Serious Problems with Qobuz


About six weeks ago I started having trouble with Qobuz. Many recordings that are available to stream suddenly appeared as "Unavailable" in Roon and as "Sample" in Qobuz own app (in this last case, you can stream only about a minute of each track and nothing more). I contacted Qobuz on several occasions and they emailed me saying that it is a "rights" problem. The labels affected are Chandos, BIS, Naxos, Capriccio, and CPO, and not all of the recordings are affected but mainly high resolution ones, and featuring certain composers, orchestras, conductors and performers. According to Qobuz, Naxos is the culprit as it owns all of those labels. Qobuz mentioned that the "are working with the labels to solve the problem", but up to now nothing has happened and the list of unavailable recordings is growing. In fact, some labels, like BIS and Chandos, have told some customers that have contacted them about this problem, that they are not the ones doing this.

Interestingly, this is not affecting the same recordings in Tidal, which are only available in CD resolution (44.1/16). This raises the question, at least for me, how viable is Qobuz when the recordings I want to listen to are being made unavailable. Mind you, recordings that were available before and which I listened to and marked as "favorites". Customers are paying for this service, which is not cheap, and it seems that Qobuz is reneging on the recordings it made available when one signs on.

I asked some very well known reviewers, some who had featured Qobuz reviews and interviews with the company's CEO, but none answered, and one is "sponsored" by Qobuz.

Qobuz has to answer to its customers and be forthcoming about the real problem and let us know if this problem can be solved or not. If not, they will be losing a lot of customers to others. A very bad way to run a business.
brucknermahler
I've had similar issues with Tidal and you just have to live with it. Incidentally you are lucky you can get Qobuz because it is not available in Australia the last time I looked
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Yes, I tried that. But according to Qobuz France and Qobuz USA, the problem is related to other things. They mentioned “rights”, and some other difficulties. The “rights” thing is strange as Tidal has many of the recordings in question and they stream, albeit only in 44.1/16 and not in higher resolution. It is true that this possibly is affecting only the labels I mentioned and possibly only classical recordings, but I can’t vouchsafe for that. I read from other customers about non classical music. I pay Qobuz on a monthly basis and on the 25th of this month is the renewal. I do not know if I should continue with their service. What really bothers me is that, if it really is related to recording rights, they must have known it fir quite a while. These legal issues do not just spring up unannounced. And if that is really the issue, Qobuz should have notified its customers about the problem. If they would have warned the customers, I would have probably reacted differently. Business, as with our society in general, is based on trust. I have owned a business and I know that I must keep the trust of my customers because once it’s lost it’s gone forever. And being forthcoming with those customers is important. I really feel sad about this because I like Qobuz more than Tidal. Perhaps is just an illusion, files being digital and probably the same, but the sound I get from Qobuz streaming seems better. Again, this could be just an illusion or preconceived notion, but that’s how I perceive it. We will see what develops from now on. I really would like for Qobuz to straighten this problem and if there is a rights problem and they need, if they are forced, to increase their streaming price, I would be willing to pay it, as long as they make available the recordings from those labels.
Qobuz don’t give you anything other than access to content real-time. This isn’t even equivalent to cable TV networks having rows with local studios. This is like complaining that Amazon no longer streams the movie that you’ve seen before but added hundreds of others. If this material is something that you treasure why not purchase a copy?
brucknermahler -- do what you must do.  You can always restart a subscription if you change your mind.  And stop listening to those damnable, interminable German symphonies!