Qobuz Is Coming Soon-Streaming On Steroids

Coming to your inbox soon. This French based music streaming service is active in 11 European countries and Coming to America this fall.

Will this French streaming service be the death knell for Tidal and MQA? Arriving this fall and armed with over two million Hi-Res tracks and forty million 16 bit 44.1KHz full resolution files, it doesn’t require any special hardware or USB DACs to unfold Hi-Res audio from 24/44 all the way up to 24/192.

The streaming services strange name, qobuz, is based upon an ancient Asian two-stringed instrument that allegedly could banish sickness, spirits and even death. Music can do that for you. The service was founded in 2007 and after a rocky start was purchased by Xandrie in 2015 who also own a number of other companies in the entertainment and technology sectors.

Qobuz is serious in taking a chunk out of the streaming market and has recently hired Yann Miossec as CEO who was VP of Warner Music France  for 12 years. This together with the rapidly growing number of brand partners that have integrated their software into their products show a real growth path. As of Mid June those vendors include; Advance Acoustics, Anthem, Arcam, Audirvana, Auralic, Aurender, AVM, B&O Play, Bluesound, Burmester, Cabasse, Cocktail, DCS, Devialet, DTS Play-Fi, Electrocompaniet, Esoteric, Free, Googlecast, Harman Kardon, iEast, JBL, Klipsch, Kodi, LG, Liedson, Linn, Lumin, Mark Levinson, MartinLogan, McIntosh, Mconnect, Melco, Moon, MusicCast, Naim, Onkyo, Paradigm, Pioneer, Polk, PopcornHour, Raumfeld, Rotel, Samsung, Silvercrest, Sonos, Sony, Teac, Yamaha, T+A, and USB Audio Player Pro.

Like other streaming services qobuz offers both streaming and downloading services currently split approximately 60/40. It is rumored that the service will offer Roon integration by the end of the year. Their major advantage being that their Hi-Res downloads cost about the same as MP3 downloads on Apple iTunes. Offering high-res (up to 24-bit/192kHz) to subscribers of the Studio plan, ($24.99/month, $249.99/year), a CD-quality Hi-Fi plan ($19.99/month, $199.99/year) and a 320kbps MP3 Premium plan ($9.99/month, $99.99/year).