Way Back When...
When was the last time you had a fun discussion (argument maybe???) on what was better; LPs or CDs? This discussion started in the early 80’s (yes I was around then!) and has really never ended! The sound of music streaming was not a buzz word yet! Trivia: What do you know about the first CD produced? It was by a group called “Abba” in 1982!
When the 1990’s got going, we had music galore with being able to format music into MP3 files. Suddenly, instead of having 8 or 10 songs on a CD, you could have 4-12 hours of music!! That, of course, brought on the discussion on how CD and LP quality compared with MP3s. Well we know who isn’t the winner there! Over time, technology has allowed to produce another formating codec, AC (Advanced Audio Coding) and others that streams better quality with smaller bandwidth. This better technology has enabled us to now stream CD quality, and better, music. Sorry LP lovers. Can’t help you here! Enter Qobuz! 🙂
Company History
The French company, Qobuz, was founded in 2007 and was one of the first to make the sound of music streaming with lossless audio and downloads over the compressed audio formats other services were using. Qobuz is available in 25 countries including the United States, Latin America and Europe. If you are a lover of music that appreciates the best in the sound quality of the music you listen to, then Qobuz is for you!
Features
It may be hard to believe, but Qobuz has almost as many songs available as well-known services like Apple Music and Spotify! Qobiz boasts with a catalog of over 100 million tracks! They also have the richest selection of high-resolution (Hi-Res) titles on the market. They are one of the only platforms in the world to offer unlimited streaming as well as being able to download audio in Hi-Res and CD quality. Qobiz allows downloading music for being able to listen to your favorite music when there is no internet!
The owners of Qobuz have made streaming available on all platforms: Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android and wireless listening devices (Chromecast, Airplay, Bluetooth, etc).
Do you enjoy reading further information on a song or performer? Well, another service Qobuz provides to its subscribers is providing articles, artist interviews, biographies, and deep dives into the music of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Cost
If you are interested, you can apply for a month of service for free! If you pay for a year, the cost is $129.99 which comes out to $10.83 a month. What a steal! You can get the service for two people costing $14.99/per month and $17.99 for a family of 6. Apple Music charges $14.99 for high resolution streaming.
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Interested yet? Go check it out and let me know how you like it!
Soundguys did a great review on Qobuz which has a little more tech information and some interesting facts about the product. The article was published back in 2019 so some of the information is out of date but still a great article to read if you are interested in this service.
Cool info Tom. I’m re-introduced to how interesting you are. Didn’t know that about the first CD.