Many albums with “sample” tracks on Qobuz that were complete before

I think it has something to do with whether or not the album has already been added to your library.

The albums I’m looking at are in my library, so I definitely should be seeing the “unavailable” flag.

Yes, same here. Albums in my library don’t show “unavailable” noted on tracks like it should. If I look at one not in my library, the tracks show “unavailable “ like you would expect.

In the example Dirk posted, notice that it isn’t in his library.

That’s right - if I look at the Qobuz version of that von Otter album, then all tracks are marked as unavailable. And if I add this to my library (having first deleted the existing album), then the library copy now shows all tracks unavailable…

Yep, same here.

Strange that an album with no tracks available would even come up in a search, and even let you add it to your library! :thinking:

It is happening whether it’s in the library or not. If this is a way to “tease” a person to buy recordings, as somebody mentioned in another post, I must respond that I did not decide to pay to an “unlimited” streaming service to “tease” me into buying recordings. That I can do by visiting the different labels web pages and do free searches using Google or any other search engine. I subscribed to be able to listen to full recordings, not “selections” or short samples. If Qobuz were forthcoming with this, I would have given a second thought to paying their subscription rate, much more when I subscribed to the Studio tier.

It is interesting to note that, at least with Chandos, the new releases still seem to be available for streaming. It is the earlier releases that appear to be disappearing.

In my case, newer ones say “sample”. And they are 96/24. BTW, Qobuz eliminated my comments asking for help in their Facebook page. Guess they want to keep this quiet. But, no response to my support submission. When a company adopts an arrogant attitude towards its customers, it inevitably is bound to fail.

More recordings are being “deleted” or whatever Qobuz is doing. Just tried six CPO recordings and they are “unavailable”. I seriously think that Qobuz is playing tricks on us customers. Pity. Perhaps is time to drop them. They have shown no respect for their customers.

Da Capo Recordings are now not available.

I’ve sent an email to BIS as well. And @-mentioned Pentatone in a tweet. Let’s see if they respond.

Does anyone know if Qobuz is having trouble with certain labels? I have a Qobuz Studio subscription. Six to seven days ago I started to have trouble with recordings from the following labels; Chandos, BIS and some CPO. Under the Qobuz app all I get is “Sample”. Most tracks are blocked and only a few can be listened to for a few seconds. Under Roon I get a warning that states no streaming and check your Qobuz account. It has gotten worse with every day as more Chandos, almost all BIS and more CPO recordings can not be played. It is not a Roon problem as it is happening with Qobuz app as well. To be honest, Qobuz support is terrible. I have sent messages, filled forms, and there is no response. I have a Tidal subscription as well, but I prefer Qobuz because I can listen to high resolution content.

This issue has been widely reported - for more extensive discussion Many albums with “sample” tracks on Qobuz that were complete before

Just an update here. I had a reply from the CEO of BIS records:

We are trusting a digital distributor in the USA to deliver files to the different DSPs, y inclus Qobuz. This is the first I have heard about anything mising.
Since I don’t subscribe to Qobuz, (I have access to BIS recordings in an easier way…:-)), I cannot verify your complaint, but of course I believe you.
I am forwarding this to the aggregator for action, but it would be better, if I had more flesh on the bones, for instance, exactly what track where you are missing. Then we could perhaps add the why.

This shouldn’t be, and I am very grateful to you for having taken the trouble to inform me in this way.

Very best - Robert (von Bahr, CEO, BIS Records)

I’ve provided him with more details as he requested, and he’s asked his aggregator for an explanation.

Meanwhile, Qobuz support is being less than helpful:

Dear customer,

Thank you for your message.

Depending on deals between labels and / or distributors, albums are sometimes taken away from Qobuz. There is unfortunately not much we can do. We are sorry.

Best regards

Complete albums, I can (somewhat) understand, but the arbitrary removal of random tracks strikes me as there being something else at play here.

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The issue is occurring in many countries not just the USA. However, the good news is that BIS is not aware of any change of arrangements with Qobuz. With a bit of luck, it might be the same aggregator that is responsible for the other affected labels.

I’ve received a similar mail from the BIS CEO. With an additional advice to move to Apple Music :slight_smile: I’ll leave this with you.

I’ll continue on the Qobuz route, as they, after 3 days, responded to my tweet:

Just received message from Qobuz support stating this is an issue of the labels themselves, and that Qobuz is working with them to solve it. Hope this gets solved. However, why then the same is not happening to many of those recordings in Tidal.

It is a pity that Qobuz could not make a public announcement on this issue.

The culprit is Naxos which is the distributor of all the labels affected, according to the message I received from Qobuz. In fact, some Naxos recordings are showing the same behaviour. However, as I mentioned, this problem is not reflected in Tidal.

Thank you for keeping us posted. :slightly_smiling_face: