- Music can now be organized and discovered by record label
- Browse the winners of prestigious awards and critics’ picks
- Hi-Res Audio where available, in both Labels and Awards
One of the things I really hate about music streaming is the algorithm, which tends to play me things that sound really quite a lot like the things I’ve played. That’s fine for background music, but it’s not great for finding really amazing new artists and their albums. So I’m really intrigued by Qobuz’s new features, which focus on specific record labels and award winners.
Some labels are legendary: think Stax or Blue Note, Motown or Deutsche Grammophon, Def Jam or Warp. And now Qobuz enables you to find more music from the label of the artist you’re currently listening to, as well as the labels of your favourites.
The results will depend very much on the label, of course. but there are real gems in those catalogs.
Let’s say you’re listening to Aphex Twin (good choice, by the way). Qobuz now makes it easy to find more Warp Records artists: Squarepusher and Broadcast, Thom Yorke with Mark Pritchard, Boards of Canada and 48 more pages of electronic awesomeness.
Prefer something a bit more soulful? Stax has Melissa Etheridge, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Albert King… you get the idea.
Award-winning music discovery
The second new feature, Award pages, is really interesting too. Qobuz has put together a list of various awards and their winners, and the awards featured include some very prestigious ones as well as Qobuz’s own favorites.
For example, you can browse Gramophone Award winners to discover some truly exceptional classical recordings, or you can focus on the winners of Pitchfork’s best new music awards: Beyoncé, Kendrick, Charli XCX, FKA Twigs, Bad Bunny, Vampire Weekend, Father John Misty…. there are 22 pages for this award alone.
I love this: it’s a big bunch of musical rabbit holes to lose yourself in, and I think it’s a really good fit for Qobuz’s target audience. It’s long marked itself as the streaming service for serious music fans and audiophiles, and browsing these collections is almost as much fun as going crate-digging for new LPs – oh, and while I’m on this, don’t forget that Record Store Day is coming, on April 12.
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