French music streaming and downloads service, Qobuz is now available in Japan, the world’s second-largest music market.

Qobuz is now available in Japan! Japan is the world’s second-largest music market and is one of the industry’s most exciting regions. According to the IFPI, streaming accounts for over 67% of revenue in the market. Unusually, CD sales are still strong in Japan, with physical accounting for over 50% of sales. Paid streaming is still fairly limited in Japan, with it holding less than 30% market share, where paid represents over 50% in other major markets. Paid streaming is growing faster than other markets though. The expansion rate is almost 13%, compared to the US with less than 7%.

In 2021, Qobuz acquired e-onkyo music, a Japanese music store run by consumer electronic company Onkyo Corporation. This helped Qobuz strengthen their Japanese catalog, with genres like J-Pop.

Qobuz is now available in 26 countries. The music service first came to the UK and Germany in 2014, then the US in 2019. Expansion accelerated in 2020, thanks to an $11 million funding round, which saw the service come to 15 new markets in just four years.

Our move into Japan marks a major turning point, bringing us closer to our goal of profitability. We are proud to offer Japanese music lovers a valuable musical experience combining exceptional sound quality, editorial richness, and musical discovery. This expansion into the world’s second-largest music market, where streaming is booming, comes at an ideal time and strengthens our position as the undisputed benchmark for high-quality streaming and downloading.

Georges Fornay, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Qobuz

Launched in France as a music store in 2007, Qobuz is both a streaming service and store. Acquired by Xandrie SA in 2015, today Qobuz offers over 100 million tracks available for streaming, with a particular focus on high-quality music. They also stand out from the crowd thanks to their editorial content available, such as artist interviews, music articles and gear reviews, available on Qobuz Magazine. Articles are written by music experts, who also put together playlists on the service. Qobuz offers hi-res music streaming up to 24-bit/192 kHz, as well as Direct Stream Digital (DSD) and Digital eXtreme Definition (DXD), which were introduced earlier this month.

While purchases on the music stores are open to everyone, streaming is only available to subscribers. “Studio” subscriptions in Japan are free for the first month, then ¥1,480 per month or ¥15,360 per year. Qobuz Duo offers two accounts under one subscription for ¥1,980 or ¥20,160. Qobuz Family offers up to six accounts for ¥2,080. There is currently no sign of a higher tier “Sublime” account, as is available in other markets. These account offer discounts on music purchases.

For comparison, Spotify Premium in Japan starts at ¥980, however we are still yet to see a hi-fi tier from Spotify.

Find out everything there is to know about Qobuz, as well as how to upload your music around the world on Qobuz and over a hundred other stores in lossless quality.