The music subscription service, Qobuz, which claims to be the “world’s first and only certified Hi-Res streaming service,” finally launched in the US Thursday.
It offers the largest selection of true Hi-Res Audio titles to date at 2 million, with a total catalog of 40 million titles (including CD-quality tracks).
The service provides 24-bit/192k FLAC streaming at about 29 times the audio quality of MP3. It can stream on iOS and Android phones as well as desktop computers. By contrast, Hi-Res music service rival Tidal does not offer a Hi-Res iOS streaming app.
Hi-Res streaming pricing starts at $24.99 per month, but users can elect a CD-quality streaming plan for $19.99. You can see all the plans below.
Qobuz is also a download site, and it claims to offer hard-to-find jazz and classical tracks.
Owner and chairmain of Qobuz, Denis Thébaud, said “Our teams have been working brilliantly for over a year with our recording and publishing partners to get to this point. I am convinced that what we have to offer, on both the streaming and download markets, will be a success amongst American music lovers.”
Qobuz was founded in 2007 in Paris and it currently streams music in 11 European countries.
US pricing plans are as follows:
- Sublime+: $299.99/year for full Hi-Res streaming and substantial (40-60%) discounts on purchases from the Qobuz Hi-Res (up to 24-bit / 192 khz) download store.
- Studio: $24.99/month for unlimited Hi-Res (24-bit /up to 192 khz) streaming ($249.99 annually).
- Hi-Fi: $19.99/month for streaming including 16-bit CD quality streaming ($199.99 annually).
- Premium: $9.99/month for 320 kbps MP3 quality streaming ($99.99 annually).
If you are in the business of making a living creating “impressions” with your demo’s then the service will pay for itself. Getting the absolute most out of the original recording is the name of the game for me. I currently use Tidal and the quality is very good and the impressions are memorable. I’d like to see the app and how it navigates. Tidal’s app is not the best.
Most people are aren’t even aware of different file types pertaining to music.
Tidal tried to do the same thing and they only partially succeeded partly due to big releases being exclusive only to tidal, and that didn’t even last.
Its good but ask your friends if they know what a FLAC file is, and bet a dollar if they think your speaking about the insurance commercial about the duck
This is good. It will put pressure in Spotify and Apple music to step up their game and the price will come down.
Add in the cost of a data plan to cover all the high res streaming, that doesn’t throttle you down, and very few can afford this. I don’t think the small market that can afford it is enough to support. It will fail.
$25 a month….. I was excited for this until they announced that. Ridiculous.
:rolleyes: