We’ve chronicled the sudden rise of YouTube Premium and Music, an upsurge that began final yr. However a quieter, albeit equally fascinating, ascent has additionally been going down for the independently-owned, music-exclusive service Qobuz.
That’s proper: Qobuz, the high-resolution streaming and obtain platform as soon as completely prized by area of interest audiophiles, is surging. In accordance with information from SimilarWeb, it was the second fastest-growing music and media app within the US in 2025.
It additionally ranked third within the UK, by the way in which.
Now, the corporate has confirmed to DMN that it has formally surpassed 1.2 million month-to-month lively customers (MAUs), alongside a large spike in paid subscribers. Only recently, DMN joined forces with the platform to additional speed up progress.
So, what’s driving this sudden progress spurt?
Whereas Qobuz has lengthy served as a digital haven for hardcore audiophiles, a distinct crowd is immediately knocking on the door. And a part of the uptick is coming from customers ditching Spotify.
Amidst seemingly infinite worth hikes and controversies over on the market chief, listeners (and artists) are quietly in search of alternate options. Curiously, Qobuz Managing Director of North America and Northern Europe, Dan Mackta, notes {that a} shocking variety of Spotify customers ditched their accounts proper after their year-end ‘Wrapped’ campaigns had been revealed.
(Hey, possibly they wanted the right closure earlier than slicing the wire.)
However to the shock of Qobuz execs like Mackta, that is going past a easy surge of Spotify refugees.
The Qobuz model grew to become far more distinguished in 2025, pulling in everybody from high-profile celebrities like Chelsea Handler and Christina Hendricks to devoted fan communities.
The platform’s lossless and Hello-Res obtain retailer even attracted a throng of BTS followers—a retro-tech phenomenon we’ve additionally seen driving gross sales on platforms like Stationhead. It seems the historic audiophile choice for proudly owning high-quality downloads over streaming is discovering an entire new viewers amongst rabid Okay-pop followers.
Qobuz can also be benefiting from a extra artist-friendly demeanor.
Final yr, the corporate took the weird step of validating and publishing its per-stream payouts. The end result? An impartial auditor revealed that Qobuz rights house owners acquired almost $19 per 1,000 streams.
With out naming names, Qobuz informed us their per-stream payouts are ‘4 instances larger than the closest competitor.’ In accordance with DMN’s stats, that’s additionally roughly six instances Spotify’s per-stream payouts, an organization that, by the way, solely downplays using per-stream royalty measurements.
After which there’s the straightforward rejection of the faceless, anonymous algorithm.
Qobuz appears to be capturing a broader shopper development towards intentional consumption, which incorporates decoupling from ultra-sophisticated, AI-driven algorithms, to not point out infinite content-inclusion methods.
By sharp distinction, Qobuz provides 100% human-led curation, a seemingly retro method that’s progressively attracting followers. Playlists and Albums of the Week are picked by precise specialists, not fed by a machine, and Qobuz plans to maintain it that manner.
As Mackta put it: “It’s virtually so quaint; ‘Wow, people choosing music.’ Effectively, it seems lots of people love that.”
The platform’s stance on AI and audio constancy has additionally confirmed to be a giant differentiator.
Like its French rival Deezer, Qobuz is figuring out and can tag AI-generated tracks, conserving them out of editorial suggestions or just eradicating them. Moreover, the corporate has pledged to not generate audio content material, exchange human curation with AI, or use buyer information to coach exterior AI fashions.
As rival platforms change into flooded with generic AI music, Qobuz is framing high-resolution audio and human curation as the last word method to respect the artist’s authentic inventive imaginative and prescient.
The platform can be taking a wide-ranging method to partnerships. Qobuz has simply launched a retail-side tech integration with Tough Commerce, a part of its purpose so as to add a digital part to bodily media areas. It’s an angle that gels properly with Qobuz’s indie ethic and will set the stage for extra distinctive partnerships sooner or later.
However there are additionally broader developments working to Qobuz’s benefit.
For starters, switching platforms is not as large a headache. With third-party instruments like Soundiiz making playlist translation simpler, the chore of switching is easing a bit. That development may lastly shake up the present DSP market-share rankings, which, based on DMN Professional information, have remained largely static over the previous few years.
Now, the query is how a lot floor Qobuz finally ends up taking.
Mackta surmised that simply 1% of the broader paid streaming music subscriber market share may be sufficient, and the corporate is clearly rising and bulking up with its latest features. So long as issues keep worthwhile and engaging to a core of music followers in search of alternate options, Qobuz is more likely to stay a long-term play.
