Qobuz expands its streaming service into Japan its twenty-sixth country and since its launch in the US in 2019, the company has opened in 15 new countries in the last four years. The company’s move into Japan follows the acquisition of e-onkyo music in 2021. While streaming dominates the global music market with over 67% of revenue, Japan presents a unique landscape where the physical market still accounts for over 50% of sales. Paid streaming, while lagging behind with less than 30% market share (compared with over 50% in other major markets), is showing remarkable growth in a country where the offering remains limited and dominated by a few major players. With an expansion rate of almost 13%, compared with less than 7% in the US, Japan appears to be a promising market for Qobuz.
Georges Fornay, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Qobuz, said, “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.”
Qobuz is adding to its catalogue of over 100 million titles by integrating HiRes tracks from e-onkyo music and a repertoire of Japanese music, including specialized genres such as J-Pop for its launch in Japan. Subscribers in Japan will now be able to benefit from the complete Qobuz offer, combining streaming and downloading.
To complement the move into Japan, Qobuz have created the following playlists:
An article on Japanese City Pop can be found here.
Qobuz recently added DXD and DSD downloads to its extensive catalogue of HiRes and CD Quality FLAC files available for downloading.
