- Qobuz’s Drowned in Sound music magazine collaboration means six months of podcasts
- The move follows further backlash over Spotify’s practices and artist payment
- The partnership runs until June 2026 and starts with the best from 2025
Have you noticed the growing trend of anti-Spotify coverage regarding payment models, music suggestions and investments on your social media lately? If so, you’ll almost certainly have been pushed towards Qobuz, the original hi-res streaming and download platform for the discerning music lover who knows what they want (without the help of an AI DJ, please) and wants it in hi-res.
And now the French music streaming service has announced a six-month partnership with Drowned in Soundthe slightly caustic independent music publication, podcast and online community.
What can you expect? ONE Drowned in Sound (DiS) podcast season runs from December 2025 to June 2026, with Qobuz serving as title sponsor of the podcast, and DiS curated weekly companion playlists on Qobuz.
Qobuz and DiS tell us things kick off at DiS with its best coverage of 2025, predictions for 2026, plus exclusive interviews with electronic music leviathan Kelly Lee Owens, as well as one of the most exciting and groundbreaking new artists in the world right now, Sofia Isella.
Qobuz and DiS: for me it’s a match made in music heaven
The partnership brings together two indie organizations that seem to me fully committed to artist first values and human curation in music.
Qobuz, which has always eschewed AI-created playlists and Wrapped-style rollouts (instead pointing to its support for high-res formats including DSD, organizing its music by record labels as a means of helping you discover new tracks, and its Qobuz Club community forum where actual people can talk about music), announced back in March of this year how much it pays artists per stream.
Qobuz is one of the best music streaming services for music fans who like to go their own way (and aren’t bothered by wrap-style posters for their Instagram stories) because it pays artists an average of $0.01873 per stream. stream – which the company says is “four times the industry average”. So if you really want to support the bands and acts you love in this difficult economic climate, it could be quite a transition, right?
Drowned in Sound was founded in the UK in 2000, and has also evolved over time. What began as a music magazine, record label and online forum has matured into what founder Sean Adams calls “community organizing infrastructure” that balances music discovery, recommendations and investigative journalism to help music fans understand and use their collective power.
Dan Mackta, CEO of Qobuz, said of the collaboration: “Having been a reader and fan of DiS since the early days of the music blogosphere, I couldn’t be happier that Qobuz is able to contribute to its continued development and growth. Musicians recognize their own – we take this seriously!”
“This collaboration aligns with everything DiS is about,” added Adams. “Qobuz pays artists four times more than other platforms, values human curation and is independently owned… Coming at a time when grassroots media is struggling, it reinforces our mission to empower music fans, recommend exceptional music and create solutions-driven journalism that builds useful resources.”
You can listen to the Drowned in Sound podcast now – but I can’t wait to listen to future episodes.
The best noise canceling headphones for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can too follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
