My Studio trial from the Roon yearly purchase just ended, and I’m definitely missing the Qobuz content already. I have a small library primarily ripped from my CDs (although some are MP3s or whatever from vinyl purchases) and have been trying to slowly upgrade everything to at least CD quality while also filling in some gaps. So I’m mainly thinking from the perspective of the purchase discount here. Do you find sublime to be worth it?
This is a question to only you can answer, based on the weight you give to different criteria.
If you want to buy (even a limited number) of digital download albums,
- either in order to make sure you will have those albums in your library, whatever happens to Qobuz
- or to support (new) artists by buying their albums
- combination of above
then there’s no doubt : sublime is the way to go.
But in fact it is very simple (for me at least), I am happy to support Qobuz (besides the artists) as well, hoping that they will survive in a streaming world that is changing so dramatically fast.
Dirk
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When Qobuz’ pricing was different I had Sublime, but I never bought any downloads. Now I have Studio (annual) and it is the best value anything in music or hifi. There is really no need to “own” stuff. Just think of all the cds you have bought that, let’s be honest, you’re never going to listen to again. You will have a much richer, deeper and broader musical life with streaming. If you want to support artists, go to concerts, or give through patreon. If Qobuz ever were to cease operation, you would get a warning and you could then buy the stuff you wanted. Studio costs 41p a day. It’s next to nothing. Just build your Roon library and enjoy. Who cares whether it comes from your hard disc or some hard disc somewhere in the sky.
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The decision somewhat also depends upon what genres you listen to…
I would say that most of the time you can easily find similar purchases discounts on other sites like Bandcamp (and the artists get a better share), or just the normal pricing is as good.
But in my experience, the Qobuz discounts were best on Classical, and more numerous.
If you know what you want to buy, then just check pricing on Qobuz compared to other sites for a few of the albums. It’s really just a simple math question.
I brought everything I wanted on Sublime last year, now I’m on Studio.
Well, I care.
Streaming just isn’t an option when I’m working/staying in some remote area…
But of course the Qobuz app also has a download option. 
However, I also like to be able to access digital downloads/rips of albums not available to stream. And it isn’t uncommon for streaming sites to lose licencing rights, without warning.
And if the past year has taught us anything, 21st century life isn’t as secure as we like to think.
Come the apocalypse, my dystopian life is not going to be music free. 
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Just to clarify a little on what I’m doing. For various reasons my ripped library has a lot of gaps of music that I have a strong connection to, and that I will want available no matter what. There are various reasons for this, but mostly, I had a hard drive go bad and then a very large binder of CDs got stolen with my car. So, I’m re-buying the music I feel like I’m missing, if that makes sense. I have no opposition to streaming, and in fact I like it a lot; there’s just certain music that I want to own.
So I figure a year on Sublime to rebuild what was lost, and then Studio from there. FWIW, I’m also using Bandcamp, 7Digital, and ebay (for physical CDs, because not everything I had is available otherwise).
I had not thought of it from the perspective of supporting the artists, but that’s a good point too!
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Makes sense. I use Microsoft OneDrive for all my files, including those I have ripped or downloaded, so everything is backed up to the cloud as well as being available locally, and I don’t need to worry if a hard drive fails. The Microsoft365 subscription is excellent value, especially if you use Word, Excel etc… I’m getting quite used to renting software.
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Yeah, a cloud backup is the next thing I have to work out. I have 365 so I’ll have to look into that at some point. I also have the Adobe Creative Cloud from work… it’s good because you can activate it on multiple computers (we used to have to reinstall and reactivate every year when we would put out a convention newspaper in a city away from our office). But, if you don’t have internet, nothing works! It’s also not my money though. And I think they only have the Creative Cloud now anyway.
If you’ve got 365 you’re home and dry. You should have at least 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage, and its dead easy to set up. Easily accessed from any of your computers/phones/tablets too. You can control which files are duplicated locally. Also a nice feature on the phone and tablet apps is to keep selected files available offline, so you’re not even dependant on internet access to get important stuff.
It depends on how much you plan to buy. Here is what I posted back in October once my first Sublime+ subscription was ending:
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Isn’t this another way of saying that you got no advantage from the Sublime+ plan? That had you not been a Sublime subscriber, you would have, in total, paid the exact same (full price for files, but no subscription fee)?
Not trying to tell you it wasn’t worth it; just trying to understand!
My savings last year looks like this:
I got all of my purchased hi-res downloads for the CD price, and I got a hi-res streaming service thrown in for free.
In other words, the savings on my Hi-res downloads off of the CD price was enough that it entirely paid for my Qobuz subscription.
In other words, the amount I paid for my hi-res files compared to how much I would have paid for the hi-res list price was significantly more than that. By hundreds of dollars more than that.
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Got it - makes perfect sense. Forgot about the streaming element of the plan. Thanks!
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Cool.
I am excited to see what a second year will look like. I anticipate it being less of a savings as I have purchased more physical media thus far in my subscription than downloads.
It just really falls down to how many Hi-res downloads the OP plans to buy. To break even of the extra cost of the Sublime+ subscription is pretty easy if you frequently buy stuff.
Does Sublime+ discount all downloads? Any exceptions?
Yes, I have seen exceptions. Not many, but I expect to see more in the future.
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I anticipate it being quite a few. Anyway, I ponied up for Sublime a minute ago. I think it will be worth it.
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Always Nick Cave…
I subscribe to Sublime. It’s like walking into the record store and having everything on sale all the time now just the new releases.
I can’t be bothered to do the math on if I’m actually saving any money but I like the interface and I like the prices so it keeps me. If it was directly integrated into Roon my CC would be in trouble. (Also, Roon, integrate the Qobuz download store please).
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It can be quite varied, depending on genre, time since release, and size/popularity of the label/artist. And as others have said the discounts are more often than not far larger for Hi-Res than those for redbook.
Qobuz also regularly run discount promotions based on a label/artist etc… especially for Classical and Jazz (at least as far as I’ve noticed in the last two years).
You can take at look at current discounts by clicking the Digital Downloads>‘Buy the Album’ panel on any album:
It will prompt you to go to your local store, but…
GB:
US:
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Thanks. I am a Qobuz subscriber but I have never been tempted yet by the purchase option. This information, though, is very helpful.
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