Ability to download Qobuz purchases not permanent

Roon Software Discussion Qobuz
108

I have bought over 400 albums from Qobuz. I download as soon as I buy as I want to play them. They get backed up overnight to two locations. I see no issues with them not storing them after they lose the rights to sell or stream them. This is the way of music licensing. Been like this since streaming and buying files became a thing.

I have one album I bought years ago via iTunes I can’t get anymore and it was one with the original DRM, they never offered an upgrade to DRM free version when that happened as they had already lost it. So these days I can’t play it unless it’s via AM. Ended up buying it again 2nd hand on CD to get around it. Am I bitter no this is just how it is.

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109

Whilst none of my downloaded purchases are affected, I did receive an email about changes to their T&Cs.

Certain recordings may be withdrawn from the service for legal reasons. To comply with our obligations and ensure the protection of intellectual property in music, we may need to block access to certain releases, both for download and streaming.

110

Bandcamp being mostly for emerging artists who self-produce, if they subsequently sign a contract with a label, among the clauses there could be that the label will be the only one that can sell or distribute the album or albums prior to the agreement.

There are many variables that come into play and decide if and which albums will remain on bandcamp (or if they will move from the artist page to a label page)

111

I believe it’s related to international copyrights. I’ve found some albums on Qobuz, mainly live concerts, that are not normally available in the US. Just a guess, but I don’t think this will impact major releases we’ve purchased from Qobuz. As Jim F. noted, it’s always good practice to download purchases immediately and backup.

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112

In my case it was Complete Third (album) by Big Star. Great collection by the way if one is a Big Star fan.

113

@SukieInTheGraveyard This is interesting…. I understand we don’t own the artist’s music as in publishing or their masters. Many artists don’t even own their music. Lol…. When I say I own my physical cd’s, I mean I have the right to give it away to someone as long as I’m not making copies and selling it like we see some people doing on the street corners.

I’m learning now that digital downloads apparently don’t come with the same rights as physical cd’s. I remember when I started using Qobuz a few years ago and I noticed that a few songs that I liked would be removed from their music library after I had listened to them regularly. I reached out to Qobuz and they advised about licensing or something of that nature and they had to remove the album, BUT, it was available for a digital download purchase, so that led me to believe that once you bought it, you owned it? I guess you do own it as in, no one can take it from you as if you were streaming it, and I understand the online retailer could go out of business and that was my big concern before I decided to buy a few tunes from Apple years ago. Same as a product manufacturer’s warranty is good as long as they are in business. As I mentioned, Qobuz sells some artist’s music, but they couldn’t offer for streaming, hence the confusion for me.

Thanks…

See excerpt from an article I was reading today.

If you buy a CD in the United States, Section 109 of the Copyright Act gives you very specific rights under the first-sale doctrine. Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation explains those rights:

[O]nce you’ve acquired a lawfully-made CD or book or DVD, you can lend, sell, or give it away without having to get permission from the copyright owner. In simpler terms, “you bought it, you own it” (and because first sale also applies to gifts, “they gave it to you, you own it” is also true).

But the first-sale doctrine only applies to tangible goods, such as CDs. Digital music downloads (just like movies and TV shows and books) come with a completely different, much more limited set of rights. If you buy a digital album from an online service such as the iTunes store, Amazon MP3, or eMusic, you have no legal right to lend that album to a friend, as you could if you had purchased a CD. If you decide after a few listens that you hate the album, well, tough. You can’t resell it. You can’t even legally give it away.

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114

Yet the limited digital rights (at retail price) are sold at more or less the same price as a CD! I guess once it ain’t selling, then the rights holders will seek to limit supply to match demand.

I might not have the right to make a digital copy off CD, either. Luckily my CD player still works. But the range of CDs in my large and remote city is not nearly as extensive as found on a digital store, and I have to import the item a lot of the time. More unnecessary expense; environmental degradation, etc.

Or I could stream. Once consumed, I’m happy to transfer my right to “stream” a track back to the rights holders in probably half of all cases. Plenty of other music lovers stream, too.

115

Hey, I still love my cd’s! Keep your cd’s as long as you have the space for them because you’ll have them regardless if the album goes out of print! You have a better chance of maintaining your cd’s vs. digital downloads that have to be backed up on multiple drives for safe keeping. I have all of my cd’s downloaded on (3) different drives along with my digital downloads and I still have the physical cd’s. As you can see, if the cd’s are pulled from the retailer’s music library, you better hope all of your drives don’t crash as one said my cd’s may burn in a house fire. Really? There is a much greater chance of the retailer removing the digital downloads vs. my house burning down with my cd’s in it. Lol…

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116

I just checked my junk email and I found the Qobuz email. I have (3) albums that will be removed, but I have them all backed up!

Thanks

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17 posts were split to a new topic: Dealing with Bit Rot

128

This is not Qobuz’s fault but a change in licensing of the affected albums. Albums disappear from streaming services much more often than most people realize, and the reason is the same: changes in licensing.

This is the reason I purchase most music I really like from Qobuz, or Bandcamp, or other services.

I commend Qobuz for letting me know to make sure I have downloaded all my purchases.

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129

I am puzzled people have not noticed how many albums disappear from streaming all the time!

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130

I’ve downloaded all purchases so no issue. Now on Qobuz high quality streaming so no point in purchasing ……However. Just gone on holiday and decided to import music on Roon Arc in case of Wi-Fi problems and now unable to access my Roon server. The imports can only be done with music I own on my NAS. Ripped cd’s and digital purchases. So I decided to go to “my purchases “ on Qobuz to look at what I could import. Hey, ho! My purchases no longer exists! I’d like to know what I purchased even if I can’t download again.

131

It’s now 2nd October (ie after 1st). I was sent an email detailing several purchased albums that would no longer be available to me. All of them are still available to download and to stream (same versions, not replacement versions). The only difference is that they are no longer available as new purchases. If you make a new purchase of these albums it is a different version (ie different label/copyright info).

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132

That’s good to know - but I wouldn’t rely on it continuing to be the case indefinitely.

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133

I’m an immediate downloader, a backer up and a backer up off-site.

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134

I beg to differ, Qobuz releases change and if you integrate Qobuz favourites into Roon it’s a moving target.
For identifying purchases, I have a folder for each retailer, the downloads go into the relevent watched folder, you can also tag them in Roon.

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135

I feel much the same. I used the streaming services (Qobuz and Tidal) for discovery but any album that I find myself listenening to repeatedly, I purchase (or, at the least, put on my ‘to purchase’ list).

I download my purchases immediately after purchase.

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136

As music lovers we should be doing this anyway in appreciation and to support the artists.

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137

Buying the album and then streaming it for listening is what maximizes the artist revenue :wink:

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