No more Qobuz Sublime

I’m just 5 days from a Sublime renewal. That’s most annoying. And a potential deal breaker.

Just what I feel, Nick. Let us know if they let you renew with Sublime.  Maybe lucky!!

Oh that’s pretty bad. Can’t find how long i am still on sublime. CN anyone tell me how I can see that, in the past it was easy visible.

Click on “profil”, then “My Music”. You will then find a link to subscription history.

docbot posted:

Click on “profil”, then “My Music”. You will then find a link to subscription history.

Thanks - I am lucky it runs still till May next year. And I just realized it comes down to them increasing the price with 30%. Now it depends how much you download if it’s worthwhile. On average the albums I get from them are 5 euros or close to 5 euros cheaper. So it means in the past you needed 40 albums for a payback, now you would need 60...., 

Unfortunately my 2nd cheaper option also closed down for me. I had a working account on Prostudio Masters. But needed the update the credit card which wouldn’t get accepted as it is European, so stricter rules then before....

But the new “Studio” subscription gives you unlimited hi res streaming for £24.99 a month or £249.99 a year, and you can cache a lot of music locally, so there’s very little need to download. If you do want the discounted downloads option, an extra £50 a year will get you Sublime +, so that tier is now £50 cheaper.  From my perspective, as a Sublime+ subscriber, Qobuz have made their service better and significantly cheaper. I shall just save £100 a year and go for the new Studio tier as I very rarely buy downloads. Qobuz is wonderful and absurdly cheap.

Just finishing the thought I anyhow should start reducing a bit on intake. I already have over 13000 albums, and in principal the change that I listen to something again reduces by every buy.

Bert Schurink posted:

Just finishing the thought I anyhow should start reducing a bit on intake. I already have over 13000 albums, and in principal the change that I listen to something again reduces by every buy.

Why buy anything? Streaming liberates you from all that.

• likesmusic posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

Just finishing the thought I anyhow should start reducing a bit on intake. I already have over 13000 albums, and in principal the change that I listen to something again reduces by every buy.

Why buy anything? Streaming liberates you from all that.

Taking your ‘streaming’ to mean streaming online, surely online streaming gives availability of more music so on that argument even less chance of listening to the same thing more than once...

But to answer the question:

Buying

• gives you your own store that you can play any time.
• Is not reliant on internet connection to be able to play at all or without interruption).
• Is not dependent upon business continuity of a streaming service provider for you to be able to play music.
• Has no need for monthly subscription in order to be able to keep playing music.
• Has surety of availability of the specific music you want to listen to, in perpetuity.
• Maximises sound quality.

Against that, online streaming gives you

• access to a huge amount of music.
• In the short term even for people with limited tastes gives access to more music than could be bought for the same money.

For those who generally only play the same piece of music a few times and are constantly seeking new music, online streaming clearly has a potential benefit. But if considered as either/or (as opposed to both used in a complementary manner), online streaming only wins if  that outweighs the benefits of locally stored music.

Innocent Bystander posted:

Buying

• gives you your own store that you can play any time.
• Is not reliant on internet connection to be able to play at all or without interruption).
• Is not dependent upon business continuity of a streaming service provider for you to be able to play music.

The first 3 points are really one - guaranteed access. I'm personally confident I will be able to access any music I want online from somewhere for the foreseeable future - see below.

• Has no need for monthly subscription in order to be able to keep playing music.

Yes but I pay way less a month than I would have spent on buying CDs so a huge money saver for me.

• Has surety of availability of the specific music you want to listen to, in perpetuity.

Depends how important "specific" is - some people care deeply about a particular master etc. - I just like the music and very few versions are bad enough to spoil that for me YMMV. There is nothing I want to hear that isn't available. Otherwise same point as the first three.

• Maximises sound quality.

Tidal is as good as rips in my system and MQA sounds better -  again YMMV. This seems to be system/network dependent

 

I'm keeping my CDs (have to anyway for legal reasons) and my rips, but I never play them and will probably never buy a CD again. The only scenario I can foresee or imagine where I cannot access all the music I want online somehow somewhere, involves the sort of armageddon situation where that would be the least of my worries!

Qobuz lets you store a huge amount of music for offline access, so it is not the case that you are dependent on internet access to listen to your music.

If a streaming service goes bust, so what? You have got what you paid for. Unlimited access to a huge range of music for virtually nothing - 68p a day for Qobuz Studio.  And if there was no alternative, you could go and buy the cds that you actually wanted to listen to again, which would likely be a relatively small proportion of the cds you listened to. The old hi-fi paradigm of listening to Dark Side of the Moon every night for decades is over! How many of the cds you own would you buy again were they all to be stolen? How many cds you don’t own would you like to listen to if they were essentially free?

My point about having to continue subscribing was not to do with cost of subscription vs buying, but that if all my music was by subscription, then if one day for any reason I found myself unable pay the subscription (Brexit, failed pension provider or whatever) I would cease being able to play the music I like. 

That aside, when I had a quick look at Tidal and Qobuz for a sample of the music I like, one had some but not others, the other similar (but different gaps), yet even between them they did not have all.  So even subscribing to both I wouldn’t have access to all the music I like - and then, my point about perpetuity, can I be certain that they will still have the music that they currently do have in, say, 20 years’ time (or longer)? 

I note that Qobuz apparently lets you store music offline - does that continue to be available if your subscription ends, whether through you not continuing it, or if they were to cease trading? Or if they were to revise their stock and withdraw the title?

Of course one answer is to have your own store for the things important enough to want certainty of perpetual availability, and subscriptions to one or more providers for other music.

But for me, with around 1200 albums already I  now spend less on buying annually than the cost of a subscription, so it makes more financial sense just to buy things I like, for which I just use free online streaming services to check out new things to see if I like them. 

Innocent Bystander posted

Of course one answer is to have your own store for the things important enough to want certainty of perpetual availability, and subscriptions to one or more providers for other music.

This, to be honest, is what I do. All my CD collection (1700+ at the last count) is ripped and I still buy on Music Magpie if the deal is particularly good.

I have TIDAL because of the integration in the Naim app and whilst I tried Qobuz through the BubbleUPNP route, I let it go after a couple of months because I couldn't really justify both. However Hi-Res streaming is a game changer for me so I have resubscribed to Qobuz on their Studio level (given financial uncertainties with Qobuz I was not prepared to go annual previously or now). What I found myself doing on occasions was buying Hi-Res versions of albums I already owned much like a lot of us did on CD over Vinyl. For example I have Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark on Vinyl, CD and Hi-Res.

An example of what I mean is, I very much like the new Alison Faust Oktett and probably would have bought the Hi-Res version. Now I can stream at 24/96 and it sounds superb through Bubble UPNP (although don't start me on Chromecast which, in my experience, is feeble).

Each to his own I guess.

I’m subscribed to Sublime until next July, but for some reason it’s not lettting me download at the lower price. I will see what their customer services have to say. I wonder if anyone else has hit the same problem. 

I’ve got the same. Says I’m not a Sublime subscriber.

Thanks Nick, I suppose that’s reassuring. I’ve got nine months left so won’t be best pleased if I can no longer get my cheap downloads. I don’t imagine they can simply change things mid contract. Or maybe they can...

I cannot purchase now either!!!!

It’ll be a cock-up rather than deliberate, but whether they fix it before my subscription runs out is another matter. For all the good things about Qobuz, I suspect it’s  run by a very small number of staff.

Will Brexit affect Qobuz’s availability to UK?

Just had an email from Qobuz which says:

”For 10 years, Qobuz has been committed to making high resolution streaming the reference point for all music lovers.

Today we have changed our offers in order to make Hi-Res audio more affordable. Sublime + will now be available at £299,99 a year (instead of £349,99) .

For your renewal, the new Sublime + price will be automatically applied, without any action required on your part.

Do you want to take advantage of this new price before your renewal date? From December 1st, when re-subscribing for 12 months, we will apply a special discount corresponding to the prorate of your current subscription calculated between December 1st and your renewal date.


We will recontact you in the coming weeks to guide you through the procedure.”

Likesmusic, are you a Sublime+ subscriber? I am concerned as to what will happen to us Sublime subscribers. I don’t want to pay for the hires streaming but I do want the discounted downloads.

The answer is that if we want cheaper downloads then we are going to have to pay £299 per year rather than £219. 

Is it my imagination,  have Qobuz cranked up their prices for downloads recently. they seem around the same level as HDtracks these days.   HRA have the better prices it seems.    Are Qobuz in trouble again. ???   

docbot posted:

Likesmusic, are you a Sublime+ subscriber? I am concerned as to what will happen to us Sublime subscribers. I don’t want to pay for the hires streaming but I do want the discounted downloads.

Yep, I am a Sublime+ subscriber. My subscription is up for renewal soon, so if I wanted to renew, it would  be £50 cheaper, which is great! As I rarely buy any downloads, I am minded to switch to the new Studio tier, which still gives me HiRes streaming and will save me £100. What’s not to like!? The quote I posted from Qobuz implies that people whose Sublime+ subscriptions renew after December will get a credit that reflects the new price if they renew. Seems fair enough. But it looks like those folk that bought Sublime to get a discount on downloads lose out.

Mike-B posted:

Is it my imagination,  have Qobuz cranked up their prices for downloads recently. they seem around the same level as HDtracks these days.   HRA have the better prices it seems.    Are Qobuz in trouble again. ???   

Not that I’ve noticed, though I imagine retail pricing is largely dictated by suppliers. Sublime pricing remains outstanding. 

As for trouble, I believe all the streaming services are still loss-making (which is one reason I download as well as stream - you never know when things will disappear!)