QOBUZ CONFIRMS INTERNATIONAL AMBITIONS BY ENTERING INTO A STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH QUÉBECOR

Paris, June 3, 2020 - Qobuz, France's high-quality music streaming and download service, is strengthening its position as an international player in the music industry by sealing a financial and industrial partnership with Québecor, a Canadian leader in telecommunications, entertainment, information media and culture. This alliance gave rise to QUB musique, a streaming platform recently launched in Québec by the Québec-based company. Qobuz is thus affirming its ambitions for the development of innovative music services at global level, and opening the door to new agreements with companies in the media and telecom sectors.

New growth opportunity for Qobuz

Launched on May 4 by Québecor in Quebec, the QUB music platform is the result of a longstanding strategic and financial partnership with Qobuz. With its experience in the field of streaming and downloading high-quality music, Qobuz participated in the development of QUB musique by sharing its expertise and providing access to musical content. On their side, Quebecor's teams, driven by the desire to showcase Quebec's cultural and artistic richness, developed the web and mobile platforms as well as the user experience specific to QUB musique. The Québec-based company selects and orchestrates the content for the platform, which already offers more than 50 million titles and a thousand local playlists. 

Through this alliance, Qobuz is strengthening its position as a global player in the music industry, particularly in North America and Canada. Its platform is currently available in 11 countries in Europe and was launched in the United States in February 2019. To continue its expansion, Qobuz aims to accelerate its international development through new agreements with global players in the media and telecommunications world.

Qobuz, a player committed to promoting local cultures

For Qobuz, the launch of Qub musique is an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to the promotion of artistic creation as well as international and local musical culture. Founded in 2007, the high-quality music streaming and download service offers an alternative of choice to music lovers and audiophiles who are demanding both in terms of sound quality and the diversity and richness of musical programming. As a cultural platform, Qobuz also offers exclusive editorial content, written by experts, mainly in the form of biographies, reviews and exclusive articles. The service currently brings together more than 50 million tracks, including more than two million in high resolution, tens of thousands of digital booklets and more than 15,000 playlists.  

As a committed player, Qobuz also advocates fair compensation for artists and their rights holders. This commitment was illustrated during the confinement period by a redistribution to them of all revenues generated by the first month of subscription to its streaming service. 

"We are committed to a long-term investment strategy. We are committed to seeking new partnerships with foreign media and operators who share our values and convictions in terms of music distribution. We are working alongside these companies, but also with artists and labels to promote quality and promote musical diversity. The success of the Qub Musique project thus places us on a new and very promising development path," underlines Denis Thébaud, Chairman and CEO of Qobuz.

For more about Qobuz, go to: www.qobuz.com.