Qobuz May Be Removing Music, and Files, Even if Purchased

14 hours ago, krass said:

I can sort of understand it… their rights/distribution agreements change with time, so they’re aligning their online repository accordingly (adding or removing titles etc).

 

They've obviously realised this has an impact on people who have paid (or will in the future) for a download (& maybe not yet downloaded), so they’re changing their terms.

 

The only point of interest is how long should a provider keep a copy for you after you’ve bought a download ? It’d seem reasonable to give a period of a few weeks, but I don’t see why they should have to maintain an archive of out-of-license material for a lengthy period… few months maybe ??

I agree, the real entity at which our ire should be directed is the label/labels or rights holder likely requiring Qobuz to make this change, or who knows, the alternative may be to lose access to ALL of that labels catalog. Download your purchases immediately, and back them up safely and securely to make this a non issue.

This is also a good example of the importance of ownership and having local files versus streaming. An album on your hard drive in a non-drm format is yours forever, ideally. An album on a streaming service is there at the whim of the rights holder and can disappear at any moment.

2 hours ago, bobfa said:

Make sure you have a backup strategy that includes offline storage….

And only buy DRM free music files!

8 hours ago, 111MilesToGo said:

A side question, please: How to recognize / know about DRM'ed music files? I mean when the fine print on the (any) download store does not easily reveal what's going on.

Well, at the moment I am not aware of anyone selling music files with DRM. That may change at some point in the future.