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High Infidelity

I’m unapologetically old school. I own rather than lease my car and not because I think it drives better that way. I own my music and not because I think it sounds better than streaming. I’m puzzled as to why it’s cheaper to buy a CD, have it shipped home and rip it rather than downloading it from a popular digital audio store. I’m disappointed that artists who bypass the CD process seem to only offer MP3 downloads. But I digress…

I recently purchased music for download on Qobuz. The website identified the download as CD quality 16 bits, 44.1 kHz. The downloaded files turned out to have varying bitrates between 756 & 938 Kbps rather than 1,411 Kbps. I contacted Qobuz through their help messaging. They thanked me for bringing this to their attention and stated they would request a corrected copy from the record label. They unfortunately could not give me a timeframe as this would be up to the record label.

I requested a refund on the basis that I purchased CD quality tracks for immediate download per their website description and the prospect of potentially getting them at an undermined time in the future was not acceptable. I was told that Qobuz does not provide any refunds on purchased music in any circumstance. There are no exceptions to this rule. I asked to speak to a supervisor but my request was denied.

I’d like to get feedback on:
-     whether others have encountered downloads that weren’t as advertised or if this was truly an exception
-    what you think of their refund policy
-    any possible recourse

Thanks
 

rpmpam

Showing 1 response by bipod72

bipod72
105 posts
 

Anyone on this site complaining about the cost of purchasing music should stop right now. When you're willing to spend $10k+ to stream free content  you can't really comment on the cost of music when you're not willing to help support the artists that make the music you enjoy. 

I'm not sure how a download service would refund a digital download because it's not at the preferred bitrate. I used to have an account with E-music back before streaming services existed. Bought quite a bit over the many years knowing full-well I was getting mp3s up to 320kbps but not CD quality.

As for continuing to purchase digital downloads, I still do but of select artists whose music is out of print or the CD/vinyl format is too expensive. There is a Japanese ambient artist I like whose music is now mostly available via high-res download. On occasion a vinyl copy might pop up for lots of $. If I buy CD or vinyl from the Bleep website I get a complimentary FLAC copy that I download onto my home server, both as a backup but also as a listening convenience factory when I queue up multiple albums to listen to in a session. 

I also find that not every streaming service has what I want or is going to keep complete cataloga or specific versions of an album available on their service. I see songs and albums disappear on Spotify all the time.

At the end of the day, chalk your purchase up to the price of listening to your favorite artists. Think of your lower res copy like a vinyl copy that someone on discogs over-rated as M/NM instead of the VG it really is. 

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