Qobuz May Be Removing Music, and Files, Even if Purchased

I can see how, if I were a user of Qobuz, I would separate the two concepts of something owned and downloadable with something rentable and streamed.

However I can imagine that nuance might be lost in negotiations between the platform and their content providers. For example, the latter might demand technical and legal verification and assurance that the two are separated.

Make sure you have a backup strategy that includes offline storage….

I don't stream, instead purchase music, almost exclusively from Qobuz.  I received the email, but only re. one purchase.

This was a Bruckner symphony performance I wanted that was available as an album on its own for a higher price that I instead purchsed track-by-track (it is only three, the uncompleted 9th) for much less from the separately listed boxed set. So I suspect some of the speculation above is correct.

Bill

2 hours ago, bobfa said:

Make sure you have a backup strategy that includes offline storage….

And only buy DRM free music files!

18 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

And only buy DRM free music files!

A side question, please: How to recognize / know about DRM'ed music files? I mean when the fine print on the (any) download store does not easily reveal what's going on.

8 hours ago, 111MilesToGo said:

A side question, please: How to recognize / know about DRM'ed music files? I mean when the fine print on the (any) download store does not easily reveal what's going on.

Well, at the moment I am not aware of anyone selling music files with DRM. That may change at some point in the future.

Was there some panic in the air? Are we really so quick to fear the worst when it comes to streaming services? I find this interesting. 

So, the fateful date has arrived. Did anyone notice anything? I didn’t. Masaaki Suzuki on BIS is still in place, as are Bavouzet’s performances of Mozart’s Concertos on Chandos.

It'll only happen when there's some sort of licensing shenanigans. Even on streaming services the takedowns are not exactly common (but they certainly happen).

Well, my BIS purchases are certainly affected. Like this one:

It's still available for streaming, but the download and buy links are greyed out.

It seems to be more granular than a label. It's specific albums. In my case, it's a subset of albums from BIS, Alpha, and Pentatone.

6 hours ago, austinpop said:

Well, my BIS purchases are certainly affected. Like this one:

 

It's still available for streaming, but the download and buy links are greyed out.

Well, these are different here in Germany: The Sibelius Symphonies by Osmo Vänskä w/ the Minnesota Orchestra as well as the Symphonies by Osmo Vänskä w/ the Lahti Symphony Orchestra have all disappeared from streaming and downloading. Too bad! I had them favorited, not purchased, can‘t see the label anymore.

UK Qobuz - Sibelius by Vänskä with both Lahti and Minnesota are available for streaming.

32 minutes ago, 111MilesToGo said:

Well, these are different here in Germany: The Sibelius Symphonies by Osmo Vänskä w/ the Minnesota Orchestra as well as the Symphonies by Osmo Vänskä w/ the Lahti Symphony Orchestra have all disappeared from streaming and downloading. Too bad! I had them favorited, not purchased, can‘t see the label anymore.

Very sorry to hear that. I would be seriously upset if I lost access to Sibelius with Vänskä. I wonder, what about Tidal? Do they still have access to these albums from Germany?

1 hour ago, 111MilesToGo said:

Well, these are different here in Germany: The Sibelius Symphonies by Osmo Vänskä w/ the Minnesota Orchestra as well as the Symphonies by Osmo Vänskä w/ the Lahti Symphony Orchestra have all disappeared from streaming and downloading. Too bad! I had them favorited, not purchased, can‘t see the label anymore.

From Germany (03.10.24 - Qobuz)

@austinpop, @AnotherSpin, @TRHH:

Regarding the two Sibelius Symphonies cycles conducted by Osmo Vänskä, the earlier one with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the later one with the Minnesota Symphony, all on BIS:

It seems Qobuz has replaced the album versions which I had favorited previously with different versions now. They are all available on Qobuz Germany. Thank you, @TRHH, for pointing this out. And these albums are available on Tidal Germany as well, @AnotherSpin.

Looking at Pentatone albums, @austinpop : For example, in the three-album series of Händel Concerti Grossi by Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, I find two of my favorites to be as before and one greyed out.

Generally, I think the picture of this October 1, 2024 "happening" is strangely inconsistent, and not complete yet (of course). Scrolling through my list of favorited albums shows quite a number of greyed-out holes. I still would have to check whether these are album deletions or version substitutions. Anyway: What a mess and nuisance!

5 minutes ago, 111MilesToGo said:

@austinpop, @AnotherSpin, @TRHH:

 

Regarding the two Sibelius Symphonies cycles conducted by Osmo Vänskä, the earlier one with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the later one with the Minnesota Symphony, all on BIS:

 

It seems Qobuz has replaced the album versions which I had favorited previously with different versions now. They are all available on Qobuz Germany. Thank you, @TRHH, for pointing this out. And these albums are available on Tidal Germany as well, @AnotherSpin.

 

Looking at Pentatone albums (@austinpop): For example, in the three-album series of Händel Concerti Grossi by Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, I find two of my favorites to be as before and one greyed out.

 

Generally, I think the picture of this October 1, 2024 "happening" is strangely inconsistent, and not complete yet (of course). Scrolling through my list of favorited albums shows quite a number of greyed-out holes. I still would have to check whether these are album deletions or version substitutions. Anyway: What a mess and nuisance!

Yes, mess and nuisance -- the whole apparent world is. 

Referring back to Qobuz, I hope it will be ironed out. I was asking about Tidal because it is another lossless service supported by my streamer and I have it at mind at as a plan B if and when Qobuz may go down.

20 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

…

I was asking about Tidal because … I have it at mind at as a plan B if and when Qobuz may go down.

Yes, exactly the same consideration for me. I must say, though, that I like Qobuz about 10 times more than Tidal. Providing pdf booklets and editorial content, and putting the least amount of music that I don‘t like in front of me to shovel away before I can get to what I like … Hoping for the best with Qobuz!

I am wondering whether Roon‘s recently added feature "Playlist Improver" could be put to good use in this context of album deletions and version substitutions.

What would be the best recording of "Sibelius - The Complete Symphonies"?

THX

Torben

32 minutes ago, TRHH said:

What would be the best recording of "Sibelius - The Complete Symphonies"?

 

THX

 

Torben

Cf. my PM, as that‘s difficult to answer and off-topic.

2 hours ago, austinpop said:

Distressing as it is when albums and labels disappear from streaming services, this is not a new thing. It has always been a fact of life. This is why I've always adopted a "buy it if you love it" policy. Otherwise, there is always the risk of something you love disappearing without notice from Qobuz or Tidal.

 

Now, once you've bought it, you obviously should download and make backups of the music files. That said, of course some times things happen, files get misplaced, and you need to come back to re-download the files.

 

And this is what the latest email from Qobuz seems to be addressing. I don't know what used to be in the past. Say you bought an album from Qobuz. Subsequently, that album gets pulled from the catalog. Were the music files still available for re-download? I don't know, I never dealt with this situation. I sort of assumed the answer was no, but if that were true, there would be no need for this latest round of emails.

 

So some clarity would be good. But practically, the answer is simple: if you buy music from anywhere, download the files immediately, make backups to ensure you never lose them, and never rely on the purchase source to indefinitely provide a facility to re-download the files.

The simple answer is YES. 

Upto now, albums that I bought, and dissappeared from Qobuz (or re-appeared with another catalog reference) were always  available to me to redownload.

Apparently this has changed now.  But let's get everything in perspective :  I am loosing the 'redownload' possibility on 5 albums out of little over 500 purchased albums.  Of course impact for other users could be much higher (I believe there's much more going on in the Classical genre department then in others).

12 hours ago, TRHH said:

What would be the best recording of "Sibelius - The Complete Symphonies"?

 

THX

 

Torben

There is no such thing as the best set of Sibelius symphonies. Different people will name different editions, and each recommendation can have its own advantages but may not suit you specifically. Anyway, you may want to try each one of Vänskä's, early Berglund, Sir Colin Davis/Boston.

13 hours ago, austinpop said:

Distressing as it is when albums and labels disappear from streaming services, this is not a new thing. It has always been a fact of life. This is why I've always adopted a "buy it if you love it" policy. Otherwise, there is always the risk of something you love disappearing without notice from Qobuz or Tidal.

 

Now, once you've bought it, you obviously should download and make backups of the music files. That said, of course some times things happen, files get misplaced, and you need to come back to re-download the files.

 

And this is what the latest email from Qobuz seems to be addressing. I don't know what used to be in the past. Say you bought an album from Qobuz. Subsequently, that album gets pulled from the catalog. Were the music files still available for re-download? I don't know, I never dealt with this situation. I sort of assumed the answer was no, but if that were true, there would be no need for this latest round of emails.

 

So some clarity would be good. But practically, the answer is simple: if you buy music from anywhere, download the files immediately, make backups to ensure you never lose them, and never rely on the purchase source to indefinitely provide a facility to re-download the files.

Yes, it was like that before. At some point, the individual Pettersson albums with Christian Lindberg on BIS disappeared, coinciding with the release of a complete set of all the symphonies in the same performance. A little later, the individual albums reappeared.