Qobuz

[neiltingley]

Anyone else using Qobuz, the french music service? It is going to be rolled out across Europe at some point. If you are not I recommend having a look.

For a hifi nerd its fantastic. They have clients for android, ipad, iphone, windows and Macos, plus a web player. They offer a premium flac streaming service. Their catalogue is enormous too; the only label I miss very much is Testament. New releases sometimes take a while to appear. I prefer their GUI to spotify now. Its all so easy. They clearly have a team of smart and savvy techies working there who know what music fans are looking for. There's already a hook up with Sonus but I guess they will be working with NAIM and other streaming player manufacturers.

The windows desktop player has built in support for windows kernel, ASIO et ASIO4ALL and WASAPI which are essential if you are using a USB DAC to get quality sound.

I think Qobuz is where we'd all hoped streaming music would go in terms of technology and ease of use. They offer a wide range of 24bit downloads too and the whole purchasing experience is so much less hassle than the crappy hdtracks jnlp client rubbish. SO full marks to them there as well!

[Stunsworth]

I've tried to use them, but couldn't buy anything as I was in the UK. I tried sending them an email asking for clarification about buying something, but never received a reply. If they rolled out the service to the UK I'd use them.

[neiltingley]

I've tried to use them, but couldn't buy anything as I was in the UK. I tried sending them an email asking for clarification about buying something, but never received a reply. If they rolled out the service to the UK I'd use them.

I think I registered a fake Paris address. Well fingers crossed the UK rollout will be soon.

[GrahamH]

I've been using their streaming service on and off for a year or so. They recently reduced the price for the basic service from 13 euros to 10, and introduced a classical only lossless service at 20 euros. They initially said these weren't available in the UK but I challenged this and was changed over immediately.

They are constantly updating their players and apps and I agree they are now much more user friendly that Spotify - especially so for classical. Also unlike some other streaming services they appear to be genuinely interested in the music they sell and there is quite a bit of value-added stuff on the site. Of particular note is that so far as I know they're the only site where I can stream Hyperion releases, though it's cheaper to buy them direct.

I've bought a few downloads from them, the most recent being today when I bought the Aeolian Quartet complete Haydn String Quartets mentioned in the Bargains thread - 24 hours of music for 6.89 euros!

I have found them very responsive to emails. I have written in English and used Google Translate and always got a prompt reply in English.

In summary, a very positive experience and i would recommend them wholeheartedly.

[Stephen Smith]

Thanks for the recommendation. In the face of such a bargain it seems churlish, but I can't see any provision for a PDF of the booklet. Am I missing something? I appreciate these are stupendous value, so it could be a case of "get what you're given". Which would be acceptable at such value.
OTOH, I've looked at a new DGG recording on Qobuz at full price, and can't see a booklet there.
(Have to say this is a personal bugbear of mine - one I've expressed to The Classical Shop about many of the offerings there. I am resistant to buying the tracks without access to the explanatory material - any vendor hoping to succeed long term would need to provide them I should think so I hope Qobuz has (or will).

[Thropplenoggin]

It would appear they have Harmonia Mundi releases, too. That's a big plus over Spotify. I might give it a pop.

[PJPJ]

Thanks for the recommendation. In the face of such a bargain it seems churlish, but I can't see any provision for a PDF of the booklet. Am I missing something? ........

For the Haydn Quartets download from Qobuz you get only the cover art.

Incidentally, I couldn't download the flacs of the Haydn today, but the alacs downloaded with no difficulty and got converted to flac at this end. No doubt Qobuz will fix things at their end.

[GrahamH]

It would appear they have Harmonia Mundi releases, too. That's a big plus over Spotify. I might give it a pop.

Don't get too excited!

Harmonia Mundi releases are not available on the streaming service other than a sixty second sampler, which is available without signing up anyway. This has been the case since HM appeared on the site last year and I hoped things would change, but no joy so far.

There's a 3 day free trial but I'm not sure whether you'd need to give card details to get it - might be best to go through Paypal if you use them.

[Thropplenoggin]

Don't get too excited!

Harmonia Mundi releases are not available on the streaming service other than a sixty second sampler, which is available without signing up anyway. This has been the case since HM appeared on the site last year and I hoped things would change, but no joy so far.

There's a 3 day free trial but I'm not sure whether you'd need to give card details to get it - might be best to go through Paypal if you use them.

Thanks for the heads up, Graham!

[GrahamH]

Thanks for the recommendation. In the face of such a bargain it seems churlish, but I can't see any provision for a PDF of the booklet. Am I missing something? I appreciate these are stupendous value, so it could be a case of "get what you're given". Which would be acceptable at such value.
OTOH, I've looked at a new DGG recording on Qobuz at full price, and can't see a booklet there.
(Have to say this is a personal bugbear of mine - one I've expressed to The Classical Shop about many of the offerings there. I am resistant to buying the tracks without access to the explanatory material - any vendor hoping to succeed long term would need to provide them I should think so I hope Qobuz has (or will).

I'm with you on this and until I read your post I hadn't realised there was no booklet. I do wonder though whether Decca/Argo would have included much more than a track list in the physical box set at this price. I see the Marriner set appears to include the booklet so it's obviously not consistent.

I've looked back over my previous Qobuz downloads and the majority of them do have full documentation. It's perhaps worth pointing out that Qobuz downloads are properly tagged unlike some companies I've downloaded from who should know better, namely Chandos/ClassicalShop and eClassical.

[Stephen Smith]

Thanks GrahamH. I generally don't buy downloads without the booklet - including the half price (on the hour) offer run by The Classical Shop - in particular I think that's a shame as I might be tempted at £5 for a FLAC, to try something unusual / new - but of course I would want to read about it even more in those circumstances. And I understand they try to persuade the source label to provide the booklet in the files so its really a complaint about the record company. When it comes to a recent release, at full price, then I think the likes of DGG are acting against their own best interests (although I have noted a comment that sometimes the booklet is added later).

But in the case of a special offer I agree often the info is brief - so thanks very much for the assessment of tagging from Qobuz - as it takes away a final reservation (allays the horror of dealing with a hundred or more tracks, with problematic taggs).

[GrahamH]

Thanks GrahamH. I generally don't buy downloads without the booklet - including the half price (on the hour) offer run by The Classical Shop - in particular I think that's a shame as I might be tempted at £5 for a FLAC, to try something unusual / new - but of course I would want to read about it even more in those circumstances. And I understand they try to persuade the source label to provide the booklet in the files so its really a complaint about the record company. When it comes to a recent release, at full price, then I think the likes of DGG are acting against their own best interests (although I have noted a comment that sometimes the booklet is added later).

But in the case of a special offer I agree often the info is brief - so thanks very much for the assessment of tagging from Qobuz - as it takes away a final reservation (allays the horror of dealing with a hundred or more tracks, with problematic taggs).

You're right about it being the record company at fault, of course. They shoot themselves in the foot really: there have been any number of download CDs that have interested me, often because they might in some way be out of the ordinary, and in those circumstances the notes are essential. So I decide I will buy the physical CD, usually forget or lose interest, and so a sale is lost.

Good luck with the Haydn. People have been finding it is not available in the UK though, so you might want to look at the last couple of pages of the Bargains thread. Hope you're successful!

[Stunsworth]

I dropped Qobuz an email saying that I wanted to subscribe to their service yesterday. I received an email this morning to say that my account had been upgraded. A quick subscription later (via Paypal) and a download of the desktop application, and I'm now streaming the lossless recordings.

One thing to watch out for is that by default the streaming is at 320k. To change that to lossless you need to go into preferences on the application.

Sound, as expected, is excellent via Audiolab MDac, valve power amps, and a pair of Quad ESL 63s.

[PJPJ]

Excellent - I'm very tempted......

[Stunsworth]

Excellent - I'm very tempted......

It's early days, but I'm impressed so far. The tagging of tracks seems much better than Spotify - especially for classical music.

I went for the option that gives access to all genres. The 'contract' is a rolling month that's easily cancelled if desired.

Some albums have a digitised version of the CD booklet, others don't. I haven't noticed a pattern regarding which have, and which haven't.