Qobuz price reduction (UK)

Just received an announcement from Qobuz that the Studio Premier monthly fee is reducing from £14.99 to £12.99 per month (£129.99 for yearly payment) even better value but I wonder how the artists will be affected?

3 Likes

I’ve had the same email. My annual sub has just renewed, but it would appear that I can take out a 12 month sub at the reduced cost from 13th October.

Reduction in Germany as well, 149.99 yearly… and no commentary as to the impact on the artists… :roll_eyes:

1 Like

This was always going to happen after Apple’s shock pricing move for the Lossless & Hi-res tier.

Amazon Music HD followed (copied) immediately.

It may not be the last price reduction by Qobuz.

Yep - a race to the bottom

5 Likes

Same offer in Germany with the option to switch plan immediately

1 Like

Same, here in Spain. Great deal.

Spotify HIFI inbound I suspect…

2 Likes

In Amerika and in my e-mail this morning -

OTOH -

image

LOL

It will make Qobuz slightly more competitive, but will this price reduction allow them to invest in a much needed app overhaul? With Apple/Primephonic coming early 2022, classical music lovers will be hugely tempted to switch. I’m also wondering if Roon will change their pricing policy, if (I know: at this point it is a big if) Apple/Primephonic should offer similar functionalities. And what is Tidal waiting for? Surely, given all the competition, 20 € a month is shooting yourself in the foot.

I’m not sure many people have Qobuz for their classical catalogue?

It’s not their main forte and when you consider that classical music streaming still only accounts for approx 1% of total music streamed I really don’t think Qobuz are overly worried on the Apple/ PrimePhonic merge.

I am with iTunes and Qobuz but have cancelled my iTunes subscription why, because although I am in the Apple eco system playing music through other than my iPhone is just a pain, loading the music app on my MacBook or iMac is so slow at times especially radio stations!. At least with Qobuz it is integrated into Roon and now just £3 more a month than iTunes, and is worth that for the Roon integration, but I hope we are not heading for a streaming war as surely it will be Qobuz who loses out.

1 Like

I had the email, fully expecting a price rise. I was happy with £14.99 so this is a bonus for me but I would rather pay extra to avoid a cut in royalties. Qobuz has been excellent. No complaints.

4 Likes

“ The study found that 35% of adults listened to classical music. Classical music was the fourth most popular music genre, with more fans than R&B or hip hop.” The study is from 2019. Many people are discouraged from deepening their interest in classical music, because of inadequate streaming platforms. That may be about to change with AM/Primephonic. Classical music is a relatively untapped business opportunity. Why else would Apple bother? Moreover, many lovers of classical music don’t really know about streaming; Apple will give greater coverage to streaming classical. Finally, the average age of Primephonic subscribers is around 55 and, according to Primephonic, are highly educated and well-off - so exactly the kind of people companies like Apple and high-end hifi manufacturers are keen to haul in. I’m perhaps naive, but I believe that people will increasingly come to appreciate the beauties of classical music, once they have become fed up with the never-ending regurgitations of more ‘popular’ music, with everything sounding so much the same. No disrespect to other musical genres, but in purely aesthetic terms, ‘popular’ music is to classical music the way Grisham is to Dostoevsky. Grisham is fine, and so is popular music, if one understands that there’s not much to them and they function purely as cognitively unchallenging entertainment - to make a buck basically.

I am still on an old 9,99€ MP3 plan (which sounds great by the way). Now I am tempted to change to the Sublime plan. Hmm.
How much was Sublime before in Germany?

Glad I have zero interest in “popular” music either then😎.

Old rockers never die, they just shake, rattle and roll…

I think it was €179 for the studio package

The Sublime plan was €249.99 per annum. Now it is €199.99.

1 Like

I pay USD $180/yr for Apple Music family plan and now will be paying USD $180/yr for Qobuz Sublime+. That’s USD $30/month for Qobuz with hi-res discount purchasing and my family to be set for their needs with Apple Music. If I don’t have to pay extra for the future classical app and Apple improves their lossless delivery over the next year, I am totally happy with Qobuz via Roon (Lifetime sub) and Apple Music apps when needed. Cheap as chips!

The Ultimate Classical Music Streaming App | IDAGIO |

According to a 2019 study, a collaboration between classical music streaming service Idagio and media research and analytics service MIDIA Research, the classical music genre is significantly more well-known and popular than previously thought.

However, the analysis of the study “The Classical Music Market: Streaming’s Next Genre?” revealed that the classical category is only the fourth most popular music genre in the world on Idagio.

If even with such a specialized provider only 35% listen to classical music, that says it all.

Good that Primephonic did not commission this study.

Apple makes great marketing out of a zero number.The few customers (plus 0.1%) first get the servers shut down. Customers get Apple Music as a replacement and can hope that in many months there will be a similarly good offer for friends of classical music.

Yes, classical music deserves more attention and it will not be Apple that solves this problem.