The French streaming platform, which is focusing on high sound resolution, arrives on May 4 in South America and Portugal.
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The smallest of the platforms of musical streaming, Qobuz, is strengthened internationally and was to announce, Wednesday, May 4, its presence in six new countries – five in South America, where the market recorded its most High rate of global growth in 2021 (+ 32.5 %, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), and Portugal. Now, the French platform offers its services in 25 countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia. In Japan, it also acquired, in 2021, E-Onkyo Music, a Japanese Download Service in high resolution.
This pioneering high -resolution sound service is mainly aimed at audiophiles and music lovers who mostly listen to music at home on speakers, or on a quality helmet. Music fonduses that invest fortunes in their equipment. Even if Apple Music and Amazon Music have also recently offered high resolution. Like its sisters, Qobuz gives access to 80 million titles of all genres (pop rock, jazz, classic, soul, r’n’b …) in its catalog.
“We do not box at all in the same category,” admits Georges Fornay, Deputy Managing Director of Qobuz, speaking of his big competitors Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and even Deezer. Qobuz has “around 500,000 subscribers”, he says, where Spotify claims 180 million … In the top 10 most listened to albums, there is classic, like the stabat mater of Vivaldi led by Jan Tomasz Adamus ( Warner Classics, 2022) or passion according to Saint-Matthieu by Jean-Sébastien Bach, under the direction of Raphaël Pichon (Harmonia Mundi, 2022).
still deficit
“Our target is older than that of our colleagues,” explains Mr. Fornay, detailing: “Our standard customers are over 40 years old, are urban and high socio -professional category.” A niche and top positioning Range like that of the German platform Idagio, specializing in classical music, or Primephonic, bought by Apple Music in 2021. Born in 2007, Qobuz was taken up, at the helm of the commercial court in 2015, by Denis Thébaud, CEO of the Innelec video game distribution company.
Since then, this start-up has raised 20 million euros to try to win. The management put both sound quality and the editorialization of the musical offer (by offering 500,000 articles and criticisms, booklets, interviews with artists, biographies, test benches, etc.). If the musical streaming market is doing wonderfully, both in France and in the world, the download collapses. However, Qobuz bets in this sector by offering very high definition.
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