Qobuz is the anti-Spotify music streaming device you’ve been waiting for

When Dan Macta, The New York-based managing director of Qobuz was looking for musicians to endorse the band Music streaming service After launching in the US in 2019, he recruited a friend of his, the manager of Flaming Lips. The mid-pandemic levels have been tough.

“I traveled to Oklahoma to film with Wayne Quinn,” Macta says. “He’s shown wearing one of those helmets, with a ventilation system to protect you, a metal puffer jacket and big silver moon boots.” They couldn’t hear a word Quinn said into the helmet, so the frontman went home and fired Promotional video Same: “How do you pronounce that weird word ‘ko-buzz’.”

the Questions of the Qabooz After “How do you say that?” The question is probably “Can I move my music library over?” and “Does it have it all?” Answers: Yes and barely. Case in point: I recently moved to Qobuz, after nearly 20 years with Spotify. (Emotional.) I used to A third party service called Soundizz to transfer my songs; It took half an afternoon, with a success rate of over 90 percent for my playlists.

Million Club

I’m not alone, according to Macta, who arrived at Qobuz after years of working at major and independent record labels, 2025 has been a banner year for the 19-year-old company. Twelve months ago, Qabooz had about 500,000 subscribers. The French broadcasting company has grown steadily since 2007, targeting “people who already know what’s what.” High-resolution music “CAN” with a catalog of over 100 million of lossless CD quality and 24-bit music.

The first winds of change have arrived with Liz Bailey’s January 2025 book Mood machineWho criticized Spotify Business practicesfeaturing interviews with former employees and artists demanding fairer economics in the industry. As Macta says: “This was not a music company; music was just a means to an end.” It has renewed debate among artists over lower payouts, and Qobuz’s daily trial numbers in the US have begun to rise.

In mid-October, free tier users began posting ICE recruitment ads they saw on Spotify, which went viral on TikTok and Instagram Reels. “The day this story broke was our biggest day ever in the United States,” Macta says. Qobuz saw another spike in numbers, and plateaued until Spotify’s marketing convinced more people to switch in early December. “It was the second best day Spotify wrapped“, he says. Al-Qabooz has rallied everyone from music fans and “conscious consumers” who have responded to the boycott such as Death to Spotify and Indivisiblefor K-Pop fans looking for high quality Downloads.

Qobuz now has 1.2 million monthly active users, and streaming revenue rose 45.7% in 2025, compared to 8.8% growth in overall paid music streaming. About a third of its revenue now comes from the United States, its largest market. These are still small numbers besides Spotify (293 million paid subscribers) and Apple Music (over 100 million). “To say we’re going to compete with Apple or Amazon is better to say we’re trying to launch a rocket,” Macta says. Qobuz’s goal is to reach 1% of the paid streaming market. Under the leadership of its French CEO Denis Thibaud, it expects to reach profitability by March 2027.

Higher payouts

For years, Qabooz has appeared in posts by artists complaining about being paid “a quarter of a cent per stream” on major platforms versus a “much higher number” on Qabooz. Navigating digital payment structures for labels and rights holders can become murky, with low transparency, ambiguous payment ranges and, as has always been the case, conflicts between labels and artists. But in multiplayer Ratings And artist stories, Qobuz has the highest pay-per-stream rate, superior Out of competition Tidal high-resolution music service In some cases, you pay five to six times what Spotify pays.

The average streaming price is an artificial metric, and doesn’t reflect how everyone gets paid. But in March 2025, the company released this very important figure, which was verified by an independent auditor: Qobuz pays an average of $0.01873 per stream, or $18.73 per 1,000 streams. “We knew we had the better number, so we thought we’d give it up,” Macta says. “Does anyone else want to tell us what’s theirs? They don’t.” Spotify average per stream ranges It ranges from $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, or $3 to $5 per 1,000 streams.