Qobuz is a French high-resolution music platform with a presence in most of Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Its differential brand is simple: deliver a music experience with virtually unmatched audio quality on the market, with more than 70 million tracks and with the largest number of masters Hi-Res from any streaming service.
Is it the new Spotify? No, and for two simple reasons. On the one hand, because they are not new: it was founded in 2007. And, on the other hand, because they do not compete with this popular app: “We do not have MP3 quality in our tracks, only music in high resolution, we start from the quality that a CD -Hi-Fi or HD quality- ”, explains Georges Fornay, CEO Deputy of Qobuz.
However, as we said, most tracks are Hi-Res, often called studio quality, which is the only one that reproduces the sound as created and recorded in the studio by the artists (24-Bit / up to 192 kHz).
They have been pioneers in proposing this type of content to the public from a platform accessible from the same smartphone. But being the first also has complications and becoming popular in this field takes time. “Most of the people are not aware of the great difference between listening to music in high resolution and listening to it in MP3”, Fornay emphasizes.
Qobuz contains titles of classical music, jazz, pop-rock and electronic music. They move away from other more commercial and ‘mainstream’ styles because they know that it is not something that their audience is looking for: “Our consumers are somewhat older than the users who usually have the ‘mass media’ platforms -the average is 45 years old- They are music lovers who seek sound quality above all else ”, says Fornay.
Likewise, it has another value that nobody has: It also allows you to download music in that studio quality we are talking about. A market, that of downloads, which is still important today among Qobuz audiences because they are people who want to “own the albums and songs they like”.
Of course, there is also an economic value here: listening to music in high resolution has a price. Qobuz subscription plans are paid and range from € 14.99 per month to € 20.83 per month. But, in addition, you will have to forget about your wireless headphones for Bluetooth if you want the sound to be Hi-Res, since you need it to enter by cable or with a high resolution equipment -which can start at 300 or 400 euros-.
Yes indeed: when you listen to your first track on Qobuz you are likely to wonder what you have been up to in your previous life. “It’s sad that 40 years ago we had better sound in a pick up than what we have today with a player MP3”Laments Fornay.
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“We know that bringing high quality back to music listening is a difficult task, but that is our mission and we believe we can achieve it,” concludes the CEO Deputy of Qobuz.
The platform, in addition to its more than 70 million tracks, it also has half a million articles created and selected by a team of experts, consisting of biographies, musical scripts, album reviews and interviews with the aim of being a cultural resource and that users can (re) discover emblematic artists or young talents.
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