Qobuz healthy again?

Morning Simon,  the last report I read was a French newspaper- Sept - that said they were still looking for investors.  It said something like Qobuz has a lack of investors & needs refinancing,  also about being placed in a holding procedure (?) in order to give it time & also some talk about venture capital. 

Morning Mike, yes that was the finance scare scare I was referring to. I believe they had 3 months from the end of August to resolve. It could be my imagination, but Qobuz seems to have increased thier energy very recently..

Simon

Let's hope they are now stable, and if so, that Naim can get the service integrated Into the network players. 

I too hope things go well for Qobuz.

However, I am more than a little miffed by recent updates which have rendered Internet Explorer useless for browsing track samples on their site. I have absolutely no intention of using their preferred browser (Google Chrome), and have had mixed results (reluctantly) using Mozilla Firefox. I can listen to tracks on the Qobuz player, but not directly using just the browser.

I can understand why this has happened given that Chrome followed by Firefox are the two most popular browsers in France, but it still annoys me.  

Having tried Qobuz for a while, I've now cancelled my subscription for the time being. I'm not into buying downloads & unfortunately the speed of my internet connection makes it impossible to listen to the streaming stuff in CD quality.

Although not the reason I cancelled, I thought their interface was complete pants. 

Hi Simon,

Qobuz stated that they filed for protection on the 19th of August:

(in French) http://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/page/communique_20082014

In an interview, Yves Riesel said that it was for 4 months:

(in French) http://pro.clubic.com/actualit...ne-gagne-argent.html

So unfortunately,  the clock may still be ticking...

In this interview, he explained that nobody was profitable on the streaming subscription business. Qobuz are growing their download business, but they need more investment to expand marketing on the subscription side.

Did you notice their latest annoucments ?

(in French) http://blogs.qobuz.com/qobuzbl...vation-sublime-flac/

Have a nice Sunday,

Maurice

Maurice, thanks for the info .. So it's four months not three.. So that is just under two weeks time then..

Yes I did see the announcement and there was a press release event at the end of November at Cap Digital in Paris announcing this [the new Sublime streaming package - which is an interesting streaming/download composite package] and new software launch..No doubt because of comments like Tony's I suspect..

I think Sublime is only initially available in France, but Qobuz are offering an equivalent download promotion during December where hundreds if not thousands of hidef titles are for sale at the  lossy / MP3 equivalent price... Or something like that... Anyway I have been taking advantage of it.

So it feels like they have got some of their mojo back.. Let's hope it's not their swan song..

Simon

The Qobuz download process is quite tricky, and nothing like as good as Linn's, which works beautifully. I downloaded a Vivaldi & Bach album yesterday and the metadata was all over the place. It initially showed up as 14 different albums, with the 28 tracks spead across them. I'd resisted getting a metadata editor until then, thinking is was too scary for me, but was finally driven to get one. It was a right pain.

HH that sounds terrible, I have never expierienced that with Qobuz and I have downloaded probably a hundred standard def and hidef albums now. I would definitely let them know [it sounds like the compilation flag was not set] I am sure they would want to resolve before that album affects more users... I do like the Qobuz auto download tar packaging  method which seems to work and be integrated very well on the Mac.. Although Qobuz assumes you want ALAC if you are downloading to Mac, which I normally override to FLAC.

I don't download much, but the two I'd done from Qobuz previously had been fine. It made me get a metadata editor though, which is good, and another thing I've now mastered. I used Musicbrainz Picard, which while it may not be the best, is free, and simple to use, once I realised that you have to save after editing each track. The first time I did it I edited the whole album, pressed save and wondered why there were still 14 albums showing.

Off-topic

Nigel, do you remember when you bought A Victory for the Sullen, I pointed you to Valgeir Sigurdsson's Architecture of Loss ?

A local singer here just released a new album produced by Sigurdsson with strings arranged by Daniel Bjarnason (also on Sigurdsson's Bedroom Community label). She's called Olivia Pedroli and the new album is called A Thin Line. You can find it and listen to some extracts on Bandcamp.

I just thought you might like it.

Good luck with the tagging ;-)

Maurice

What a good memory you have. Thanks for the tip - I'll have a look. I have never heard of bandcamp, but like tagging, it's another thing I can learn. It may help me to feel younger.

Oh ! You're in for a treat then. Bandcamp is one of the major platforms for independant musicians and labels.

Start here: https://bandcamp.com/discover

Search directly here: https://bandcamp.com/search

As we're talking ambient music, try Rhian Sheehan's Stories from Elsewhere. Beautiful.

But you'll find all genres and styles of music, and really cool stuff. And it's cheap (compared to Qobuz for instance): an album is typically around £7-8 (€9, $10). And sometimes, when you download FLAC files, you're pleasantly surprised to see they are 24-bit (BC doesn't advertise HD files yet, but the artists/labels can upload 24-bit files, and that's what you get sometimes).

(Sorry Simon ! )

Good to see you back Maurice,

Thanks for bringing up Bandcamp. If you like New Zealand electro-dub, download everything from Pitch Black on the Bandcamp site. If you're hesitating, give Ape to Angel a try, or Rude Mechanicals.

There are several bands with the same name. The one you want is here :

http://pitchblack.bandcamp.com/

Then convert the FLACs to WAVs and stand back.

Jan

The prices for the CD quality rips aren't that much of a bargain Simon. Most I looked at were going for about £8. I would expect to get most CDs for that price or less. Unless I'm missing something?

It's great that Qobuz seem to be surviving. I have subscribed for the streaming service which is another reason not to go for their current offer.

Steve, I agree except  for classical music titles, which are probably the majority of my downloads.. Buying good classical recordings on CD in my expierience is not as cheap as rock, pop and jazz, and the second hand market seems a lot smaller for classical... and here I have found Qobuz often, but not always, cheaper than CD for the recordings I am after..

I tend to purchase most my new and second hand CDs from Amazon.

Simon

Simon, have you ever tried eClassical ? They don't have everything, but they have a lot, and IME they are cheaper than Qobuz (except with long albums as their prices are time-based). eClassical is BIS Records online store but they have many other labels, and you get great Christmas discounts every day on one BIS album and one Harmonia Mundi album, plus a daily bargain on one BIS album every day of the year.

Hi Jan, and thanks for the kind words.

Yes, well, I come and go these days, a bit busy and I must say the NDS eats up quite a bit of my free time... (and incidently I nearly stopped fiddling with my computer while listening to music).

Listening to Ape to Angel right now: that's quite cool, thank you. I always lend an ear to your recommendations when I catch them, but you know that already. Maybe I should start using this 'Follow' function on the forum, so I don't miss any of your posts since I'm getting a bit lazy with the forum !

Regarding the WAV conversion, Asset does it on the fly for me already, so all is fine.

I'll write to you very soon.

Take care,

Maurice

Maurice, no I have not tried eClassical before, I shall look into it..  thanks

Simon