STREAMING

Qobuz Rolls Out Its Hi-Res Music Streaming Service To Japan

Hi-Res music streaming service Qobuz has announced its entry into the Japanese streaming market. Qobuzwas founded in 2007 and this move marks a major step for the French company in what is the world’s second-largest music market. The Japan launch is a major turning point in the platform’s international development, reinforcing its move towards profitability and a commitment to a service that combines high-quality audio with musical discovery.

Already established in 25 countries around the world, Qobuz is now setting up shop in Japan as part of the platform’s planned accelerated global expansion. Since its launch in the United States in 2019, Qobuz has entered another 15 new markets in the space of just four years.

The move into Japan follows Qobuz’s acquisition of e-onkyo music in 2021. While streaming dominates many music markets, with around 67% of revenue, Japan is a market where physical music sales still dominate with more than 50% of sales. Paid streaming lags in Japan with less than 30% market share. By contrast, most developed markets have more than 50% of music streamed.

Despite lower streaming levels, Japan is now showing remarkable growth considering the services on offer are limited and dominated by a few major players. With an expansion rate of almost 13%—compared with less than 7% in the U.S.—Japan looks like a promising market for Qobuz. Japanese music lovers demand high standards when it comes to sound quality and the country could be an ideal audience for Qobuz.

Georges Fornay, deputy chief executive officer of Qobuz, says: “Our move into Japan marks a major turning point, bringing us closer to our goal of profitability. We are proud to offer Japanese music lovers a valuable musical experience combining exceptional sound quality, editorial richness, and musical discovery. This expansion into the world's second-largest music market, where streaming is booming, comes at an ideal time and strengthens our position as the undisputed benchmark for high-quality streaming and downloading.”

The Qobuz deal includes the Qobuz Magazine, a feast of articles for music lovers. Qobuz

Qobuz, along with TIDAL, sells its service based on the quality of the music files being streamed. Other music streamers like Apple Music and Amazon also offer Hi-Res tracks, but both TIDAL and Qobuz use quality as their USP. Qobuz also prides itself on providing lots of extras, including curated playlists and extra artist features.

Dedicated exclusively to music, the Qobuz is based on three fundamental pillars: high-resolution streaming, high-resolution downloads and specialized editorial content. The platform streams uncompressed audio ranging from 16-bit CD quality to 24-bit/192 kHz and now DXD and DSD formats, faithfully reproducing what artists and engineers intended.

Beyond streaming, Qobuz is also a community of music enthusiasts, making it ideal for anyone looking for a rich and varied musical selection, something that is appreciated in Japan. The Qobuz Magazine features lots of editorial content, including artist interviews, and in-depth articles diving deep into musical genres, labels and music history, plus it has a dedicated section for Hi-Fi reviews. The editorial team is made up of music experts who compile eclectic musical selections and hand-crafted playlists every week, covering all genres, from rock and jazz to classical, pop, R&B, electronic and metal.

To mark its entry into Japan, Qobuz has boosted its catalog of over 100 million titles by adding high-resolution tracks from e-onkyo music to its repertoire of Japanese music, including specialized genres such as J-Pop. Subscribers in Japan will get the complete Qobuz package which includes streaming and downloading.

Mark Sparrow