Why Buy Music on Qobuz?
Qobuz is a subscription-based streaming service without limits. It provides access to over 100 million tracks to listen to whenever, for however long. Your favorite artists are always two clicks away, and you won’t have to get up to switch discs around. Your smartphone becomes an unlimited jukebox, fitted with a search engine, favorites, and playlist tools designed to make quick and efficient access easy.
So why buy the music when it’s all there already? There are several reasons to consider.
- Support Your Favorite Artists: By buying their tracks, you can directly support your favorite artists.
- Build a Personal Library: You can create a collection of files that will never leave you. A library in which you can combine files from various sources to curate a true collection, like shelves of CDs or vinyl. The difference? It’s digital, takes up infinitely less space, and can easily travel with you, whether on a walk or through a move—unlike a physical collection.
- Superior Audio Quality: Qobuz offers its entire catalog in CD quality at a minimum, and in Hi-Res up to 192 kHz/24-bit for an ever-growing number of tracks. Note that your listening conditions matter at this level of precision! A poor Wi-Fi connection or mobile data limits while travelling could bottleneck the sound. You can always choose to use an audio server as the source for your high-fidelity system to ensure the best listening experience.
Download Directly from the Qobuz App
You can purchase your tracks two ways: via the desktop app or the online store. When purchasing, you can download each track or album in three quality levels: MP3, CD quality, or Hi-Res (if available). For the latter two, the files will be in FLAC format, meaning they will be compressed without any loss. These files will be saved to your computer. Below, we’ll see how to store them.
All previously purchased tracks are accessible both from the online store and within the app. They will be listed under the “My Purchases” section, where you can re-download them if needed—if, for example, you lose the files—or want to download them in different formats for different uses.
When downloading tracks from the online store, you can either download track by track or use the Qobuz Downloader. This app is specifically intended to manage multiple album downloads simultaneously, allowing you to select the destination folder, delete certain tracks, choose the format, create a queue, and more.
In the Qobuz desktop app, downloads will be made immediately once you select the audio quality. Note the difference between the “Import” and “Download” functions:
- Import: Locally stores tracks you haven’t purchased but want to listen to offline. These files do not belong to you.
- Download: Allows you to retrieve purchased tracks, saving them to a folder of your choice (configured under My Account / Settings / Music Downloads).
How to Effectively Store Your Music File Collection
You now have several FLAC files downloaded to your computer. Time to gather them so you can listen to them from the device of your choice. Here are the most common solutions:
- A Shared Folder on Your Computer: Collect all files in a folder shared over your network. Note that your computer must remain on when you want to listen to the music.
- A NAS Server: This type of server is always on, typically used for storage or work, and can also serve as an audio server via a dedicated shared folder. You’ll need to transfer your Qobuz downloads to this server.
- An External Hard Drive or USB Key: Copy all your tracks onto a USB device that you can unplug from your computer and connect directly to a compatible audio device (player/DAC with USB port, connected speaker, etc.).
- A Digital Audio Player (DAP): By storing tracks on this type of device, you can enjoy your library anywhere, without needing a connection.
The Hi-Fi music player and server manufacturer Melco is an exception, as its products are integrated with the Qobuz Downloader. Once you purchase titles from the online store, you can download them directly to the Melco server and skip the step of downloading via a computer.
Enjoy Your Music File Collection
Many connected audio systems can play not only streaming content but audio files too. Most can access a shared folder on a computer or NAS server, while others can read the content of a USB key or external hard drive. This is especially important for systems compatible with Hi-Res audio. You’ll enjoy the best sound quality guaranteed with tracks purchased on Qobuz, without having to worry about your internet connection.
Finally, another advantage of buying and downloading tracks to build a digital library is mobility. You can take a USB key or hard drive anywhere. And don’t forget digital audio players, or DAPs, which can also store a large number of tracks in the best resolutions.
