News: Qobuz & USA, It’s A Date!

French hi-res streaming service and download store Qobuz (pronounced “co buzz”) officially launched its US service today. For music lovers, the date could not be more appropriate.

From the Press Release:

Qobuz is on all app stores, and a summary of its features is below.

  • Streaming in up to 24-bit/192 kHz true Hi-Res FLAC (about 29x the audio quality of MP3) with compatible gear.
  • The option to stream and offline download an unlimited amount of music on all devices-including both mobile and desktop.
  • A parallel Hi-Res download store with files for purchase allowing for options that flow substantial revenues back to creators- premium pricing for Hi-Res masters is a growth area for record labels.
  • Exclusive, curated, and in-depth editorial content. Deep metadata, complete digital booklets, interactive articles, reviews, and playlists in-app on every platform.

Here are the pricing tiers:

  • “Sublime+”: $299.99/year for full high-res streaming and discounts from the Qobuz high-res download store
  • “Studio”: $24.99/month for unlimited high-res streaming ($249.99 annually)
  • “ HiFi”: $19.99/month for CD-quality streaming ($199.99 annually)
  • “Premium”: $9.99/month for MP3-quality streaming ($99.99 annually).

I signed up for “Studio” and so far, I’ve had a beta account for a few weeks, I’m finding the music choices, interface, via Roon, and sound quality to be, in a word, superb.

Choice, is good.

For more information: www.qobuz.com.