Qobuz 3 Year Offer

[MRC01]

I've been a Qobuz subscriber for a few years now, previously with Idagio and Primephonic. What I like the most is they stream the original masters the studios and artists provide, in their original form without resampling or other processing. And they stream in FLAC which is an open standard. And one doesn't need their proprietary app to listen to the music - you can listen to the original "bit perfect" streams in a browser, in UAPP, and other devices.

Qobuz is offering a 3 year subscription extension with the current price locked in if you pay up front. Normally I reject offers like that due to the present value of future money and risk of the company going out of business. But given the current economic environment, rising inflation seems likely and markets are historically overvalued. So the opportunity cost of the money used to pay up front is relatively low, while the risk of price increases is high, and Qobuz seems to have established a stable business, making the offer temping. Yet perhaps the offer is a sign that Qobuz themselves see hard times ahead...

I'm curious what would you do?

 

[Sal1950]

I've been a Qobuz subscriber for a few years now, previously with Idagio and Primephonic. What I like the most is they stream the original masters the studios and artists provide,

Thanks for the heads up on this special offer!
Does Qobuz provide meta data to show what the source of the stream is, mastering, year, release, etc?

And they stream in FLAC which is an open standard. And one doesn't need their proprietary app to listen to the music - you can listen to the original "bit perfect" streams in a browser, in UAPP, and other devices.

I may be out of the loop but I'm not aware of the providers that are doing this?

 

[MRC01]

Does Qobuz provide meta data to show what the source of the stream is, mastering, year, release, etc?

Inconsistently and not often. Metadata is not a Qobuz strong point. Especially for classical music, which doesn't fit into the standard tags. If you want the best metadata for classical music, check out Idagio. However, the Qobuz search engine is quite good and I can find even obscure works. The problem is, there may be several versions of a recording and they aren't clear about which is which.

For example, take the Moody Blues. Qobuz has 3 versions of Days of Future Passed and 4 versions of In Search of the Lost Chord. Nothing indicates what versions they are, takes some poking around and guessing to figure it out. However, they have 2 versions of Pink Floyd Animals and their metadata says one is the 2018 Guthrie remix (excellent!) while the other is unmarked.

I may be out of the loop but I'm not aware of the providers that are doing this?

If you search for Qobuz here at ASR you'll find reviews of a few devices having built-in support.

 

[mlsstl]

I've been a Qobuz subscriber for about 6 years now. Received the same email as others, then received a follow-up email that said the offer expires on Sept 30. Apparently this is only being offered to existing subscribers. I decided to take them up on it, but when I clicked the link in their email it took me to their regular subscription page which makes NO mention of the 3 year offer. I searched for 45 minutes and never figured out how to change my subscription from the annual one I have to the 3 year deal. I even engaged their AI customer chat which had no explanation or answer for me. So, now I'm supposed to hear back from them tomorrow (Monday Sept 29.) We'll see if I'm still in the mood to spend the $390....

 

[MRC01]

...I decided to take them up on it, but when I clicked the link in their email it took me to their regular subscription page which makes NO mention of the 3 year offer. ...

I just clicked the "Secure my 3-Year Plan" button from the email and had the same experience. I turned off the ad blocker but that didn't fix it.

 

[Sal1950]

Inconsistently and not often. Metadata is not a Qobuz strong point. Especially for classical music, which doesn't fit into the standard tags. If you want the best metadata for classical music, check out Idagio. However, the Qobuz search engine is quite good and I can find even obscure works. The problem is, there may be several versions of a recording and they aren't clear about which is which.

OK thanks, just wondering since you posted,
"What I like the most is they stream the original masters the studios and artists provide, in their original form without resampling or other processing."

For example, take the Moody Blues. Qobuz has 3 versions of Days of Future Passed and 4 versions of In Search of the Lost Chord. Nothing indicates what versions they are, takes some poking around and guessing to figure it out. However, they have 2 versions of Pink Floyd Animals and their metadata says one is the 2018 Guthrie remix (excellent!) while the other is unmarked.

Yep I get much the same here with Apple. It sure would be nice if they started to include more consistent meta data when there's so many versions available. But at least we're getting some options.

 

[MRC01]

... Yep I get much the same here with Apple. It sure would be nice if they started to include more consistent meta data when there's so many versions available. But at least we're getting some options.

Apple acquired Primephonic a few years ago, who had excellent custom created metadata for classical music, similar to Idagio's. But Primephonic, like Idagio, was classical music only.

 

[MRC01]

... I even engaged their AI customer chat which had no explanation or answer for me. So, now I'm supposed to hear back from them tomorrow (Monday Sept 29.) We'll see if I'm still in the mood to spend the $390....

The AI did confirm that the 3 year offer was open, even though I couldn't find it on their site, so I also opened a ticket with them. Should find out tomorrow.

 

[Sal1950]

Apple acquired Primephonic a few years ago, who had excellent custom created metadata for classical music, similar to Idagio's. But Primephonic, like Idagio, was classical music only.

Can't comment at all on Classical music stuff but afaik the need there is even more dire than for pop.

 

[groovybassist]

In the fine print of the email, it indicates the offer isn’t available for “Sublime” level subscribers - wonder if that’s why some folks aren’t seeing clear indication it’s available for them. I have a Studio subscription, which I thought was Sublime, I should click the link and see if it works.

Edited to correct my subscription level.

 

[groovybassist]

I got same result as everyone else - no indication of 3 year pricing using link in email.

 

[mlsstl]

In the fine print of the email, it indicates the offer isn’t available for “Sublime” level subscribers - wonder if that’s why some folks aren’t seeing clear indication it’s available for them. I have a Studio subscription, which I thought was Sublime, I should click the link and see if it works.

Edited to correct my subscription level.

I'm just have a regular single-user Studio subscription so should be eligible for the 3 year plan.

 

[poopy]

I got same result as everyone else - no indication of 3 year pricing using link in email.

Same here. I wonder if this related to the location (I'm in EU)

 

[Joachim Herbert]

Same here. I wonder if this related to the location (I'm in EU)

The offer probably is illegal inside the EU. Subscriptions may not be for more than two years with one month autorenewal. Qobus propose three years with three year autorenewal.

 

[MRC01]

I'm in the USA and have the standard subscription which is eligible. Still waiting for Qobuz to get back to me. They've never taken this long to get back to me on a support question. Looks like they're busy dealing with the broken offer links they sent.

 

[mlsstl]

I'm in the USA and have the standard subscription which is eligible. Still waiting for Qobuz to get back to me. They've never taken this long to get back to me on a support question. Looks like they're busy dealing with the broken offer links they sent.

I'm in the same boat -- it's late afternoon here in the US on a Monday work day and closing in on midnight in France depending on where customer service is located and still no response to my weekend inquiry. And I just checked my offer link in the email and that still doesn't take you anywhere useful. It'll be interesting to see where this ends up. Thinking they've dug themselves a hole. Wonder if they'll end up losing customers over this instead of keeping them longer term. (A favorite idiom of mine -- "No good deed goes unpunished.")

 

[MRC01]

I got an email at 2am last night that says Qobuz had a problem with the offer, fixed the problem and extended the time to subscribe. The new link they sent does work so now it's back to my original question...

 

[MRC01]

I took the offer today, mainly due to reasons mentioned in the first post and the fact that I've been with them 4 years already and happy with the service.