Yes, I had exactly the same issues literally. And yes after that also missing albums, quite a lot actually, and yes replacing for the new versions manually was a irritating time consuming exercise, for which I give Qobuz a low rating, consumer unfriendly even. The ratings for previous recordings were missing too, and how many times I played them. And this after the major disaster with the API of Qobuz, which caused a lot of migraine too.
None of those [aside from the API disaster of course] are issues with Qobuz. They canât just replace albums with similar. Whenever Apple did that it reduced my library to ashes within months, with crazy substitutions everywhere, and if your Qobuz substitutions had happened on Tidal they wouldnât be reported to/shown on Roon and you wouldnât even know which albums had gone in order to replace them.
Qobuzâ system of putting up the new versions of the albums (at behest of rights holders and happening on all services) but leaving the other links in place so you can actually see what has gone missing is the best possible way to do it.
The best way would be an âAlbum improverâ in Roon similar to the âPlaylist improverâ.
Sure, in Roon and giving you the option to reject incorrect substitutions. Iâm only talking about how Qobuz handles it.
For instance in the past month, the following albums have been replaced on Qobuz with new versions:
Pallbearer - Heartless
OMD - History of Modern, Punishment of Luxury and Bauhaus Staircase
Witchfinder General - Death Penalty
HOME - Odyssey
Counterparts - Nothing Left to Love
Holy Terrorâs discog box set âTotal Terrorâ has been replaced by the individual albums.
A couple of albums have been removed and seemingly not yet replaced (NB sometimes such instances automatically become available again within a week):
Psychedelic Furs - Mirror Moves
Ikuinen Kaamos - The Forlorn
I am thankful that Roon can highlight these (at least if they are from Qobuz) and that I can go in and replace them. I donât think personally I would want auto replacements as I want to decide which replacement version is best (good example being the Holy Terror removal here).
An âalbum improverâ that highlights whole albums that are missing and offers improvements would be good but it would only really do the same as I just have, just smoother. You would still have to tell Roon to find them to start the process (which you can already do if they are on Qobuz) and you would probably still have to pick a replacement for each. The process of adding a new version and removing the old one with unavailable tracks is the thing thatâs fiddly and so yes a tool to smoothly replace with a selected version would be better (carrying across playcounts and metadata too).
Just to update, I havenât had a recurrence of the situation I described in my original post. So I have no idea what happened or why. Sorry.
Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I only just noticed something like this happened to my list of purchased albums from the qobuz download store:
âI Inside the Old Year Dyingâ by PJ Harvey is one of the albums that are now displayed as âno longer availableâ.
For me, this issue is infinitely worse because having lost my backup medium, Iâm no longer able to download the album I purchased.
And to me it makes zero sense, because the very same album is still in their download store:
I mean, even if they temporarily lost their license for this album, they obviously reacquired it, so why canât I download it anymore? Itâs still the same frigging album, even if their internal ID has changed.
No, it is not technically âthe same frigging album.â If it were, it still would be available to redownload. Instead, the album rights holder has changed, the album has been remastered, etc. It is no longer the same digital download that you purchased.
AJ
Yes they seem to. I have many Hi-Res purchases that are no longer available to download yet in most cases the album at the same Hi-Res and same tracks (not a new deluxe or extended version) is still available to purchase. I too have found downloads with missing metadata. This usually occurs when using their download manager but downloading track-by-track is fine. I usually use the download manager for convenience but always check and do the later if needed.
Do you actually believe that?
If I were to purchase the album again, download it, and find an old download of the album in the same format/quality, I doubt thereâd be any difference.
Itâs still the same label, the same tracks, the exact same playtime, the same release date, the same copyright notice. Everything is the same.
I mean, itâs not like I bought an NFT, right?
What really bothers me about this is that I consciously decided against doing what everyone else appears to be doing and just subscribe to a streaming service because I (maybe erroneously) believe that itâs a better way to support the artist.
How often would I have to stream an album to generate the same profit for them compared to buying a digital copy of their album?
If this is truly not a technical issue on qobuzâs side, and theyâre instead forced by some legal shenanigans of the labels to void my rights to download my purchases, then theyâre doing themselves a disservice.
Because all it does is drive more potential customers away and rely on illegal, ripped copies of their albums instead. Itâs beyond idiotic.
Anyway, Iâm curious about the qobuz support guysâ next response.
But the ID differs as you said, so most likely the payment to the rights holders differs now.
You just have to download your purchases and back them up. Nobody else will do that for you, just like with any physical goods.
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Yes, but this warning is ânewâ. At the time I made my purchases, it wasnât there. I actually did a little research and it was apparently added after this:
https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/09/qobuz-users-risk-losing-purchased-music/
I also did have a backup on an external drive, but itâs no longer working 
That is actually the reason I was trying to download everything I had purchased on qobuz again.
How many backups do I need to keep? Am I supposed to burn a CD of every purchase? I still have well over 1000 CDs I purchased over the years stored in my basement. I had hoped it would no longer be required to keep physical copies. What kind of digital age is this?
A least two at different locations is a good start.
No, just the ripped or downloaded files if you care about them. If you donât care for physical copies, gift them to a charity, and use a streaming service (but then, why would you buy a Qobuz download?)
I tried to explain that above:
Iâd like the convenience of a streaming service but without ripping off the artists.
Itâs the last comment in this review that convinced me to give qobuz a try:
Iâm surprised that this very comprehensive article doesnât mention the fact that Qobuz has higher payouts to music artists than other platforms â in some case, 10+ times higher.
Is this really so hard to understand?
What I suspect is simply this: If an item is removed from their database and later added again, its internal, unique Id changes. And thatâs all. Itâs still exactly the same item, but any old references now point to Nirvana (the spiritual state, not the bandâŚ).
This isnât wild-west Napster, there are contracts behind it, downloads get counted, etc. The ID changes because it is, well, an Identifier. Look, itâs your own responsibility to protect your purchases.
Clearly, the article wasnât comprehensive.
If you want the artist to benefit, go see them, buy their music direct, and donât stream (or stream to inform purchases.) News media has reported for a long time about how little most artists, especially independent artists, recieve from streaming.
Moreover, it seems thay you are the one who doesnât understand the licensing implications of recordings.
Except, if itâs what I suspect, itâs entirely a technical and not a legal issue.
What youâd normally do is to not actually delete any items in your database. you just flag them as âdeletedâ so theyâll no longer show up. And when theyâre available again, you remove the flag, and voila, everything works exactly like before.
[quote=âmjw, post:38, topic:297506â]
If you want the artist to benefit, go see them, buy their music direct, and donât stream (or stream to inform purchases.) News media has reported for a long time about how little most artists, especially independent artists, recieve from streaming.[/quote]
sigh and thatâs why I decided to purchase the albums instead of subscribing to their streaming service.
I just find it unacceptable that Iâm somehow penalized harshly whereas a streaming user simply switches to the new entry for the album.
Looks like it. Care to explain what Iâm missing?