My favourite thing about Qobuz is they have a store where you pay money and they give you audio files, like in the old days. So you can pay for your music then keep it without an ongoing subscription.
While there are many reasons to dislike (or outright avoid) Apple - if you purchase music from them, it’s DRM-free and useable anywhere.
I believe they were one of the first official channels to do this.
Still, hadn’t heard of Quobuz and will check them out!
While true, and I have a lot of DRM-free music that I’ve bought from Apple, the difference is that getting music purchased from Apple onto your computer in a usable format is a bit of a pain, and it’s all lossy. Music from Qobuz can be downloaded directly from their site after purchasing, in lossless FLAC format, and many of their albums are available in high-res 24-bit and/or 96 kHz format as well.
Apple Music in its current form is basically a direct evolution out of iTunes. It’s a very old feature.
I know Apple has a music store. But if I use Android and Linux, how do I access it?
Android phones with access to the google play store can download Apple Music, which then has DRM free music you can buy, then you can transfer to your Linux computer.
Alternatively there is an Apple Music website I believe that has direct downloads to computers, I don’t know if it supports Linux files though.
I feel I should mention Bandcamp, which gives 70% of a sale directly to the artist. In the music world that’s a lot. All DRM free and in most audio formats you could want. My process when buying music is usually: bandcamp > qobuz (or similar) > if all else fails… use other means. I’ll also skip step one and two depending on the artist :p
I love Qobuz, they seem to be the only service with a real API. Although poorly documented. I have integrated some things with my home automation and it works with very high res sounds on my connected amplifiers.
How is qobuz’s music recommendation? I’ve been wanting to get off of spotify, but I listen to a lot of niche music and spotify’s recommendation engine still allows me to discover new music. I also scrobble all my plays to last.fm and listenbrainz, but I don’t think either of them have the userbase to get me the recommendations I need
I love Qobuz. Also for those of you trying to boycott US goods, it’s a French company. I just wish it had the same adoption and features as Spotify.
Huh, I always thought Spotify is European.
EDIT: Spotify is Swedish company.
Which features does it miss compared to Spotify?
Qobuz’s audio quality is a game changer. I had some technical issues with it with glitches short pauses in playback awhile back when I tried it; hopefully those are worked out now. It’s great if you know exactly what you want to listen too. It’s well known for lacking good algorithms for music discovery. I use Tidal and really like the daily discovery feature, automated Playlists, and the “track radio” that will give you a large list of songs similar to the exact song you are listening to. I’ve heard similar laments from people looking to switch from Spotify to Qobuz.
Last time I used qobuz it had the worst UI in history and no way to discover music or was awful, I am now on Tidal and it’s brilliant.
I’m interested, but does anyone know if there’s something like a ReVanced version for it so I can use it for free without ads, like I can with YouTube Music ReVanced?
I think there isn’t. And why would there be such a version?
Why wouldn’t there be? People like free stuff and piracy is a thing.
In addition to high music quality, fairer payment for artists is one of Qobuz’s main philosophies. Therefore, there will be nothing official where you can listen to the music for free and without adverts. Moreover, I have no idea of any free listening with adverts on Qobuz.
Whether there is something illegal that you can use to get the music should not be discussed here. The monthly fee for a subscription is a fair price, however, and you should be fair enough to do it legally.