With the introduction of full lossless and 24-bit audio streaming by a major music service earlier this month, it’s crystal clear that Hi-Res is finally ready for prime time. Regular people will be hearing this mainstream message about audio quality; it is sure to resonate loudly, as Neil has noted. You’re reading the Times-Contrarian so you are already pretty knowledgeable about formats, bit depth and sample rates, and where you can get what. But since Qobuz is a Hi-Res service that’s only operated in Europe in the past, Neil and his team have been kind enough to give us a couple of paragraphs to explain what we’re all about.

The Kobyz is an ancient Kazakh string instrument. It has two strings made of horsehair and a resonating cavity usually covered with goat leather. Traditionally, the kobyz was a sacred shamanic instrument. According to legend, its music could banish evil spirits, illness and even death. We adapted the name of this magical musical instrument and called our company Qobuz (pronounced “KO-buzz”) because we believe in the positive healing power of music, which is enormously enhanced by lossless or Hi-Res transmission in the digital sphere.

Qobuz offers as much 24-bit music as we can get our hands on. It comes from major labels, independents, distributors and aggregators, and even direct from specialist suppliers like Blue Coast Records, the audiophile label run by Cookie Marenco, formerly of Windham Hill. Right now there are over 2 million tracks available to stream in Hi-Res quality. Then there’s everything else, tens of millions of tracks, and we have them all in lossless, 16-bit/44 kHz CD quality. All this music streams in the FLAC format, the same lossless codec that was used with Pono.

We also have a download store where everything we stream (and more) is available for purchase, in the best possible quality up to 24-bit/192 kHz. You can download your music in FLAC, WAV, ALAC….whatever format you want. The download store is important because not only does it give you the ultimate flexibility with your music, but it generates enough revenue per transaction to benefit artists and creators more immediately than streaming alone.

Sound quality is only part of the experience when you are enjoying music, so Qobuz provides tons of information and context about what you are listening to. Performer and producer credits, digital booklets, original editorial content about artists, labels, scenes and genres…you know, the stuff we’re all really into.

I read Neil and Phil’s book, To Feel The Music and found myself nodding so much my neck was sore. When you start with the knowledge that lossy music isn’t really necessary anymore, and that there’s something better within reach, the tech and commercial developments of the last year are incredibly exciting. Music fans have a number of easily accessible ways to get lossless and Hi-Res music not only onto their home systems but also via whatever portable music solution they prefer. Audio quality that, ten years ago may have required equipment costing thousands to reproduce, is now available out of a mobile phone with a modest USB DAC and some good IEMs!

It would be great if we could offer all the Neil Young Archives subscribers six free months of Qobuz, but the artists need to be paid so we can only offer one. If you take a look at this link we will also give you a free Hi-Res album download from the aforementioned Blue Coast Records that is yours to keep regardless of whether you give Qobuz a try.

We’re all a family of music lovers. Our collective enthusiasm for quality and a better listening experience is finally being felt out there. Thanks to people like the readers of the Times-Contrarian, who want to dig a little deeper for the good stuff, cool little companies like Qobuz can find their audience. Maybe you’re it?

Dan Mackta
Managing Director, Qobuz USA