Qobuz expands into Japan by acquiring e-onkyo music, a high-resolution music download platform, from Onkyo Corporation, the Japanese high-end electronics manufacturer. The purchase by Xandrie SA, the parent company of Qobuz, represents a new major strategic step forward for Qobuz, which intends to continue its international expansion. It follows the launch of the service last April in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland), as well as in Australia and New Zealand. Other opening plans are being conducted and should materialise in the coming months.
The investment in Japan represents part of a strategic move by the company to expand its business in Asia. The company stated that it is ‘an opportunity to broaden its range of high-resolution references and ultimately enrich its catalogue with local content and cutting-edge musical genres such as J-Pop, on all its platforms’.
For Onkyo Corporation, the sale of e-onkyo music is part of a plan to restructure its activities as the company wants to focus on its core business. Onkyo Corporate transferred the assets related to its e-onkyo music activity to the newly formed Xandrie Japan Co Ltd. Xandrie SA holds 85.1 % of the shares in Xandrie Japan Co Ltd and Onkyo 14.9 %.
Since the launch of e-onkyo in 2005, it has been a HiRes site that distributes high-quality sound of the latest hit songs, anime and game songs by top domestic and overseas artists such as Katsumi Watanabe and Bill Evans in jazz, Herbert von Karajan and Seiji Ozawa in classical music, and Hikaru Utada and Radwimps in J-Pop. The site also offers downloadable 384kHz/24bit, 32bit (integer) and DSD 11.2MHz ultra high-quality sound sources. As of September 2021, the number of music tracks distributed will be approximately 1,070,000, one of the largest in Japan. For more information, visit e-onkyo music website at e-onkyo.com/music
Qobuz, founded in 2007, is now available in 18 countries around the world, in Europe, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. With its catalogue of more than 70 million tracks, Qobuz also has the richest choice of high-resolution (HiRes) tracks on the market. Qobuz is licensed for Hi-Res Audio by the Japan Audio Society (JAS).
Georges Fornay, Deputy CEO of Qobuz, said “Thanks to the acquisition of e-onkyo music, Qobuz has taken a new step in its international development and is successfully pursuing its growth ambitions on the Asian market. This union will allow Qobuz to offer a high value-added and eclectic music offer as well as the most complete high-resolution download offer on the market. In the long term, Qobuz also aims to rapidly launch a streaming offer in Japan.”
