Qobuz - wonderful francophone site

RonanM

If you speak French, I'd heartily recommend Qobuz, which combines a music download service with an excellent music magazine and bulletin boards.

My experience with them was exactly opposite to the eMusic nightmare. I bought an album and had trouble downloading it. The ensuing correspondence with the Qobuz support team was prompt, cordial and helpful, and the new version of the downloader fixed the problem, which was trying to download from behind a proxy server.

The main page is at

http://www.qobuz.com/

And I should point out a couple of real bargains: Georges Pludermacher's complete Beethoven sonatas and Diabelli variations for 10 euro, ditto the complete concertos and ditto the complete Ravel piano music. Check here:

http://www.qobuz.com/index.php?CTRL__AMC_ctrl_recherche_avancee=ctrl_recherche_avancee&motscles=pludermacher

Nereffid

Thanks for that, Ronan. A nice-looking site. For thr moment, though, eMu's still getting most of my music money (frinstance Pludermacher's Ravel works out at less than 8 euro for me), and euro/sterling being the way it is, mail-order prices for CDs are tempting too.

JFLL

"euro/sterling being the way it is, mail-order prices for CDs are tempting too. "

So you see, Nereffid, your old grandpa was right about cutting off from the mother country after all.

Nereffid

mother country???

/head explodes

cafreema

My French is rusty (and wasn't all that great to begin with), but am I reading correctly that they are giving away 4 gift album downloads for registering?

I could well be missing where it says you have to sign up for X months to get the freebies.

Anyone with better French want to confirm/set me straight?

Thanks.

Craig

JFLL

"mother country???

/head explodes "

OK, OK. Evil Empire?

Nereffid

Yes, as soon as you register and install the downloader you get the gift. But it's 4 particular albums - you don't get to choose.
1. Josef Suk sampler - 4 classical tracks
2. Qobuz sampler #1 - mostly classical
3. Agnus Dei - a Naxos sacred music comp
4. Bee Jazz 5th anniversary comp
Three of them are lossless, the Qobuz sampler is 320 mp3.

cafreema

Hmmm...all of those interest me, but do they interest me enough to add another new downloader and more importantly deal with translations to use the website.

I'll need to think on that.

Craig

RonanM

And now qobuz is offering lossless downloads for the price that everyone else is charging for mp3.

The link to the story is half way down the page, but I thought I'd give the main page link, as it gives you a flavour of the site - coverage of everything from the death of that wonderful entertainer Elisabeth Soderstrom to a story on piano manufacturers moving their factories east. And the lossless deal too.

Even if you don't download, it's a great way of brushing up your French.

JFLL

Qobuz is discussed by James Jolly in December's Gramophone magazine:

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/editorial/tune-surfing-december-2009

"some 875 Hyperion titles on offer – probably the biggest offering in cyber-retail"

RonanM

Not only are Hyperion on offer, but they are on offer as lossless downloads - with albums at 10 euro and double albums at 16!

I, for one, am heading over there to pick up the Ibragimova Bach violin sonatas and partitas.

Nereffid

At the moment several of EMI's "100 Best" series are cheap on Qobuz - €4.09 for 320 or €5.29 for lossless. These are 6-disc sets and very useful as introductions to classical repertoire.

Some of the "50 Best" series are also available cheap - 3-disc sets for €2.49/€3.19.

denver

'This article is not available yet in your country (UNITED STATES)." Too bad--it looked good.

MrV

There is a drop down menu in the upper right to choose languages.

Nereffid

Maybe they've changed the signup process but when I joined all you needed was to provide a French address. As luck would have it there's one at the bottom of any page.