The streaming and music download service, Qobuz, has announced it will no longer offer MP3-quality streaming and will instead introduce an affordable single monthly hi-res streaming subscription plan.
To give its customers the best possible quality music reproduction, Qobuz has stated that from now on, all albums and songs will be streamed in the UK at CD-quality (lossless) or hi-res (24-bit/44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz studio quality).
This service is available on the new Studio Premier plan for £14.99 a month (£149.99 with a yearly plan), for its first 100,000 subscribers (and existing customers) until 31st May 2020.
Qobuz will still offer its Sublime+ plan, now priced at £249.99 per year, which includes all the streaming offerings, plus a substantial discount on hi-res download purchases from the Qobuz store.
In November of last year, Dan Mackta, general manager of Qobuz USA said: “MP3 is really bad for music, artists and listeners – so Qobuz is saying ‘no to MP3’ and now offers only real studio quality in one accessible plan.
“Studio Premier is a special offer we’ve been dying to make. With the new plan, we will be pouring gasoline on the growth that has been kindled by our unique relationships in the premium audio hardware and retail industries.”
Qobuz has been demoed over the weekend at The Bristol Hi-Fi Show by Naim Audio, Linn, Arcam, Cyrus, Chord Electronics, AudioQuest, Auralic, AVM, Ayre Acoustics, Bryston, Dali, Dynaudio, Focal, Innuos, Melco, Roon, and T+A.