Everything you need to know about the Qobuz streaming platform.
With around 200,000 customers, Qobuz is admittedly not the biggest music streaming service on the market. However, as a platform designed for audiophiles, that was never the service’s intention.
US managing director Dan Mackta said, ‘We’re not competing with the big guys. Our aspiration is to reach 1% of the market.’
As the first-ever music service to offer 16- and 24-bit audio files for both streaming and download, it’s easy to see that the platform has accomplished this goal. But is it worth the higher price tag?
Read on as we go over the service in depth to help you decide whether to subscribe (or not).
- A wide selection of 24-bit, Hi-Res audio
- Intuitive design that’s accessible over many devices
- Integrated streaming with other music playback services
- More expensive than other platforms
- Some tracks are geo-locked
- Not available in every country
What Is Qobuz?
Qobuz was launched in 2008 as a service that enables you to stream and download digital music. Since then, it has grown to 24 countries, including the US, UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
The service operates on a subscription model, with the option to upgrade to a higher tier called Sublime for discounted Hi-Res purchases in the download store. However, either option will provide you with studio-quality, FLAC 24-bit music streaming.
The mission statement of the Qobuz team is to “offer the digital world the aspects of music that audiophiles have always cherished.”
This means they focus on quality sound, quality editorial, and freedom of choice that excludes bias—all features that appeal to audiophiles.
With over a hundred million tracks available in the Qobuz library, the platform can stand toe-to-toe with industry giants such as Spotify when it comes to the variety of music on offer.
Qobuz Plans and Pricing
For Qobuz, you can sign up for two different tiers of subscription: Studio and Sublime. Within each tier, you can choose from three different plans: solo, duo, and family. These plans let you have a different number of accounts under one subscription for a slightly higher price point.
Name | Price | What you get |
---|---|---|
Studio Solo | $12.99 | Studio quality streaming (FLAC 24-bit up to 192 kHz) |
Studio Duo | $17.98 | Two separate accounts under one subscription and payment (for people living at the same address) |
Studio Family | $21.57 | Six separate accounts under one subscription and payment (for people living at the same address) |
Sublime Solo | $17.99 | Studio quality streaming (FLAC 24-bit up to 192 kHz) |
Sublime Duo | £27.57 | Two separate accounts under one subscription and payment (for people living at the same address) |
Sublime Family | $34.98 | Six separate accounts under one subscription and payment (for people living at the same address) |
Overall, the Qobuz plans are on the pricey side compared to services like Spotify, which offers its basic plan for free and premium for only $9.99. However, for a service focused on high-quality files, it makes sense that it would cost a little more.
If you’re going to be sharing your subscription with your family, partner, or roommates, the duo or family plans are worth the money over buying individual subscriptions. While the terms require you to live under the same roof, Qobuz will only request your ZIP code to verify your address but will not track your location.
Studio Plans vs. Sublime Plans
There is no difference between the Studio and Sublime plans when it comes to music streaming. What distinguishes the plans are the discounts you can get when you purchase songs or albums.
Qobuz is more than a streaming service—it also offers a download store where you can purchase albums and tracks in a wide variety of formats, with higher resolutions available at a higher price point.
Purchasing an album will give you access to the download files for you to keep on your device, which you can then transfer to different devices or music playback services.
With the Studio plan, you can purchase these for a flat fee: around $18-24 for a ten-track album in Hi-Res.
However, with the Sublime plan, you will be offered a discount of up to 60% on Hi-Res purchases. This can actually make it significantly cheaper to buy in Hi-Res than other resolutions, giving you better-quality tracks for a lower price.
Is a Sublime plan worth it?
If you wish to buy albums regularly, then yes, a Sublime plan is definitely worth your money. It’s only $5 more, and you’ll be saving about that much with each album purchase if you buy two or more albums a month.
However, if you aren’t too bothered by owning the files, then the Studio plan will more than suffice. All of the content is still available for streaming online (or offline) in the same resolution, so you’ll have it available at no extra cost for as long as you use the service.
How Is Qobuz’s Stream Quality?
As the main selling point of the platform, Qobuz’s streaming quality is high. Every track is available in at least CD quality—16-bit resolution and a sample rate of 44.1kHz. However, the service also supports Hi-Res sound— 24-bit and up to 192kHz— for the majority of their tracks.
If you didn’t know, when analog sound is converted to a digital signal, it is reproduced at a certain resolution. The higher the resolution (or bit rate), the better the quality of the sound file.
Hi-Res audio, like what Qobuz offers, is also a lossless format. This means that as many of the audio’s details as possible were kept when it was compressed. You get as close to the same quality as what was recorded in the studio as possible.
However, the resolution of the file isn’t the only factor in the quality of sound you experience. Your internet connection and headphones also matter.
If your internet connection is slow, you might experience slow loading times and audio lag. This can impact your listening experience to the point that the higher-quality audio might not feel worth it.
Additionally, not all headphones can keep up with the Qobuz sound quality. Some headphones can struggle to reproduce the full range of sound in the audio file, leading to patchy and low-quality sound.
Fortunately, popular audiophile brands such as Bowers & Wilkins, Sonos, and Cambridge Audio have made their devices and software compatible with Qobuz.
This lets you stream Qobuz through the app that accompanies their headphones, meaning that the performance of your headphones will be optimized to work with the service.
How fast does the music load?
Streaming Hi-Res audio on Qobuz requires 18-25 MB of bandwidth per minute. This is very much on the high end, especially when compared to Spotify’s data consumption of only 0.72 MB per minute.
This means Qobuz takes up a lot more bandwidth, leading to longer loading and buffer times.
Yet, this is still manageable for an average internet connection.
In our tests, with an internet speed of 23 Mbps, we experienced only a second or two of loading time when switching between tracks. It’s not a lot, but it is a noticeable difference compared to other services with lower requirements.
How does it sound?
Unsurprisingly, really good; and the audiophile community would agree.
Switching between streaming qualities, you can certainly tell the difference between the lower and higher resolutions.
In our tests, using the Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds, as the streaming quality went up, the bass levels became much clearer and the overall sound was crisper.
The distinction between the separate instruments and vocals, or the soundstage, becomes more distinct, which adds layers to the music that you can’t hear at lower resolutions.
If you’re an audiophile looking for high-quality sound, you’re not going to find anything of better quality out there, though it could be matched by services such as Tidal.
Content Library
The Qobuz content library is extensive, with over 100 million tracks available for streaming. This lets it stand on par with the services at the top of the industry, like Apple Music and Spotify, in terms of content.
In our research, Qobuz was up-to-date on both current and past top hits. It also has tracks available from smaller and more unknown artists, as well as soundtracks from musicals and films.
Only a few niche tracks, such as those from Young Dalu, OSAMU, and 8485 are not on Qobuz but are available elsewhere.
However, you may notice that some previously available tracks may suddenly become unavailable. This happens because of changes in your location or licensing restrictions.
Ease of Use
Qobuz is available in three different forms: as a web player, a PC app, and a mobile app.
The web player is available through the Our Ecosystem tab on the Qobuz website, as is the PC application. The mobile app is available through the App Store and Google Play.
All three forms of the service function in essentially the same way, with a few minor differences, which we’ll explain below.
How do you use Qobuz?
Upon opening any form of Qobuz, you will be taken to the Discover tab, which acts as the homepage. You can scroll down through various new releases, tailored playlists, and Qobuz playlists, or filter by genre for a more custom explore page.
On the web player or PC app, at the top left of the page, you can choose between different tabs: Qobuz Magazine, My Playlists, Favorites, and Purchases. In the PC app, there is also an Offline Library tab.
For the mobile application, you can access tabs through the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Additionally, the My Playlists, Favorites, and Purchases tabs have been collapsed into a tab called My Qobuz. Tap on My Qobuz and you can access these individual tabs.
The Offline Library tab is also available in the mobile app under the name Imports.
Here’s what’s available in the tabs:
Qobuz magazine
The Qobuz magazine is an original selection of informational articles, artist interviews, and music news. It’s a nice touch to have it available, as it lets you scroll through relevant articles while listening to music.
My Playlists
The My Playlists tab, unsurprisingly, consists of your playlists. Here you can find both the playlists you have created and those you have subscribed to. You can sort the display order as well as search for a specific playlist if you’re getting overwhelmed. It’s even possible to organize your playlists into a custom order for convenience.
Favorites
In the Favorites tab, you’ll find your favorited releases, tracks, and artists. You can filter these by genre as well as search through each respective sub-tab for a specific favorite.
Purchases
The Purchases tab is where you can find your purchased tracks and albums. Though you’ll download the file to your device, they’re still available in the web browser and apps for you to stream.
Offline Library
The Offline Library is available in the PC and mobile apps, though the downloads will not carry over between devices.
On the PC app, you can click on the three-dot icon and choose to import a track, album, or playlist. On the mobile app, you simply tap on the download icon.
This will make downloaded tracks available for you to listen to offline.
Search
In the web player and PC application:
At the top right of the screen is the search bar. You can use this to search the platform for a track, artist, album, playlist, or magazine article.
The search results can seem a little confusing at first, but they are really convenient once you figure them out.
At the top left of the results page, you can add tags to your search to refine the results based on requirements such as Hi-Res audio, new releases, or non-explicit content.
At the top right, you can choose a category to search in: the main artist, the composer, the performer, the release name, or the label.
On the left side of the screen, you’ll see the most popular suggestion for your search term. On the right, you’ll get artists matching your search.
If you scroll down on the left side, you’ll be shown the relevant releases and albums. On the right are the tracks that match your search terms.
Further down, you can find relevant playlists and, finally, any matching magazine articles.
In the mobile app:
The search function in the mobile app is located at the bottom right of the screen. The results in the mobile app are less confusing than those in the web player and PC app. You can select what you want to search for from the tabs at the top of the screen: Top Results, Artists, Releases, Tracks, Playlists, and Magazine.
Overall, Qobuz has a very easy-to-navigate and intuitive system, though it might take a bit of time to get used to the finer intricacies of the various tabs. Everything is split into clear sections, and you can filter and search everything you might want to.
Music Discovery
It’s easy to discover new music on Qobuz. The Discover tab is extensive and easily customizable, thanks to the ability to filter by genre.
Additionally, the editorial content available in the Taste of Qobuz section is a unique and useful way to discover new music you might enjoy.
In this section of the Discover tab, discographers at Qobuz pick the most interesting albums across every music genre and write original texts to help you ‘re-discover the world into which that album was born.’
Another Qobuz feature is the Panoramas section: a weekly selection of in-depth articles focused on one specific corner of the music world, whether it’s an exploration of a niche genre of music or the life and works of a specific artist.
Here you can find links to new music, as well as the context and history behind them.
This makes Qobuz one of the best platforms for the discovery and exploration of music you might not have found before.
Surprisingly, the search tab is also a great place to find new music. Because it’s so extensive, you can often stumble across new tracks and artists while looking for something totally different.
However, the recommendations on Qobuz can be less than stellar, especially if you’re used to the highly refined algorithms of services like Spotify.
They can feel very disjointed and not at all related to what you’ve been listening to.
If you’re looking to branch out into music and genres that you’ve never considered before, then the diverse and varied Discover tab will be helpful. If you’re looking to find similar music to what you already know and love, then the Qobuz algorithms might not be your friend.
Yet, Qobuz has an autoplay function that will continue to play similar content when the playlist or album you’re listening to ends.
This is the best way to find similar music on Qobuz, but it isn’t exactly an extensive or easy-to-navigate feature of the service. There’s no way to look through the tracks, see what’s coming up, or return to the tracks you liked once you exit the app or web player.
Community
Though Qobuz isn’t a large streaming service, there’s still a solid community built around the platform.
You can access the Roonlabs Qobuz discussion board for troubleshooting and advice about the service.
There’s also an active subreddit: r/qobuz, where you can go to discuss the platform and get troubleshooting tips.
Qobuz fosters this community itself through a biweekly Qobuz Community Challenge playlist. Every two weeks, you have the opportunity to suggest tracks along a theme, which will then be published as an official playlist!
Additional Features
As well as the basics we’ve come to expect from a streaming service, Qobuz also offers some additional features.
Roon
Roon is a unique music-playback software that lets you collect your digital music in one place.
The important thing to know is that it is a service highly compatible with Qobuz. Roon offers integrated streaming from Qobuz as well as access to your entire library of files in one app.
It may not sound like much, but the reviews from customers are glowing when it comes to using Roon with Qobuz. If Roon is a service you already own or are considering using, then Qobuz makes a great addition.
Album booklets
Album booklets are a great way to learn more about an artist and the album they’ve created. If an album booklet is available with an album you’ve purchased, you can download it from Qobuz.
- Go to the Qobuz website and click on your name at the top right corner.
- Click on My Account, and go to the My Music section under your profile.
- Select the Downloads tab.
- Click Access Download next to the album you’ve purchased, and choose to download the digital booklet.
The booklets come in PDF form. You can print them out, or send them to multiple devices if you wish.
Audio device compatibility
Qobuz is compatible with a range of audio devices.
For one, Qobuz can be seamlessly integrated with Sonos speakers to stream 24-bit audio from your Sonos devices. You can add Qobuz on the Sonos mobile app or on your PC, and stream music to your devices on the go.
Qobuz is compatible with Apple CarPlay, so long as your car is too. You can stream Qobuz on your iPhone as easily as services like Apple Music. Just make sure your phone is synced to your car, then open the Qobuz app and press play.
Qobuz also works with Android Auto. Make sure the Android Auto app is launched and your phone is connected to your car’s Bluetooth, then stream your music through the Qobuz app.
If you have a Samsung Smart TV, you can download Qobuz from the app store and connect it to your device by scanning a QR code. This lets you stream music through the speakers connected to your Smart TV.
For a Chromecast device, open the Qobuz mobile app and start playing music. Choose the cast button at the top right of the screen and select your Chromecast device.
FAQs
Here’s a few frequently asked questions and some helpful tips and instructions.
- How do I create a Qobuz account?
- How do I download the Qobuz app?
- How do I subscribe to paid plans?
- How do I cancel paid plans?
- How do I delete my account?
- Can I upload my own music?
- Where is Qobuz available?
- Is Qobuz really lossless?
How do I create a Qobuz account?
Here’s how to create a Qobuz account:
- Go to the Qobuz website and click on My Account in the top right corner.
- You will be presented with a sign-in screen. Choose to register an account from the bottom of the screen.
- Fill in your information and register your account. You might get a confirmation security email with a code to fill out.
- You’ll be taken to a page that lets you select what you want to receive notifications about, as well as choose your favorite music genres. Then, choose Submit.
- You’ll get a welcome page confirming your email account. On this page, choose to Try for Free to start your free trial of the service.
- You’ll need to fill out your payment information to start the trial, but you won’t be charged until your free trial ends.
- You’re done! You can start streaming in the web browser, or download the app.
How do I download the Qobuz app?
To download the PC app, you should:
- Go to the Our Ecosystem tab on the Qobuz website.
- Select the compatible version of the PC app for Windows or Mac, and hit Download.
- Open the downloaded file to launch the installer. Follow the steps in the installer, and the app will be downloaded to your desktop.
To download the mobile app:
- Search for Qobuz in the App Store or in Google Play, and hit Install.
How do I subscribe to paid plans?
To subscribe to paid plans when you have an account, you should:
- Go to the Qobuz website and click on your name in the top right corner. Choose My Account.
- You’ll automatically be taken to the My Streaming Plan section. Here you can choose to Change Plan, or update your payment method.
How do I cancel paid plans?
To cancel your subscription, you should:
- As in the section above, go to the Qobuz website and click on your name in the top right corner. Choose My Account.
- You’ll automatically be taken to the My Streaming Plan section. Here you can choose to Cancel Plan.
How do I delete my account?
Here’s how to permanently delete your Qobuz account:
- Go to the Qobuz website and click on your name in the top right corner. Choose My Account.
- Choose the My Personal Information section and scroll down to the bottom.
- Choose to Delete my account permanently.
Can I upload my own music?
You cannot add your own local files to Qobuz. To stream local files as well as your Qobuz tracks, you’ll need a third-party app like Roon.
Where is Qobuz available?
Qobuz is available in 24 countries in total: France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Portugal.
Is Qobuz really lossless?
Yes, Qobuz is totally lossless, and offers better than CD-quality music on most of its content library.
Conclusion
All in all, Qobuz is an app designed for audiophiles.
While it might not appeal to the average listener, due to the higher price point than other platforms with no additional perks besides the quality of the audio, it’s a great choice if you’re passionate about your music and want to experience it at the highest possible quality.
The Qobuz experience is quick and optimized, letting you focus on what matters: the music. It is easily customizable, and though the interface doesn’t feel quite as sleek as something like Spotify due to the abundance of tabs, filters, and search bars, it’s perhaps even more usable.
The music available is expansive and high-quality—well worth the higher price if that’s something you care about. Additionally, the diverse and thorough Discover tab will help you find brand new music that you might never have heard on other platforms.
Qobuz is a great service if you’re looking for Hi-Res music. However, if the quality of your audio isn’t a concern for you, then you might not be getting your money’s worth compared to a cheaper platform like Spotify.
While I prefer MQA, when an MQA formatted album or track is unavailable, Qobuz’ 24-bit files sound great!
Qobuz is excellent and alot better than most other platforms, ie. Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music etc, which I have tried and thus find qobuz a quality product!
Great review!
” Qobuz was launched in 2008 as a service that enables you to stream and download digital music. Since then, it has grown to 24 countries, including the US, UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain”
It looks like it was hurting you to start the sentence by telling it is originated from France 🇨🇵
“However, the service also supports Hi-Res sound— 24-bit and up to 192kHz— for the majority of their tracks”.
This is inaccurate – the vast majority of their tracks are only in simple 16 bit quality just like any other service.
The best way to judge Qobuz is to listen to your subscription through a high quality stereo high hifi system. Mine is a Cambridge Audio streamer which accesses Qobuz(also Internet radio stations) then through a Rega amp and 2 B&W floorstanding speakers. The Qobuz app on my smartphone I use to access my favourites via Bluetooth on headphones and the same on 2 portable Internet radios. The app allows me to download the cd album notes to my smartphone. For classical music this cannot be anything but superlative.
Qobuz is a good concept that is poorly executed. Customer service is abysmal and there are well reported problems with the payment system, which have existed unaddressed for quite some time (search “qobuz payment refused”). After subscribing to Sublime for the “up to 60% discount on HiRes Downloads”, I was literally unable to purchase a single download. Qobuz charged my credit card $179 for Sublime and then immediately rejected that same card for any transaction, as well as rejecting any other card I tried. When I checked with my banks I was told they had not rejected any transactions and that is was a problem at the Qobuz’s end. A month has gone by with no action or substantive communication from Qobuz. And this is not an isolated issue as a quick search of audiophile forums will confirm. Subscribe to Qobuz at your own risk.
I there a way to list/select music that is the highest sampling rate that they offer? I’m new to this service and would like to occasionally narrow my listening to the very highest sampling rate.
I’m surprised that this very comprehensive article doesn’t mention the fact that Qobuz has higher payouts to music artists than other platforms — in some case, 10+ times higher. While I appreciate the sound quality greatly, higher artist payouts are the main reason why I signed up with Qobuz in the first place. I’m a music educator with a lot of friends who are songwriters and composers.
Anyone interested in the long-term viability of the business of recorded music should give some thought to the long-term sustainability of how they’re getting their music. Data is difficult to come by and the entire industry needs to do much better, but Qobuz seems to be the industry leader in terms of artist payouts.