexhaustible library of recordings, many of which in hi res.?

Absolutely! Except that for the same money as the new subscription I could almost certainly obtain between 50 to 100 CDs, such as in the Harnoncourt and Bernstein boxes I bought recently. I do not trust any streaming service to continue to function indefinitely, and I was only using Qobuz occasionally with a view to assessing recordings before purchasing them. This price hike is a sufficient stimulus for me to change strategy, whereas a smaller jump would probably not have had that effect. I am reasonably happy with CD, SACD or Blu Ray audio quality, and if I need more experiences I go to live concerts and operas which sometimes provide even higher quality.

[DublinJimbo]

I've been a Qobuz subscriber for ten years now. I've been paying €14.99 per month all that, for the Hi-Fi Classique (CD-quality) service which ceased to appear as an option quite some time ago, and I was aware that I was living on borrowed time. Today I received a discontinuation notice and was informed that I would be switched to the current Hi-Fi subscription model from next renewal, at which point my monthly fee will increase to €19.99. I have absolutely no problem with this. One change I probably will make is to switch to an Irish account rather than the French one which was all that was available when I signed up in 2009.

I originally joined Qobuz for the download facility and have amassed almost 800 virtual albums over my ten years with them. It's a year or so since I've moved to being more a streamer than a downloader, but even before that shift it's been part of my weekly routine to check late on Thursday nights or early on Fridays to see what's newly become available. Qobuz remains the service that I recommend to friends and will continue to be. None of those who have given it a try on the strength of my recommendation have expressed any concern about the pricing structure: indeed, my latest convert took the full plunge and signed up for high-res streaming for €24.99 monthly and is thrilled with the experience (he uses the same listening setup as I do: via Audirvana and an iFi DAC.

[Alison]

I’ve also noticed that full price CDs seem to have gone up a couple of quid recently.

[Dave2002]

I’ve also noticed that full price CDs seem to have gone up a couple of quid recently.

Possibly, but many very good recordings are now available for low prices. There are many to choose from. Each individual person can make his or her own decision re streaming services. I intend to abandon such for the immediate future. I doubt whether I’ll miss much.

[richardfinegold]

Absolutely! Except that for the same money as the new subscription I could almost certainly obtain between 50 to 100 CDs, such as in the Harnoncourt and Bernstein boxes I bought recently. I do not trust any streaming service to continue to function indefinitely, and I was only using Qobuz occasionally with a view to assessing recordings before purchasing them. This price hike is a sufficient stimulus for me to change strategy, whereas a smaller jump would probably not have had that effect. I am reasonably happy with CD, SACD or Blu Ray audio quality, and if I need more experiences I go to live concerts and operas which sometimes provide even higher quality.

What was the old fee?
Dave is right in that CD prices, particularly of large box reissues, have become ridiculously inexpensive, but still the streaming fee represents what would have been one CD purchase not so long ago, and does open quite a library.

[Bryn]

What was the old fee?
Dave is right in that CD prices, particularly of large box reissues, have become ridiculously inexpensive, but still the streaming fee represents what would have been one CD purchase not so long ago, and does open quite a library.

I would, perhaps, feel more at ease with such subscription rate increases were it not for the vexing frequency with which I encounter faulty or missing 'tracks' on QOBUZ. When alerted to such problems, sometimes the QOBUZ functionaries resolve them quickly on occasion they remove the defective listing, only to later restore it with the fault unresolved.

[Dave2002]

What was the old fee?
Dave is right in that CD prices, particularly of large box reissues, have become ridiculously inexpensive, but still the streaming fee represents what would have been one CD purchase not so long ago, and does open quite a library.

I think it was £6.99 - moving to £9.99 - a 43% increase. I’d have been meaning to cull a whole bunch of subscriptions over the last few years, but hardly got round to it. Hopefully this will now provide a spur to action. At least I’ll save £119. 88 in a year, but perhaps more if I’m more rigorous and do a comprehensive review.

[gurnemanz]

I've been a Qobuz subscriber for ten years now. .... the same listening setup as I do: via Audirvana and an iFi DAC.

Qobuz often gets mentioned on here and when recently looking to abandon CD purchases (shelf space issues) in favour of streaming/downloads I looked at it but it didn't seem a good choice for me because I couldn't see how to conveniently get the sound to my hifi set-up. Audirvana and ifi DAC, whatever exactly they are and however much they might cost, don't seem to be an essential addition to my system, with which I am generally pretty happy. My digital tuners - main hifi and bedside Roberts - have a setting for Spotify output which can also be controlled from mobile phone via home network. This works very well for me and the sound is fine. I have also found many of Spotify's user-created playlists quite appealing, eg one I discovered with 70 works written by composers who were over 70 at the time of composition. I also suspect my septuagenarian ears would not do justice to a more upmarket arrangement.

For downloads I try to use record companies' own sites where possible, eg Hyperion.

[jayne lee wilson]

I would, perhaps, feel more at ease with such subscription rate increases were it not for the vexing frequency with which I encounter faulty or missing 'tracks' on QOBUZ. When alerted to such problems, sometimes the QOBUZ functionaries resolve them quickly on occasion they remove the defective listing, only to later restore it with the fault unresolved.

I think that's because it is the Record Company at fault, and they have to wait for a clean replacement...so maybe Qobuz aren't to blame here....? Depends who does the transfer....
(when I had a faulty file from BIS/eclassical a few years ago (JEG LvB 8 SDG), Von Bahr told me he'd need the company to resupply...also, I checked whether the faulty files I had from Qobuz/elsewhere were the same on other websites - Chandos Classical Shop, eclassical etc.... and they had exactly the same fault, every one....)

Much to say (and have already often said) about streaming, but I don't want to repeat myself too much..... monthly on Qobuz Studio it's excellent value for me (no price increase since I signed up, I upgraded from HiFi at £20 to Studio at £25), as someone who likes exploring the unfamiliar and checking out New releases (the Qobuz/Audirvana "Discover" page offers these every Friday, and this week I have new Saariaho, Tristan Murail, Bruckner, Brahms and Beethoven releases to peruse....).

So it is very cost effective, consdering how much all those would cost to purchase, file or disc....
(Quick recap: in 2016 Gramophone did a feature on American String Quartets...at least half a dozen I'd never heard...... reluctant to buy the expensive shop, I signed up for the Qobuz Trial Streaming HiFi sub, and soon had most of them in my faves, awaiting play....

I was hooked after that....I use Qobuz almost every day now.
I still buy the CDs themselves sometimes.... if I truly madly deeply love them....they can sound a little better than the lossless stream in my current set-up... and for playing elsewhere in the house, etc...

So I guess the bottom line for me is that streaming replaced downloads, but not CDs....
(BTW I think there's lossless streaming on Pristine now too....)

[Bryn]

I think that's because it is the Record Company at fault, and they have to wait for a clean replacement...so maybe Qobuz aren't to blame here....? Depends who does the transfer....

This does appear to be where the problems principally originate. However, for the subscription rates we pay, I would expect a higher level of quality control from QOBUZ itself. before it makes files available for streaming.

[Goon525]

This does appear to be where the problems principally originate. However, for the subscription rates we pay, I would expect a higher level of quality control from QOBUZ itself. before it makes files available for streaming.

I’m not sure that’s terribly realistic, given the hundreds of new releases each week added to Qobuz. I’m also an enthusiastic user, and get a lot of pleasure from reading a review of a new release in Gramophone (or even on the Andrew McGregor show) and listening to it within a minute in better than CD quality on my system. I think the days of using streaming merely to determine whether to purchase are long gone (unless you use a low grade streamer like Spotify), why do you need to own? People say it’s because Qobuz may not always be there - but even if they’re not, streaming is now so well established that someone else will be offering the recording to stream.

[Dave2002]

I've still not actually cancelled my Qobuz account - as I've had too many other things to do and problems to sort out recently. I will very probably get round to this soon.

I note that some (all?) tracks are still coming up as 320 kbps Stereo. I don't seem to be able to force them to 16 bit CD quality.
I thought the excuse for putting up the subscription price was that the minimum quality was going to be 16 bit CD.

[jayne lee wilson]

Current page......

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/music/streaming/offers

It all depends on which plan you have..... did they promise a lossless minimum somewhere?
(BTW my Q-Studio monthly price hasn't increased since I signed up last year....)