Qobuz Is the Anti-Spotify Music Streamer You’ve Been Waiting For
Key takeaways
- “I flew to Oklahoma to shoot with Wayne Coyne,” Mackta says.
- The Qobuz questions after “How do you say it?” are likely “Can I transfer my music library across?” and “Does it have everything?” The answers: yes and almost.
- I'm not alone, according to Mackta, who landed at Qobuz after years at major and indie record labels—2025 was a banner year for the 19-year-old company.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Courtesy of Qobuz Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story When Dan Mackta, Qobuz’s New York–based managing director, was looking for musicians to endorse the music streaming service after its US launch in 2019, he tapped up a friend—the manager of the Flaming Lips. It was mid-pandemic levels of tricky.
“I flew to Oklahoma to shoot with Wayne Coyne,” Mackta says. “He shows up wearing one of those helmets, with the ventilation system to protect you, a metallic puffer jacket and big silver moon boots.” They couldn’t hear a word Coyne said in the helmet, so the frontman went home and shot the promo video himself: “How to pronounce this weird word ‘ko-buzz.’”
The Qobuz questions after “How do you say it?” are likely “Can I transfer my music library across?” and “Does it have everything?” The answers: yes and almost. Case in point: I recently switched to Qobuz, after nearly 20 years with Spotify. (Emotional.) I used a third-party service called Soundizz to transfer my songs; it took half an afternoon to port, with a more than 90 percent hit rate for my playlists.