Xandrie SA, parent company of France-born high-quality music streaming platform Qobuz, has acquired Japan’s e-onkyo music, a high-resolution music download platform, from Japanese electronics manufacturer Onkyo Corporation.

The acquisition marks the acceleration of Qobuz’s growth strategy in Asia and comes a year after Qobuz raised €10 million (approximately $10.92m) to fund its expansion. 

Today’s news also follows the launch of the Qobuz service last April in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland), as well as in Australia and New Zealand.

Other expansion projects “should materialize” in the coming months, according to Qobuz.

Onkyo Corporation says that the sale of e-onkyo music is part of a plan to restructure its activities as the company focuses on its core business.

Onkyo has transferred the assets of its e-onkyo music business to the newly formed Xandrie Japan Co Ltd.

Xandrie SA holds 85.1% of the shares of Xandrie Japan Co Ltd and Onkyo holds 14.9%.

Qobuz says that the acquisition of e-onkyo music is an opportunity to broaden its high-resolution offerings and to “enrich its catalog” with local content such as J-Pop.

Launched in 2005, e-onkyo music offers downloadable 384kHz/24bit, 32bit (integer) and DSD 11.2MHz ultra high quality sound sources. As of September 2021, the number of music tracks distributed by the platform is approximately 1.07 million.

“In the long term, Qobuz also aims to rapidly launch a streaming offer in Japan.”

Georges Fornay, Qobuz

Georges Fornay, Deputy CEO of Qobuz, said: “Thanks to the acquisition of e-onkyo music, Qobuz has taken a new step in its international development and is successfully pursuing its growth ambitions on the Asian market.

“This union will allow Qobuz to offer a high value-added and eclectic music offer as well as the most complete high-resolution download offer on the market.

“In the long term, Qobuz also aims to rapidly launch a streaming offer in Japan.”Music Business Worldwide