Press Pack 2013

PRESS PACK 2013

Updated: 25th June 2013

PRESS contact QOBUZ Olivier Lalane - [email protected] Tel: +33 (0)1 76 70 39 39 www.facebook.com/qobuz www.twitter.com/qobuz QOBUZ TEAM

DIRECTORS Alexandre Leforestier Yves Riesel

LEGAL & BUSINESS AFFAIRS Sébastien Alexandre Director assisted by Patrick Anjos Torgal, Larissa Campos Business Affairs, with Arthur Hamon

MARKETING Gaël Muller Marketing Director with Christine Dong and Thibaut Compagnion Community Manager

Tech Jean-Marc Leglise CTO Rabye Marouenne Manager Walid Product Designer Bastien Project Manager Rafael Project Manager Arthur Applications Manager Loris Developer, Applications Manager FX Developer Eric Developer Damien Developer Sylvain Developer Yann Developer Maxime Developer Kevyn Developer Guennole Developer Pierre Head of infrastructure Sébastien Internal IT Manager

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Benoit Rébus Global Hardware partnerships Jessica Martinez International Business Development & Analytics Manager

ADVERTISING Jérôme Monod Director of Advertising &Partnerships Joanna Beaufoy Head of Advertising & Partnerships (Music & Culture) with Léa Lombardo Advertising & Partnerships Intern

MUSIC STORE Maxence Nael Coordination Sébastien Cattant Quality Control, Content Management Corinne Berger Production Manager

MAGAZINE & EDITORIAL CONTENT Marc Zisman Chief Editor François Hudry Classical Columnist Jean-Michel Proust Jazz Columnist Yannick Fage Head of Qobuz Classical Club Geneviève Golaz Editorial Secretary Philippe Daussin Hi-Fi Section Editor

GRAPHIC DESIGN Rodrigue Vicencio Guzman Graphic designer, Art Director Wilfrid Mongo Gouala Graphic designer Lisa Rogos Graphic designer

Customer service Michel Girard assisted by Shem Buitruille

AccountS Marie-Anne Oursel Chief accountant assisted by Maryem Belhaji

RECRUiTment Amandine Sicard

PUBLIC RELATIONS Olivier Lalane

2 WHAT IS QOBUZ?

Qobuz is the world’s premier high-quality online music service. Qobuz is:

AN UNLIMITED MUSIC STREAMING SERVICE

AN ONLINE SHOP FOR MUSIC DOWNLOADS

A MUSIC MAGAZINE WITH NEW CONTENT ADDED EVERY DAY

WHY IS QOBUZ DIFFERENT?

Today there are many online music stores. And then there is Qobuz. In a market full of undifferentiated online stores – veritable musical supermarkets – Qobuz aims to offer a quality service to demanding music-lovers. With its PREMIUM and SUPER-PREMIUM offers, Qobuz’s mission and market positioning is unique in Europe. This is why Qobuz has, from the very beginning, cultivated those aspects of its business which make it different:

EXCEPTIONAL SOUND QUALITY

◊ Our competitors offer a sound quality of ‘up to 320 kbps’. Qobuz offers a sound quality of at least 320 kbps. Their maximum is our minimum.

◊ Qobuz is the only service in the world to offer all of its catalogue (over 13 million titles ) at ‘True CD Quality’, 16 bit / 44.1kHz.

◊ Part of the catalogue is available to download at 24-bit ‘Studio Master Quality’ – the best sound quality perceptible to the human ear.

◊ Quality control of files is systematic: Qobuz rejects files submitted by producers who do not respect our quality standards. 3 A COMPLETE CATALOGUE

◊ Over 13,000,000 titles available, including all the major and independent labels.

◊ Numerous exclusives (Harmonia Mundi as part of the Qobuz Hi-Fi subscription) and regular previews.

ENGAGEMENT WITH ARTISTS AND PRODUCERS

◊Qobuz contributes to the creation of musical value rather than its destruction; Qobuz subscriptions pay artists and producers up to 30 times better!

RICH AND RELEVANT CONTENT

◊Qobuz provides its customers with a wide variety of content related to the music they love – digital booklets for tens of thousands of albums, exclusive metadata etc.

◊Music news, videos and podcasts are all available on the Qobuz site, produced by over 50,000 man-hours of work! This content allows the use of targeted recommendation tools.

◊A Hi-Fi rubric recognised for its high quality and the rigour of its audio testing procedures.

EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE

◊Qobuz is an independent site which features and recommends artists and labels with complete freedom.

CONSTANT INNOVATION

◊Qobuz is available in mobile application for Android, iPhone, iPad and Windows 8 and allows for lossless streaming in mobility, a world first. (New applications in July 2013)

◊Qobuz Hi-Fi is available in Sonos systems, offering an extraordinary experience of access to the world’s largest record collection in quality that has been representative of the CD for 30 years.

◊Qobuz is developing its multi-channel options for 5.0 and 5.1 systems.

A FRENCH COMPANY

◊Qobuz is a French service which is developing its international offer. Qobuz is already available in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg, and other European territories will soon be added to the list. (page 9)

4 THE QOBUZ OFFER at June 25, 2013 Offers may evolve in September 2013

STREAMING SUBSCRIPTIONS DOWNLOADS Unlimited listening without ads Albums or tracks

STUDIO CD QUALITY Unlimited listening of millions of Unlimited listening of millions of MASTERS tracks, at the best MP3 quality tracks at True CD-quality strea- QUALITY 24 Bits (320 kbps) : ming (FLAC 16 bit/44,1 kHz) :

online with the web player online with the web player on your computer on your computer 16 bit / 44.1 kHz High Definition up to on the move with your tablet on the move with your tablet ‘True CD Quality’ 192 kHz on your computer on your computer on your Sonos systems on your Sonos systems This is exactly the same quality as High-Definition audio exactly as a CD, with uncompressed sound. it comes out of the recording Listen offline – import your playlists Listen offline – import your playlists console. to listen to them even without an to listen to them even without an internet connection. internet connection.

9,99€ / month 29,00€ / month 119€ / year 290€ / year

All the benefits of Qobuz Hi-Fi subscription, exclusively for classical music.

Discover the members’ club

The most user-friendly service: 19,99€ / year 219€ / year ● Downloading on Qobuz is free from all DRM. ● Downloading is available to users on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. ● Available in all current file formats: MP3, ●Subscriptions with no minimum duration ALAC, WMA, AIFF, FLAC, OGG, WAV etc. ●Import your playlists from other streaming ● Files provided with the real CD cover in high- services quality ●Create collaborative playlists ● Digital Booklets provided when available ●Multi-platform : Mac, PC, Windows 8, Android, ● Ability to re-download all purchases made on iPad, iPhone Qobuz in the same quality or less. 5 6 7 QOBUZ Partnerships in 2013-2014

The current development of the market of audio-connected equipment, leading to a diversity of models, the renewed desire for «beautiful sound» at home and on the move has allowed Qobuz to multiply partnerships with manufacturers over the past few months.

Qobuz and Sonos innovate in 2013 and allow for streaming in True CD Quality throughout the home: a world exclusive.

A Qobuz Headphones by Focal is available since 2013

Qobuz makes a public API available to its partners enabling them to integrate into their equipment the quality of sound, metadata and documentary elements that make for the strength and differentiation of its service.

The APIs of an online music service allow developers to access the catalogue and integrate it into their own environment.

What is most interesting in the Qobuz API is the data of the albums, which are improved and sometimes entirely redone by Qobuz, equipped with a documentary system including indexing of press and radio evaluations, thousands of original photos, tens of thousands of digital booklets, jackets – which other services do not have. It is the superior quality of Qobuz content that accounts for the interest and quality of its APIs.

QOBUZ API INTEGRATION ONGOING IN:

qobuz API INTEGRATION COMING SOON IN :

8 2013-2014 INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

International development that will vary considerably from that of mainstream services

● Strategy by country corresponding to the specificities of the service, with market-share goals by repertoire and according to the market’s sensitivity to qualitative aspects

●Market penetration drawn from industrial partnerships (including manufacturers) more than by local telecoms in order to address a public with a real willingness to pay

● The international development of Qobuz is occurring whereas the segmentation of online music services is finally on the agenda with, in particular, the advent of iTunes Radio

9 THE FOUNDERS THE COMPANY

THE FOUNDERS

Yves Riesel (left) and Alexandre Leforestier (right) created Qobuz in 2007, after together running Abeille Musique, a record label created in 1997 which specialises in the digital domain. Abeille Musique is one of the largest digital distributors in France, and the two companies are brought together within a holding company, LYRA SA. Crédits photo : © Jean-Baptiste Millot

Yves Riesel has been a recording industry professional for 25 years, his whole career having developed within the world of independent labels following time spent as an artist agent and journalist.

Alexandre Leforestier joined Yves Riesel in 2000, and is the general manager of the company. After studying music at conservatory and university, Alexandre joined Abeille Musique and worked alongside Yves Riesel on the early development of Qobuz.

Alexandre Leforestier and Yves Riesel were convinced at an early stage of the necessity of anticipating the movement towards online music and distribution through subscriptions. As a result of their background in music production and distribution, they champion a balanced and somewhat rare vision of online music, where producers and artists are at the heart of value creation and where the quality of an online music service with real benefits to users is a key element in creating a willingness to pay.

THE COMPANY

Created in 2007, Qobuz is a subsidiary of LYRA SA, parent company of Qobuz SARL and Abeille Musique SARL (a record label created in 1997). The group moved on 1 November 2011 to new premises at 249 rue de Crimée, Paris 19e , in order to meet their development requirements. 50 people work for LYRA. The company controls its own technical developments and was named as a ‘Jeune Entreprise Innovante’ (Young Innovative Company). In 2011 it was given the label PUR (‘Promotion des Usages Responsables’), signifying a responsible and legal online operation. Qobuz has established new standards in High Fidelity downloading, and in 2011 continued its innovative approach in creating the world’s first ‘True CD Quality’ streaming subscription.

10 Qobuz, PARTNER OF MUSICAL LIFE

CHATEAU PALMER

QOBUZ, MEDIA PARTNERSHIPS

11 Contact

PRESIDENT Yves Riesel | +33 (0)6 30 36 46 25 [email protected] | @yvesriesel | yvesriesel

GENERAL MANAGER Alexandre Leforestier | +33 (0)6 73 71 04 95 [email protected] | princeofcasa | alexandreleforestier

PRESS CONTACT Olivier Lalane | +33 (0)1 76 70 39 39 [email protected]

www.qobuz.com/magazine

facebook.com/qobuz

facebook.com/qobuzclassique

@qobuz