Tony, this piece is really useful; you've answered some questions about the service that I've had but was too lazy to research. Thank you! I've been on Qobuz for a bit more than two years, and I really like it. After about a month of trying it out, I went ahead and bought the Sublime+ level, to get rid of the ads and get the best audio experience. (I normally run the service from my laptop through a DAC into some modest Bose computer speakers. WOW! The upgrade in sound quality was immense!). With a couple of exceptions, my high expectations have been met, and then some! I've recommended to friends and family that they migrate to Qobuz.
One aspect that you may have missed mentioning is that the Qobuz staff are always on the hunt for the rights to older recordings. So if you don't find that one really special album from your past that you just MUST have, come back in a month or so, and you may well find it in the Qobuz collection. My case in point: when I first started, Qobuz had a very spotty selection of older recordings by Klaus Doldinger's Passport, a favorite artist/band. But when I went back looking for them a few weeks later, many of the missing albums were available, and more have been added in the months since. A+ work, Qobuz!
I am not as positive as you are on the credits/liner notes aspect. Most of the time, the entries seem written by an AI, and important information is missing: who played what? who produced? who wrote the song? etc. I agree that the reviews are generally somewhere between very good and outstanding.
My complaints are mostly trivial, so I'll spare you and your readers. All in all, Qobuz is worth every dollar that I spend on it every year, and I do use it every day. Let's hope for continued good financial health for the Qobuz enterprise!
Thanks for the lengthy first-hand account John. Good to know about the staff hunting out older recordings. And as I listen at home through hard-wired speakers off my computer, it's really fantastic sound quality.
As I noted in the article (but hey it's long enough you could have forgotten by the time you finished) credits are as supplied through a distributor. Liner notes are proper reviews where they exist, but some appear commisioned and some purchased in. Important thing if the latter is to make sure they line up with the album in question.
Glad to know you have had a positive experience. Cheers and keep posting here, it's welcome.
Thank you sharing in such great detail. I’ve felt “trapped” in the Spotify world, mainly because I find their UI easy to use, especially for playlists. But now I’m hopeful that Qobuz will fulfill my needs. Definitely giving it a test run!
That's great to hear. As per Teddy below, it's so easy for us to get comfortable with what we know, from a streaming service back to our student bank account or our mobile phone provider, but sometimes it's just a matter of making a switch and finding that the UI is equally friendly/easy elsewhere. I find playlists every bit as easy to assemble and use on Qobuz, at least so far and was thrilled how quick and painless it was to import my old ones over from Spotify. Good to have you board btw.
Excellent write-up Tony, I’m pleased to have discovered your Substack! I had heard of Qobuz before, but had never considered using it. Now I think I will!
I will, sheepishly, admit that I’m a relatively happy user of Apple Music, which I get bundled with all my other Apple services (I’m very much locked into the ecosystem, for better or worse). But lately I’ve fallen out with streaming in general, and I’d love to find an option that I feel good about using, that feels like it actually cares about, you know, music!
Thank you. I am going to look into Qobuz. I recently quit Spotify myself. So far, I’ve been exploring Radiooooo.com - pick any country and era eg Morocco in the 1940’s and it plays the music that was being listened to there and then. Absolutely fascinating.
Rabbit hole! That is one hell of a service they have provided, one that crowdsources it would seem. It is truly fascinating. But it's crucially important we all also listen to new music and the streaming platforms provide that service if we engage in it. Cheers.
Thanks for this piece Tony. After last week, i was very curious for the reveal :-). It’s interesting. Never used Qubuz, but I knew of their existance. I’m curious how they organise discovery… Anyway, like Stephan Kunze, I’m not using streaming that much ever since i decided to become an active writer on my music niche here on substack. The time it takes to research and make the weekly mixtapes leaves not much time for something else at the moment, but, like Stephan, I want to keep a streaming subscription. And i agree with what you wrote about Spotify. Looking forward to hear more about your experiences with Qobuz.
Thanks Pe (or let me know how you like to be addressed), all good. I know what you mean about producing does not little time for consuming but streaming is well worth it if you don't feel you're selling out to the Devil in the process. While I have you, your 12" Mixtape came up as only being available on a browser when I went to listen on a phone, I do quite often find Mixcloud a little annoying, but do you know why that would be? Cheers!
Enjoyed this and the piece last weekend - thanks for writing. Being unhappy with Spotify (and lots of the big music and video streaming platforms) has definitely been on my mind and seems to be in the zeitgeist. As a renter who has had to move every couple of years for over a decade now, I was happy to ditch my records and CDs a few years back, but I do miss that tactile experience of reading the liner notes while listening. A lot. I'll be checking out Qobuz for sure.
Thanks Bri-Bri. I am in the middle of a move and while glad that I don't have as many records and CDs and tapes as years back (I downsized to my current place so let a lot go at that point), I am glad to have those I do. But as I state clearly, the world has changed and what we lost on the swings as consumers, we could gain on the roundabouts - if we can find a way to ensure the artists can make a good living, which was partly the conversation last week. Cheers.
My personal form of “penance” for using Spotify has been to purchase an album or two on Bandcamp monthly, as well as trying to go to live performances when I can. I hope artists can get a good deal from streaming someday.
Interesting. I've not heard about Qobuz until now. I understand your reasons for leaving Spotify and wanting the better sound quality of Qobuz. My question is: Does the service have all of the music I can find on Spotify or Apple Music? Would I need to recreate all of the playlists I have spent years developing on Spotify? (Ditto for Apple Music.) How solid do you think the future is for Qobuz?
Qobuz doesn't have quite the sheer catalogue size of Spotify but it has almost everything I've ever looked for, with maybe a few exceptions over several years using it.
You would have to recreate all of your favorites and playlists and such (unless someone knows of a 3rd party app that can transfer them ?)
Just deleted my comment that politely stated as much. The article also describes how much of my music I was able to copy over which I think addresses the catalogue size question too. Cheers to you both, lovely to have you on board.
I'm in the middle of conducting some research into this subject, as it seems to be one of the big talking points making the rounds in this corner of Substack. I also found Qobuz to be preferable to Tidal, even though Tidal's integration of my Spotify playlists seemed easier to execute.
My question for you, sir: How do you listen to your music? This seems to be the biggest piece I'm missing in my research, and I'm going to find myself investing heavily in multiple options to find the best listening apparatuses based on where and how I listen to music. For me, I'm 100% invested in Bluetooth for listening, and it seems like Bluetooth and "penthouse" audio quality are incompatible.
"Lossy" shrinks the file size by removing audio data (MP3, OGG, AAC, *Bluetooth*).
"Lossless" shrinks the file size by encoding the original source audio more efficiently without removing audio data, usually resulting in a file 50% the size of the same song in WAV/AIFF but with no difference in sound quality (in extremely-layman terms, FLAC would store "10100010010" as "12131210". (FLAC, ALAC).
You need a wired connection to get the benefit of lossless, since no wireless connection safe enough to be near the human skull and free to move around from the retrieving device is high-bandwidth enough to stream lossless.
Fantastic write up, Tony! At the risk of sounding like a parrot, I will second everything you’ve said here (including that I have a similar “partner” account). Kenn Richards is a treasure trove of music history/stories and just an all around great person.
For me, it feels like they pulled the best parts of other platforms and fused them together with audiophiles like us in mind.
The writing is top notch. To be honest, I didn’t pay it muh attention originally; I figured it was on a par with blurbs on other platforms. That was a mistake. Turns out I’d been missing out on some great reads.
I have rarely had an issue finding a track I was looking for. I ran into more dead ends w/Amazon, to be honest.
The difference in sound quality vs. Spotify is huge— my hearing is not the best anymore and even I can hear/feel it.
At this point, not being able to embed a playlist to share is my biggest issue, but I hadn’t even thought of a custom button, so thank you for that!
At any rate, it’s a fantastic site that I hope can scale while not losing the personal touches that make it such a joy.
This is a solid endorsement from someone who has been on the platform longer than I. Glad to know we share plenty more in common. And yes, maybe I didn't state it clearly enough, but I did immediately notice the difference in quality between Spotify and QObuz -a nd that with tinnitus!
I have to admit I've been thinking about leaving Spotify too. I guess that as a former long-time employee, I still feel some kind of irrational loyalty to the company.
Qobuz seems like a good place for music lovers, very aligned with my values – and their company name sounds like an Autechre song title, which is definitely a plus.
Like Tony, I won't leave Spotify for Apple, Amazon or YouTube/Google. That would feel extremely ill-informed to me.
Right now I enjoy listening to physical formats so much, I barely stream music at all. I do want to keep one monthly subscription though, for research and pre-listening purposes.
Hi Stephan, Thanks for the input. I can understand why you don't do much streaming (from reading your Substack) but if and when you do, this will probably be the place if you want to keep one subscription. Was the last line directed at our readers in general? Cheers...
Tony, this piece is really useful; you've answered some questions about the service that I've had but was too lazy to research. Thank you! I've been on Qobuz for a bit more than two years, and I really like it. After about a month of trying it out, I went ahead and bought the Sublime+ level, to get rid of the ads and get the best audio experience. (I normally run the service from my laptop through a DAC into some modest Bose computer speakers. WOW! The upgrade in sound quality was immense!). With a couple of exceptions, my high expectations have been met, and then some! I've recommended to friends and family that they migrate to Qobuz.
One aspect that you may have missed mentioning is that the Qobuz staff are always on the hunt for the rights to older recordings. So if you don't find that one really special album from your past that you just MUST have, come back in a month or so, and you may well find it in the Qobuz collection. My case in point: when I first started, Qobuz had a very spotty selection of older recordings by Klaus Doldinger's Passport, a favorite artist/band. But when I went back looking for them a few weeks later, many of the missing albums were available, and more have been added in the months since. A+ work, Qobuz!
I am not as positive as you are on the credits/liner notes aspect. Most of the time, the entries seem written by an AI, and important information is missing: who played what? who produced? who wrote the song? etc. I agree that the reviews are generally somewhere between very good and outstanding.
My complaints are mostly trivial, so I'll spare you and your readers. All in all, Qobuz is worth every dollar that I spend on it every year, and I do use it every day. Let's hope for continued good financial health for the Qobuz enterprise!
Thanks for the lengthy first-hand account John. Good to know about the staff hunting out older recordings. And as I listen at home through hard-wired speakers off my computer, it's really fantastic sound quality.
As I noted in the article (but hey it's long enough you could have forgotten by the time you finished) credits are as supplied through a distributor. Liner notes are proper reviews where they exist, but some appear commisioned and some purchased in. Important thing if the latter is to make sure they line up with the album in question.
Glad to know you have had a positive experience. Cheers and keep posting here, it's welcome.
First heard about Qobuz two years ago when bassist Christian McBride enthusiastically touted it from the stage of the Montclair Jazz Festival.
Thank you sharing in such great detail. I’ve felt “trapped” in the Spotify world, mainly because I find their UI easy to use, especially for playlists. But now I’m hopeful that Qobuz will fulfill my needs. Definitely giving it a test run!
That's great to hear. As per Teddy below, it's so easy for us to get comfortable with what we know, from a streaming service back to our student bank account or our mobile phone provider, but sometimes it's just a matter of making a switch and finding that the UI is equally friendly/easy elsewhere. I find playlists every bit as easy to assemble and use on Qobuz, at least so far and was thrilled how quick and painless it was to import my old ones over from Spotify. Good to have you board btw.
The ability to transfer is a huge plus! Downloaded and playing around with it now!
Excellent write-up Tony, I’m pleased to have discovered your Substack! I had heard of Qobuz before, but had never considered using it. Now I think I will!
I will, sheepishly, admit that I’m a relatively happy user of Apple Music, which I get bundled with all my other Apple services (I’m very much locked into the ecosystem, for better or worse). But lately I’ve fallen out with streaming in general, and I’d love to find an option that I feel good about using, that feels like it actually cares about, you know, music!
Thanks Teddy. Until such time (which I hope never comes) that it sells out on its mission statement, I think I've found it!
Thank you. I am going to look into Qobuz. I recently quit Spotify myself. So far, I’ve been exploring Radiooooo.com - pick any country and era eg Morocco in the 1940’s and it plays the music that was being listened to there and then. Absolutely fascinating.
Rabbit hole! That is one hell of a service they have provided, one that crowdsources it would seem. It is truly fascinating. But it's crucially important we all also listen to new music and the streaming platforms provide that service if we engage in it. Cheers.
Yes, good point, absolutely.
Thanks for this piece Tony. After last week, i was very curious for the reveal :-). It’s interesting. Never used Qubuz, but I knew of their existance. I’m curious how they organise discovery… Anyway, like Stephan Kunze, I’m not using streaming that much ever since i decided to become an active writer on my music niche here on substack. The time it takes to research and make the weekly mixtapes leaves not much time for something else at the moment, but, like Stephan, I want to keep a streaming subscription. And i agree with what you wrote about Spotify. Looking forward to hear more about your experiences with Qobuz.
Thanks Pe (or let me know how you like to be addressed), all good. I know what you mean about producing does not little time for consuming but streaming is well worth it if you don't feel you're selling out to the Devil in the process. While I have you, your 12" Mixtape came up as only being available on a browser when I went to listen on a phone, I do quite often find Mixcloud a little annoying, but do you know why that would be? Cheers!
Pe (short for Peter) is perfectly fine Tony :-). Did you try their app ? That seems to work fine on a phone.
Enjoyed this and the piece last weekend - thanks for writing. Being unhappy with Spotify (and lots of the big music and video streaming platforms) has definitely been on my mind and seems to be in the zeitgeist. As a renter who has had to move every couple of years for over a decade now, I was happy to ditch my records and CDs a few years back, but I do miss that tactile experience of reading the liner notes while listening. A lot. I'll be checking out Qobuz for sure.
Thanks Bri-Bri. I am in the middle of a move and while glad that I don't have as many records and CDs and tapes as years back (I downsized to my current place so let a lot go at that point), I am glad to have those I do. But as I state clearly, the world has changed and what we lost on the swings as consumers, we could gain on the roundabouts - if we can find a way to ensure the artists can make a good living, which was partly the conversation last week. Cheers.
My personal form of “penance” for using Spotify has been to purchase an album or two on Bandcamp monthly, as well as trying to go to live performances when I can. I hope artists can get a good deal from streaming someday.
Interesting. I've not heard about Qobuz until now. I understand your reasons for leaving Spotify and wanting the better sound quality of Qobuz. My question is: Does the service have all of the music I can find on Spotify or Apple Music? Would I need to recreate all of the playlists I have spent years developing on Spotify? (Ditto for Apple Music.) How solid do you think the future is for Qobuz?
Qobuz doesn't have quite the sheer catalogue size of Spotify but it has almost everything I've ever looked for, with maybe a few exceptions over several years using it.
You would have to recreate all of your favorites and playlists and such (unless someone knows of a 3rd party app that can transfer them ?)
There is a third party app to transfer playlists, he mentions it in the article.
Just deleted my comment that politely stated as much. The article also describes how much of my music I was able to copy over which I think addresses the catalogue size question too. Cheers to you both, lovely to have you on board.
I'm in the middle of conducting some research into this subject, as it seems to be one of the big talking points making the rounds in this corner of Substack. I also found Qobuz to be preferable to Tidal, even though Tidal's integration of my Spotify playlists seemed easier to execute.
My question for you, sir: How do you listen to your music? This seems to be the biggest piece I'm missing in my research, and I'm going to find myself investing heavily in multiple options to find the best listening apparatuses based on where and how I listen to music. For me, I'm 100% invested in Bluetooth for listening, and it seems like Bluetooth and "penthouse" audio quality are incompatible.
Two types of audio data compression:
"Lossy" shrinks the file size by removing audio data (MP3, OGG, AAC, *Bluetooth*).
"Lossless" shrinks the file size by encoding the original source audio more efficiently without removing audio data, usually resulting in a file 50% the size of the same song in WAV/AIFF but with no difference in sound quality (in extremely-layman terms, FLAC would store "10100010010" as "12131210". (FLAC, ALAC).
You need a wired connection to get the benefit of lossless, since no wireless connection safe enough to be near the human skull and free to move around from the retrieving device is high-bandwidth enough to stream lossless.
Thanks Noel, that was really well described, I never really saw it so clearly stated before.
Yea, Bluetooth is invariably lossy so it wipes out the hi-res advantage.
Fantastic write up, Tony! At the risk of sounding like a parrot, I will second everything you’ve said here (including that I have a similar “partner” account). Kenn Richards is a treasure trove of music history/stories and just an all around great person.
For me, it feels like they pulled the best parts of other platforms and fused them together with audiophiles like us in mind.
The writing is top notch. To be honest, I didn’t pay it muh attention originally; I figured it was on a par with blurbs on other platforms. That was a mistake. Turns out I’d been missing out on some great reads.
I have rarely had an issue finding a track I was looking for. I ran into more dead ends w/Amazon, to be honest.
The difference in sound quality vs. Spotify is huge— my hearing is not the best anymore and even I can hear/feel it.
At this point, not being able to embed a playlist to share is my biggest issue, but I hadn’t even thought of a custom button, so thank you for that!
At any rate, it’s a fantastic site that I hope can scale while not losing the personal touches that make it such a joy.
This is a solid endorsement from someone who has been on the platform longer than I. Glad to know we share plenty more in common. And yes, maybe I didn't state it clearly enough, but I did immediately notice the difference in quality between Spotify and QObuz -a nd that with tinnitus!
I have to admit I've been thinking about leaving Spotify too. I guess that as a former long-time employee, I still feel some kind of irrational loyalty to the company.
Qobuz seems like a good place for music lovers, very aligned with my values – and their company name sounds like an Autechre song title, which is definitely a plus.
Like Tony, I won't leave Spotify for Apple, Amazon or YouTube/Google. That would feel extremely ill-informed to me.
Right now I enjoy listening to physical formats so much, I barely stream music at all. I do want to keep one monthly subscription though, for research and pre-listening purposes.
What's your streaming service of choice and why?
Hi Stephan, Thanks for the input. I can understand why you don't do much streaming (from reading your Substack) but if and when you do, this will probably be the place if you want to keep one subscription. Was the last line directed at our readers in general? Cheers...
Yes, I posted this comment on Notes as well, sharing your article, and received some interesting feedback from readers/followers. Cheers!
Also: "their company name sounds like an Autechre song title." Yep, I had been thinking along similar lines!