Qobuz: Miracle or Nightmare?

For a brief period, I believed Qobuz was the future of music delivery. I was wrong. Splash one customer! Oh and DANGER, this reads like a rant. Sorry, for that. A day may come when I am more objective about this. But it is not this day!

When I’m in the mood to hear Iron Maiden, I’m in the mood. There is no optional, maybe-later, half-measure, that I will accept. Such a mood struck me earlier today. So there I am in the car logged into the Qobuz mobile app. I navigate their horrific interface, which was never designed for owned library browsing, while attempting to drive safely. That wasn’t working so I pulled over, continued to clicky-click, and finally found the masterwork that I started looking for over 7 minutes ago - Number of the Beast. Is there anything more emotionally tear-jerking than Bruce’s scream after the title track’s prologue? No, I’m tearing up just thinking about it. But my favorite aspect of the album is that it’s amazing namesake is not the first song. They warm you up with Invaders, Children of the Damned, The Prisoner, and 22 Acacia Avenue. Then, just before your mind reaches the event horizon of 80’s metal bliss, they hit you with - “Woe to you, oh earth and sea …” Flat out chills!

So imagine my reaction when I saw this (Screenshot from the web after I got home):

The ultimate onset of momentary disappointment. This company should be called - NOBUZ!

I intellectually knew this was possible. It is in the terms of use (see below). But are you kidding me? I purchased these albums a few short months ago. Am I to believe that some suit at the record company woke up one morning and decided to revoke Iron Maiden from the hi-rez catalog at Qobuz?

Qobuz “General Conditions of Use and Sale”. TLDR - We might turn off your shit whenever we want to!

I get it. But wait … What I saw next crossed my line of no immediate forgiveness.

Huh, the albums are still for sale in the store? You mean the absolutely exact albums that I had sought for over 7 minutes? The ones that were so surgically, and rudely revoked from my license pool just before I was going to listen!?!

STERN!!!!!!!

Burning is too good for them! Hanging is too good for them! They should be torn into itty-bitty pieces and buried alive!

The following is my chat with the LLM support bot:

Clara

Hi there! You're speaking with Clara. I'm ready to assist you today but you can ask for the team at any time.

How can I help?

I have three purchases showing as "restricted" because the record label revoked the licenses yet the same exact albums are still available in the download store. When will I receive the new licenses?

This happens when rights holders lose the licenses to albums they previously provided to us. It's not our fault - labels or distributors can lose distribution rights for artists or catalogs, which affects your purchased content.

The good news is that these catalogs usually come back quickly under a new label's supervision. When that happens, your restricted purchases should become available again.

We can't guarantee specific timeframes since it depends on licensing agreements between us and rights holders, which can change based on your location. However, we're actively working to resolve these catalog issues and have been successful in bringing back content from labels like CHANDOS and BIS.

The albums appearing in our download store might be under different licensing terms than your previous purchases, which is why you're seeing this discrepancy.

Is that what you were looking for?

Will the licensing discrepancy be resolved? The licensing terms are invisible to me. They are with Qobuz.

Yes, these licensing discrepancies typically get resolved. The catalog usually comes back quickly under a new label's supervision when rights holders regain or transfer distribution rights.

You're right that licensing terms aren't visible to you - they're contracts between us and rights holders that can change based on various factors including your location.

The transition process involves significant work in contract handovers, re-writing agreements, and discussions with rightsholders, which can temporarily affect catalog availability. However, we're actively working to resolve these catalog issues and have been successful in bringing back content from various labels.

We can't guarantee specific timeframes since it depends on licensing agreements between us and rights holders, but the good news is that these catalogs mostly return fairly quickly when they come under new label supervision.

Did that answer your question?

So the relicensed material is available for new purchases before it is available to previous license holders who lost that part of their purchased library?

Yes, that can happen. When licensing changes occur, new purchases and existing purchases can have different licensing terms.

The catalog usually comes back under a new label's supervision, but there can be timing differences between when content becomes available for new purchases versus when your existing restricted purchases are restored.

This happens because rights holders may lose distribution rights for content they previously provided to us, affecting your purchased library. Meanwhile, the same albums might become available again through different licensing agreements for new purchases.

Your restricted purchases should become available again once the licensing is fully resolved, but we can't guarantee specific timeframes since it depends on the agreements between us and rights holders.

Was this helpful?

Oh yes, immensely :)

Thank you for your kind words. Please let me know if you have any other questions or need further assistance.

Is any of this a surprise? No. Am I going to remain a Qobuz customer when access to my purchases can be so tenuous? No.

Be careful out there …

Tim