The plot thickens - looking on Qobuz, newly released Craig Charles compilation Trunk of Funk 2 has 3 tracks as sample only. When I search for one of those tracks, Ride on Time by Bamboos individually, I could then play the complete track, from the Craig Charles album. But not if I play the whole album through, when it's a sample.
Well, I know I will jinx myself by saying this, but after installing the latest update for the mobile app, I have not experienced the myriad problems that almost forced me to cancel the service.
Qobuz is now available in the VOX app. Streaming options are 320 MP3, 16/44.1, up to 24/96 and up to 24/192. Free three month trial for new subscribers. VOX – MP3 & FLAC Music Player
Qobuz now offers a Duo plan: https://www.reddit.com/r/qobuz/comments/r7dye2/qobuz_introduces_qobuz_duo/
I recently signed up for Qobuz, and am having huge problems with the "offline library" in the Android app. Here's what is happening: I downloaded several albums in the past week (9 or 10 total) to the offline library. For several days I was able to play them all. But now, when I try to play any track in the offline library, it starts stuttering after a few seconds and then stops completely... and then the track appears to no longer be downloaded, and reappears in the "download queue." This is suddenly happening with everything I downloaded for offline listening. My device has plenty of available storage, so that isn't the problem. Has anyone else run into this? I really like the fact that Qobuz pays artists better than other platforms, and I like the sound quality... but this is definitely a dealbreaker if it can't be fixed.
Anyone who uses Qobuz for Classical listening.... Have you noticed a change in how new releases are handled? It now seems that the new releases section is full of 'new to streaming' or re-releases of older albums, whereas it used to be only actual new releases. 'Still Trending' was where the older releases that were new to streaming would populate. It makes browsing actual new recordings nearly impossible, which is a bummer for me as my primary use case for Qobuz was exploring new classical releases each week. I sent them an email but I got the standard 'we'll pass your suggestion along' response. Cheers, D
From here: A Willgoose Writes Streaming payment rates There has been a lot of chat around Spotify’s ethics (or lack of them) lately, and certainly from the sounds of things their $100m podcast poster-boy Mr Rogan has not exactly been establishing himself as a beacon of scientific rigour. Lots of artists and lots of customers are leaving the platform, for which I applaud them; to be honest, if we could afford to do so, I would seriously consider it too. Sadly, two years into a pandemic with touring income still extremely precarious, we can’t. Spotify accounts for over 70% of our streams, although a smaller amount of our streaming income, as we’ll see. Rogan aside, as this article from the Washington Post makes clear, there are lots of other reasons to leave Spotify. Not just the clumsy and insulting posturing of their tech-bro leader, Mr Ek (I’m really pleased he’s got enough cash to try buying Arsenal FC, fund weapons technologies and sponsor Barcelona for upwards of $350m), or their minimal and, again, insulting efforts to support musicians during the worst earning crisis of our lifetimes (compare their token ‘tip jar’ to Bandcamp Fridays, for example); no, the main one for fans of music, I would argue, is that they are the most popular streaming service but the rates they pay to labels (and therefore artists) are the lowest. In some cases, by far. Tumblr seems useless at inserting tables and so on, so please excuse the formatting of the following information, but it is based on a comparison of rate paid per stream on the most popular, or available, premium streaming services. I have removed all trial periods (hint: artists don’t get paid anything), downloads, ad-supported models (hint: artists barely get paid anything), YouTube’s disgracefully low 'Audio Fingerprint’ rate and just compared the streaming services that music fans might use if they want to feel like they are, even in some small way, supporting the bands they like and listen to. Spotify is the lowest-paying of these eight services, so I’ve called its nominal rate multiplier “1”. Every other service pays the multiplier above that rate so, for example, a Tidal stream earn us 2.11 times more than Spotify’s, and a Qobuz stream 6.57 times more(!). Streaming service rates, where the lowest = 1 Spotify: 1x Soundcloud: 1.01x Tidal: 2.11x Deezer: 2.35x Apple: 2.45x Amazon Prime / Premium average: 2.60x YouTube Premium: 2.89x Qobuz: 6.57x Some notes on that data then - it’s all based on Q4 2021 receipts of actual streams by our label Test Card Recordings. These figures aren’t theoretical, as Spotify likes to keep them - they are real for those three months. We have currently been opted in (without my agreement, but that’s a separate story) to Spotify’s Discovery mode, whereby some algorithmically generated plays are deemed 'sponsored’ and a lower rate is paid accordingly. This may be lowering the rate that Spotify are paying, but I wanted to try to keep this simple and just look at the basic equation: on a paid-for subscription service, excluding free trials and the like, how many streams did we have and how much did we get paid for them (and therefore what is the per stream rate). So that’s what I did. Spotify’s rate to us, as an indie going through a pooled indie distributor, is likely to be both a) lower than that paid to major label acts, as the major labels are part-owners of Spotify (convenient!) as well as controllers of most of the largest and most popular playlists (also convenient!); and b) higher than that paid to individuals or self-distributors. Our distributor can negotiate a higher rate as they represent more catalogue; I don’t know how much higher, but we’re probably getting paid a bit more than some out there doing it entirely off their own bat. I am slightly surprised YouTube Premium is as high as it is, but it’s offset against YouTube’s otherwise borderline criminally low payments for ad-supported and other models. Still, if you’re thinking of subscribing to a digital music service, the numbers show that YT Premium is the second best option. For us, that is! I also don’t really understand the difference between Amazon Prime and Premium; both claim to be premium subscription services, and Google tells me Premium is just Prime but in Latin American countries, yet we still have some UK streams falling under that category and the rates of Premium are quite a bit higher than those of Prime. I’ve just averaged them out anyway in a very non-scientific fashion, so number of streams across both platforms divided by total income across both platforms. This can all be a bit theoretical and hard to absorb, so if we were to assume a theoretical payment rate of €0.003 per stream (we get paid in € as our distributor is based in the EU) on Spotify (it’s not that high, sadly), 100,000 streams would pay as little as €300 on Spotify vs €1,971 on Qobuz. Payments of this kind are often further diluted though; assuming you’re on an indie label on a 50:50 profit split, and all advances are recouped and so forth, 100,000 streams would earn a band the following amount: Spotify: €150 Soundcloud: €151.50 Tidal: €316.50 Deezer: €352.50 Apple: €367.50 Amazon Prime / Premium average: €390 YouTube Premium: €433.50 Qobuz: €985.50 So on these theoretical rates, even between, say, Tidal and Spotify, that is clearly a massive difference. For an average 4-piece band in the above scenario, each member (assuming an equal split) could expect to take home €37.50 from 100,000 plays on Spotify, €91.88 from Apple Music and €246.38 on Qobuz. That’s assuming they don’t have a management % to pay up front (typically 20%), too. Either way, some of those numbers are very different to some of the others. And again, all of them are higher than in the real world; I am trying to keep a modicum of discretion by not divulging our actual income, which is lower than this. For a major label act on a more typical (but still probably unrealistic) split of 20% of profits, and assuming that their advance is recouped (even more unrealistic!), the artist split would be as follows per 100,000 streams: Spotify: €60 Soundcloud: €60.60 Tidal: €126.60 Deezer: €141.00 Apple: €147.00 Amazon Prime / Premium average: €156.00 YouTube Premium: €173.26 Qobuz: €394.04 A 4-piece band split on that rate (sans management) would leave each member with €15 on Spotify’s rates, €36.77 on Apple’s and €98.51 on Qobuz’s. I should add here that I like streaming. We earn ok from it and I can see how, if you had a large back catalogue and a decent listenership, you could do quite well out of it. I use it myself, and up until now have been a Spotify subscriber; I am going to leave the service, though. But I have nothing against streaming intrinsically and I love its convenience and portability (nothing beats sitting down with an actual record or CD though, especially for a more concentrated listening experience with liner notes and credits etc). I just don’t think Spotify should be able to get away with their profligate spending in some departments while continuing to pay insultingly low rates to artists. Their chief competitors all pay at least double what Spotify pays. I feel that if more fans and listeners start to wake up to the fact that the alternatives are readily available and a better choice in terms of supporting musicians, two things will happen: 1) musicians will find it easier to make a living - it still won’t be easy, but it’ll be easier than in the current scenario; and 2) Spotify will see their customer base dwindling and will be forced to address their low rates of payment. Daniel Ek might have to do a bit less swanning around being mates with Thierry Henry, but we all make sacrifices in life. Maybe I’m naive, but we all have a very small power here in terms of where we spend our money. My family’s own subscription will end at the end of this month.
Not streaming related but does anyone know why they raised prices on some downloads but as much as $4 or so in some cases. Also some prices now end in .09 .59.
Update to artists improved page layout now available for beta version testers for android os. iOS beta test version not released just yet. https://www.reddit.com/r/qobuz/comments/th642t/new_beta_version_of_the_app_for_android/
