Qobuz Student: Impressive audio quality in the student subscription – this is how you use it

QOBUZ

December 7, 2024 at 9:00 a.m

Qobuz offers lossless audio quality in a cheap student subscription, even at the best price. If you want to use the subscription, you have to consider one thing in advance.

The French music streaming service Qobuz has many different premium subscriptions in its repertoire, including a subscription for students. But can the provider keep up with the competition from Apple Music or Amazon Music? Qobuz is definitely different.

1. Qobuz Student: Requirements for using the subscription

2. Der Qobuz-Downloadstore

3. Music library, playlists and song suggestions

4. Qobuz: Features and functions at a glance

5. Audio Quality: Natural sounding CD quality and Hi-Res Audio

6. Qobuz Magazine: Editorial articles on music topics

7. Is the Qobuz student subscription worth it?

Qobuz Student: Requirements for using the subscription

Qobuz Student is the student subscription to the French music streaming service. With the subscription you get all Qobuz features and don't have to make any compromises compared to other premium subscriptions. But it is significantly cheaper. So you pay 5.99 dollars instead of 14.99 dollars per month and can test the subscription free of charge for one month.

However, you must meet one requirement. To take advantage of the subscription, you must be enrolled at an official college or university. This is checked when you register via a third-party provider, which Qobuz keeps secret. Other providers use the service for this SheerIDincluding Spotify, for example.

You must reconfirm your status as a student every 12 months. If you don't do this, you will automatically switch to the regular one Qobuz Studio Solo-Subscription. Of course, you can also cancel beforehand.

Der Qobuz-Downloadstore

Qobuz is not only a music streaming service, but also offers a platform for downloads. In this regard, Qobuz has two variants and differentiates between “Studio” and “Sublime”. With the Sublime-Variant Users get up to 60 percent discount on Hi-Res purchases in the download store.

The bad news for students, however, is that the student subscription is currently only available in the studio version (as of October 2024). You can still buy music via the download store, but you are not eligible for the Sublime discounts. All purchases are valid for life, so the music you purchase is yours forever.

Music library, playlists and song suggestions

Qobuz's music library includes more than 100 million tracks, although the platform does not offer podcasts. Qobuz is therefore a pure music provider and lives up to this status through its playlists. Various curated playlists are offered, which are filled with carefully selected songs.

Playlists are very homogeneous and appear natural; no song is put into an inappropriate playlist. The playlists are usually sorted by artist, events in music history or even by purpose. An example of such a playlist would be “100 Songs to Test Your Speakers.”

When it comes to new discoveries, the song suggestions can be a bit bumpy at first. However, this is normal, after all, Qobuz doesn't know your taste in music yet. The provider will only know this better once you listen to your favorite music every day, create playlists and add songs to favorites. After a week, our song suggestions became significantly better.

Qobuz: Features and functions at a glance

Regardless of which premium subscription you choose, Qobuz offers you a range of basic features. These are not as diverse as, for example, Deezer, but Qobuz does not need this innovation. Here is an overview of the provider's features:

• Download store with lifetime ownership rights for purchased music
• Music streaming in Hi-Res audio and CD quality
• Listen to music in offline mode
• more than 100 million titles on the platform

This may seem a bit meager at first glance. However, Qobuz is a very straightforward music streaming service. You won't find innovative functions such as Deezer's music quiz. Rather, Qobuz wants to impress with the audio quality and can definitely collect points in this regard.

Audio Quality: Natural sounding CD quality and Hi-Res Audio

We should mention in advance that the optimal audio quality also depends on your audio hardware. It is not possible to transmit lossless audio over a Bluetooth connection because this requires a cable connection. This means that Bluetooth headphones, for example, are not able to play lossless audio. However, you can solve this problem using the following adapters or hardware:

• iPhone: Lightning to 3.5mm adapter from Apple
• Smartphones in general: digital-to-analog converter (USB-C to 3.5mm)
• Desktop PC/Mac: Audio interface + studio headphones with 6.3 mm jack

Qobuz states that you can listen to almost all songs on the platform in CD quality. Over 2 million of them in Hi-Res Audio. If you want to save data volume, you can also listen in MP3 format. The audio format used for CD quality and Hi-Res Audio is the FLAC format (Free Lossless Audio Codec):

• MP3: 320 kbit/s (Kilobit pro Sekunde) im MP3-Format
• CD quality: Up to 16-bit at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz (kilohertz) in FLAC format
• Hi-Res Audio: Up to 24-bit, 192 kHz in FLAC format

In practice, we tested both the smartphone app and the desktop app. Professional studio headphones from Audio-Technica and Beyerdynamic were used. On the desktop PC we also used an audio interface from M-Audio to be able to exploit the full 24-bit and 192 kHz.

In our opinion, the audio quality varies depending on the genre, but this is not meant to be judgmental. What this means is that genres such as jazz, classical or various metal subgenres are more suitable than, for example, hip-hop or EDM. It seems as if recorded instruments benefit from the Qobuz sound and digital sounds, especially digital 808 kicks, lose some of their punch.

Qobuz Magazine: Editorial articles on music topics

Do you not only enjoy listening to music, but are you also interested in audio hardware and the people behind the art? Then the Qobuz magazine might be interesting for you. There you will find articles from the Qobuz editorial team, who write test reports, interviews or reviews of new albums. These insights aren't just for hi-fi enthusiasts.

Is the Qobuz student subscription worth it?

Qobuz doesn't have to hide from other providers. The music streaming service appears well thought out and sophisticated. Sometimes it even seems like you're going to a “digital music store” to listen to new records. There is a touch of nostalgia when using Qobuz.

However, that doesn't mean that the application is outdated. Quite the opposite: The smartphone app in particular looks very tidy and clear and its design is also suitable for a music streaming service in 2024.

The 11 best music services in comparison: Spotify, Amazon or iTunes – who will win?

These features, coupled with the low price of 5.99 dollars per month, make Qobuz Student a real alternative. We can highly recommend the provider for pure music enjoyment. However, if you also want to listen to podcasts, then Spotify Premium Student or Apple Music Student might be the better choice.

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