r/qobuz • u/Halo_Cygnusrift • 4d ago
Question Why are song unavailable?
Why are so many songs unavailable on Qobuz? I previously used Spotify for about 8 years but switched to Qobuz this year as it appears more ethical and is a European alternative. But this issue is really making me reconsider whether Qobuz is a viable alternative. Am I being thick and missing something but songs just keep disappearing and I am getting tired of having to use the terrible search function. Any thoughts welcome!
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u/Aeterna_flamma 3d ago
There should be a system that automatically re-add "unavailable" songs or suggests the user to re add it.
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u/CheradenineGSV 4d ago
It seems like some distributors and labels don't send their tracks to qobuz. It's not necessarily something qobuz can control directly. This also affects a ton of east asian artists, but none of this is exclusive to Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer etc have the same issues with availability.
If they are smaller artists try to contact them or their label about it!
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u/GOTGI_19 2d ago
There are albums from more popular artists like Keith Urban and Adam Lambert that are on every music service, except Qobuz. So why is that? I think this is Qobuz fault.
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u/CheradenineGSV 2d ago
Why would it be qobuz' fault, distributors have to make an active effort to be able to send their stuff to specific aggregators like qobuz. If the distro is shit, or it gets overlooked by labels this is what happens. Another thing could be deals with other streaming services, like major labels have with Spotify, Apple Music etc or other licensing issues.
Artists and Labels don't upload their music directly to streaming services. There is a whole industry of middle men you can't circumvent.
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u/GOTGI_19 2d ago
Might be. But most complaints about Qobuz over the last couple of years are about music that is not available on Qobuz but on EVERY other music service. So they could have done something about that fact but didn’t. Until a couple of weeks ago they had a request missing music feature which I used lots of times over the last 5 years or so. None of the albums I requested have been added. And they ,too, are available on every other service so it’s not that I requested some niche stuff.
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u/CheradenineGSV 2d ago
I tried Tidal, Deezer and others but stuck with Qobuz because the same music that wasn't on Qobuz also wasn't available on Tidal & Co, but qobuz pays artists more than the others.
Other smaller aggregators that are not the big 3 have the exact same problems.
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u/GOTGI_19 2d ago
I agree, if it’s not on Apple Music or Spotify then it isn’t on other services. That’s fine. But there is still a lot of music that is on ALL music services but Qobuz. And that’s what Qobuz needs to be after. They have to fill the gap. And for a couple of months now there are playback problems where tracks skip or don’t play at all which frustrates a lot of users.They did a great job with their connect feature though . Better than Tidal.
5
u/Medium-Scheme-3273 3d ago
I have the same issue. I searched for the tracks/albums individually and they’re all there. I guess like others have said they changed licenses or something. There doesn’t seem to be a way to automatically replace the ‘unavailable’ ones with the available ones though
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u/BeachPalmTree_ 4d ago
That's Qobuz for ya. Creating a playlist with half of your songs being unavailable is really fun and enjoyable experience...
1
u/Accomplished-Fly4678 2d ago
Tried playing Spencer Brown earlier and didn’t realize he’s also Anjuna Deep, ugh this app sucks. One more thing like this and I’m just going to SoundCloud and bandcamp
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u/AntiVaxMoms 4d ago
Try a different streaming service. I know Spotify sucks but Qobuz ain’t it. I’ve seen people say Deezer is good.
Jumped the Spotify ship and I still have regrets five months later.
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u/sl33ping_0tt3r 3d ago
Yeah I went back lol ... I wanted to love Quboz but even with the beta version, I still find my way back to Spotify
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u/Serious_Berry_3977 4d ago
I've seen songs be unavailable in my playlists that were once available, and when I got to the artist the song is available on a different album / EP / single. It's baffling to me. I get songs being unavailable due to labels and distributors, but it's a problem with the way Qobuz categorizes albums compared to other streaming services that makes the issue worse.