Are Qobuz in difficulties?

[nopiano]

I thought I'd see what Qobuz say themselves, so after browsing some new releases I looked at the Press Office where I found this:

http://www.qobuz.com/index.php/fr-fr/page/en_communique_20082014?recache=1

 

[MrReaper182]

I thought I'd see what Qobuz say themselves, so after browsing some new releases I looked at the Press Office where I found this:

http://www.qobuz.com/index.php/fr-fr/page/en_communique_20082014?recache=1

You may want to redo your link as I have copied and pasted it into my chosen search engine and got nothing.

Forget what I just said as I have now got your link working.

 

[tinkywinkydipsylalapo]

I blame Neil Young. Or Will Young. Or Pitt the Younger. Or Carl Jung. Or someone.

 

[matt49]

I blame Neil Young. Or Will Young. Or Pitt the Younger. Or Carl Jung. Or someone.

I recently had two decorators quote for painting the outside of my house. One was called Will Young, the other was called Bob Marley.

 

[Infiniteloop]

iTunes has been responsible for one of the biggest changes in the (pop) music industry: the move from CD/album sales to downloads of individual tracks. This hit the industry very hard, as it could no longer rely on selling its high-value product. The industry is still locked into the old model though: a belief that demand for music is inelastic and so there's no point in pushing prices right down in order to grow demand.

This explains the music industry's attitude to Spotify, Qobuz et al. The industry makes Spotify charge $120 p.a. for its premium streaming service, which is twice the annual average spend of a US music buyer. In other words, the entry price for premium streaming is way beyond what most consumers would spend in a year. That is a commercial dead-end.

Qobuz's classical and jazz services suffer from a rather different problem: the demographic conveyor belt. The audience for classical music is getting old and shrinking. It won't disappear altogether, of course, but there's quite a big realignment happening in the classical music business. The great age of popular classical music, when concert halls were full of people from a range of social groups and ages, is over. We're returning to an age of patronage, much like the eighteenth century, only this time the patrons are banks.

I disagree.

Before iTunes, pretty much the only music available online was from filesharing sites like Napster, where absolutely zero money went back to either music companies or Artists. In other words, music was stolen.

Whilst it's true that iTunes celebrated the single track approach to music, you could still buy an entire album and money went back to both record company and Artist.

Without iTunes, it's debatable whether the music business as we know it would have survived. By cleverly asking a small amount of money per track (99 cents or 99p) people felt that it was a fair price to ask for a tune, and like Steve Jobs said at the time, people don't really like to feel like they're stealing. iTunes, like most Apple innovations, set the model for others to emulate.

 

[SW17]

...Apple called Beats...

 

[SW17]

Unrealistic to think that a generation which has grown up with free music (pirated or legal) will suddenly change and start paying over the odds for streaming. As pointed out here, th price point, even for Spotify, is higher than most customers are prepared to pay. The amount charged for rights needs to be reduced to enable a lower price point.

Before the age of the "recording artist", musicians made their living from performing. The industry had it good for 50 years or so when vinyl and cd were the moneyspinners. The tide may have turned again, and they may have to return to performing to make money. You can already see it with pop acts, who do a lot more performing because they can't make money from sales of recordings.

i don't have a lot of faith that the music labels will be this enlightened, however.

Ps. I do have Spotify Premium, got it free for a year with my phone, but would probably continue it. Considered Qobuz, but given the wider content on Spotify, would probably stay, and pay more if they offer a high-def product. Then again, I'm over 40...

 

[qobuz]

Hi Friends at What Hi-fi Forum !

Just a quick word to tell you to help you understanding the situation.

Please have a check to this message we posed in English for our customers :
http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/page/espace-presse

Basically - don't worry. Not only as you can see the service is up und running, but as you know we opened the download service in 8 countries in Europe last week - which means that our financial problem was only a question of 'tempo' : )

We are finding the solution and our aim is really to avoid losing one minute into our expansion, and technical efforts to provide the best service. Soon totally new apps for iOS and Android. Soon a few innovations in the field of using Qobuzand innovations in our subscriptions with interesting new options. In the meantime - if you want to support not only a good sounding music service but also an independent one, independent musically and financially - then just help us in buying music an subscribing. Your risk is equal to zero. Thanks a lot - Qobuz Team