With the streaming wars underway, the Rebellion has to create new and interesting partnerships where it can to differentiate itself from the Empire…we mean Apple. Qobuz delivers the best sonic experience of any digital music streaming platform; something we firmly believe and hope turns more people who are finally taking a look at lossless streaming onto the service. TuneCore is a large music distribution company based out of France who have inked a new deal with Qobuz to increase the size of its already extensive music library.
TuneCore has announced that the partnership with Qobuz represents its “continued dedication to expanding distribution for its roster of diverse independent artists,” and that Qobuz offers a range of music genres “overlooked by other digital service providers.”
Qobuz currently offers access to over 70 million tracks in lossless audio quality.
Dan Mackta, Managing Director of Qobuz USA, added, “The TuneCore catalog spans from iconic artists to emerging upstarts and we are excited to welcome them all into our world.
“Music fans who demand the very best will be getting to hear much more great stuff now on Qobuz.”
With its deal with Qobuz, TuneCore expands on its ever-growing list of recent partnerships.
Andreea Gleeson, Co-head and Chief Revenue Officer, TuneCore, said: “The partnership with Qobuz enables us to satisfy the growing appetite for lossless audio across all genres, while also unlocking a global audience of Hi-Res audio fans for our artists.
“Audiophiles who appreciate Hi-Res sound will love Qobuz and its commitment to a high-quality music experience.”
Qobuz have been busy in 2021 signing new deals with other partners including Sonos who now offer the hi-res streaming service via the Sonos S2 app for all Sonos wireless loudspeakers.
Qobuz does offer the largest library of hi-res albums, but it still only represents 5% of the music available online from them and Tidal. Spotify HiFi launches soon but that’s only adding lossless (and not hi-res) albums to what is available on their platform.
Before Sonos and Qobuz users get too excited, there’s a catch. And we know we’re not the only people who are going to notice.
24-bit/48kHz certainly qualifies as hi-res streaming but what about all of the content on Qobuz that is 24-bit/96kHz or 24-bit/192kHz?
If the Sonos S2 platform is limited to 24-bit/48kHz — does that mean it’s all going to be downsampled to that or will Qobuz offer everything in 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality? According to the Sonos Support website, that seems to be case. It states, “Tracks with a sampling rate above 48 kHz will be delivered to your Sonos hardware as 16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC (CD lossless quality).”
The new TuneCore partnership will hopefully add some interesting new music to the platform to make it stand out even more.
For more information: qobuz.com
