QBZ

QBZ is a free and open source high-fidelity streaming client for Linux (with experimental macOS support) with native playback. It is a real desktop application — not a web wrapper — with DAC passthrough, per-track sample rate switching, exclusive mode, and bit-perfect audio delivery.

No API keys needed. No telemetry. No tracking. Just music.

Legal / Branding

• This application uses the Qobuz API but is not certified by Qobuz.
• Qobuz is a trademark of Qobuz. QBZ is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by Qobuz.
• Offline cache is a temporary playback store for listening without an internet connection while you have a valid subscription. If your subscription becomes invalid, QBZ will remove all cached content after 3 days.
• Local library is a "bring your own music" feature — play your own files with bit-perfect audio and the full QBZ interface, no streaming subscription required.
• Qobuz Terms of Service: https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/legal/terms

Why QBZ

Browsers cap audio output at 48 kHz and resample everything through WebAudio. QBZ uses a native playback pipeline with direct device control so your DAC receives the original resolution — up to 24-bit / 192 kHz — with no forced resampling.

Installation

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S qbz-bin    # or paru -S qbz-bin

Flatpak (Flathub)

flatpak install flathub com.blitzfc.qbz

Audiophiles: Flatpak sandboxing limits PipeWire bit-perfect. Use ALSA Direct backend for guaranteed bit-perfect in Flatpak, or install via native packages for full PipeWire support.

Snap

sudo snap install qbz-player
sudo snap connect qbz-player:alsa
sudo snap connect qbz-player:pipewire

Note: After installing, connect ALSA and PipeWire interfaces for full audio support. MPRIS media keys work out of the box.

APT Repository (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint)

curl -fsSL https://vicrodh.github.io/qbz-apt/qbz-archive-keyring.gpg | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/qbz-archive-keyring.gpg > /dev/null
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qbz-archive-keyring.gpg arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] https://vicrodh.github.io/qbz-apt stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qbz.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install qbz

Requires glibc 2.38+ (Ubuntu 24.04+, Debian 13+). For older releases use Flatpak, Snap, or AppImage.

RPM (Fedora/openSUSE)

Download from Releases: sudo dnf install ./qbz-*.rpm

Requires glibc 2.38+ (Fedora 39+, openSUSE Tumbleweed).

Gentoo

eselect repository add qbz-overlay git https://github.com/vicrodh/qbz-overlay.git
emerge --sync qbz-overlay
emerge media-sound/qbz-bin    # prebuilt binary
# or
emerge media-sound/qbz        # build from source

NixOS / Nix

Add the flake input to your flake.nix:

inputs.qbz.url = "github:vicrodh/qbz";

NixOS (system-wide):

{pkgs, inputs, ...}:
{
  environment.systemPackages = [
    inputs.qbz.packages.${pkgs.system}.default
  ];
}

Home Manager:

{pkgs, inputs, ...}:
{
  home.packages = [
    inputs.qbz.packages.${pkgs.system}.default
  ];
}

QBZ is also available in nixpkgs as qbz.

AppImage

Download from Releases: chmod +x QBZ.AppImage && ./QBZ.AppImage

macOS (Experimental)

QBZ is a Linux-first application. macOS support is experimental and limited. Features like PipeWire, ALSA Direct, casting, and device control are unavailable.

Download the unsigned DMG from Releases.

Since the DMG is unsigned, you may need to allow it in System Settings > Privacy & Security after first launch.

Features

Audio and Playback

• Bit-perfect playback with DAC passthrough and per-track sample rate switching (44.1–192 kHz)
• Four audio backends: PipeWire, ALSA, ALSA Direct (hw: bypass), PulseAudio
• HiFi Wizard — guided bit-perfect configuration with real DAC capability detection
• Native decoding: FLAC, MP3, AAC, ALAC, WavPack, Ogg Vorbis, Opus (Symphonia)
• Gapless playback on all backends
• Loudness normalization (EBU R128) with ReplayGain support
• Two-level audio cache with next-track prefetching
• Streaming playback — start listening before download completes

Queue and Library

• Queue with shuffle, repeat (track/queue/off), and history
• Favorites and playlists from your Qobuz account
• Qobuz playlist follow/unfollow — subscribe natively, syncs across all Qobuz clients
• Local library — directory scanning, metadata extraction, CUE sheets, SQLite indexing
• Tag editor with sidecar storage (preserves original files)
• Virtualized lists for large libraries

Qobuz Connect

Multi-device playback control using Qobuz's real-time streaming protocol.

• Renderer mode — receive playback commands from your phone, tablet, or web player
• Controller mode — control remote devices from QBZ
• Server-authoritative queue sync across all devices
• Bidirectional transport: play, pause, skip, seek, shuffle, repeat, volume

Casting

• Chromecast, DLNA/UPnP, and AirPlay discovery and streaming
• Seamless playback handoff to network devices

Integrations

• MPRIS media controls and media keys
• Last.fm scrobbling and now-playing
• ListenBrainz scrobbling with offline queue
• MusicBrainz artist enrichment, musician credits, relationships (no telemetry — one-way pull)
• Discogs artwork for local library
• Playlist import from Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer
• Desktop notifications with artwork

Immersive Player

• Full-screen player with tabbed panel system
• 17+ visualization panels: spectrum, oscilloscope, spectrogram, Linebed (3D terrain), Laser, Tunnel, Comet, coverflow, and more
• Synchronized lyrics with line-by-line display
• Queue, track info, history, and suggestions panels

Discovery

• Scene Discovery — explore artists by location and musical scene (MusicBrainz-powered)
• 3-tab Home: customizable Home, Editor's Picks, personalized For You
• Genre filtering, artist similarity engine, radio stations
• Musician pages, label pages, album credits

Interface

• 26+ themes (Dark, OLED, Nord, Dracula, Tokyo Night, Catppuccin, Breeze, Adwaita...)
• Auto-theme from DE, wallpaper, or custom image
• Focus mode, mini player, PDF booklet viewer
• Configurable keyboard shortcuts, UI zoom 80–200%
• 5 languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese
• Offline mode with automatic reconnection

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Desktop shell	Rust + Tauri 2.0
Frontend	SvelteKit + Svelte 5 (runes) + TypeScript + Vite
Audio decoding	Symphonia (all codecs) via rodio 0.22
Audio backends	PipeWire, ALSA (alsa-rs), ALSA Direct (hw:), PulseAudio
Networking	reqwest (rustls-tls), axum (local API server)
Database	rusqlite (bundled SQLite, WAL mode)
PDF	MuPDF 0.6 (native rendering)
Desktop	souvlaki (MPRIS), ashpd (XDG notifications), keyring
Casting	rust_cast (Chromecast), rupnp (DLNA/UPnP), mdns-sd (AirPlay)
i18n	svelte-i18n (5 locales)

Multi-Crate Architecture

crates/
  qbz-models/            Shared domain types
  qbz-audio/             Audio backends, loudness, device management
  qbz-player/            Playback engine, streaming, queue
  qbz-qobuz/             Qobuz API client and auth
  qbz-core/              Orchestrator (player + audio + API)
  qbz-library/           Local library scanning and metadata
  qbz-integrations/      Last.fm, ListenBrainz, MusicBrainz, Discogs
  qbz-cache/             L1 memory + L2 disk audio caching
  qbz-cast/              Chromecast, DLNA/UPnP, AirPlay
  qconnect-protocol/     Qobuz Connect protobuf wire format
  qconnect-core/         Queue and renderer domain models
  qconnect-app/          Application logic and concurrency
  qconnect-transport-ws/ WebSocket transport with qcloud framing

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Rust (latest stable), Node.js 20+, Linux or macOS with audio support

System Dependencies

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev libasound2-dev \
  libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev libssl-dev pkg-config

Fedora:

sudo dnf install webkit2gtk4.1-devel gtk3-devel alsa-lib-devel \
  libappindicator-gtk3-devel librsvg2-devel openssl-devel pkg-config

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk-4.1 gtk3 alsa-lib libappindicator-gtk3 \
  librsvg openssl pkg-config

Gentoo:

sudo emerge net-libs/webkit-gtk:4.1 x11-libs/gtk+:3 media-libs/alsa-lib \
  dev-libs/libayatana-appindicator gnome-base/librsvg dev-libs/openssl virtual/pkgconfig

Build

git clone https://github.com/vicrodh/qbz.git && cd qbz
npm install
npm run tauri dev       # development
npm run tauri build     # production (DEB, RPM, AppImage)

API Proxy (for self-hosted builds)

Pre-built releases include a hosted API proxy for Last.fm, Discogs, Tidal, and Spotify integrations — no API keys needed.

If you build from source and want these integrations, you can either:

1. Deploy your own proxy (recommended) — a Cloudflare Worker that securely holds API keys server-side:

git clone https://github.com/vicrodh/qbz-api-proxy.git
cd qbz-api-proxy
# Add your API keys to wrangler.toml or via `wrangler secret put`
wrangler deploy

Then set the proxy URL before building QBZ:

export QBZ_API_PROXY_URL="https://your-worker.your-account.workers.dev"
npm run tauri build

2. Use direct API keys — set them in .env (see .env.example). Keys are embedded at compile time.

MusicBrainz and Spotify playlist import work without any API keys or proxy.

Environment Variables

Variable	Effect
QBZ_HARDWARE_ACCEL=0	Disable GPU rendering (crash recovery)
QBZ_FORCE_X11=1	Use XWayland (NVIDIA Wayland issues)
QBZ_SOFTWARE_RENDER=1	Force Mesa llvmpipe (VMs)
QBZ_DISABLE_DMABUF=1	Disable DMA-BUF (Intel Arc EGL crashes)

If QBZ crashes on startup: qbz --reset-graphics

Known Issues

• Hi-Res seeking — seeking in tracks >96kHz can take 10-20s (decoder must scan from start). Use prev/next for instant navigation.
• ALSA Direct — exclusive access blocks other apps. Use DAC/amplifier physical volume control.
• PipeWire bit-perfect in Flatpak — limited by sandbox. Use ALSA Direct or native packages.

Documentation

User guides, audio configuration, integrations, and troubleshooting: QBZ Wiki (work in progress).

Open Source

QBZ is MIT-licensed. No telemetry, no tracking, no hidden services. Built for Linux audio enthusiasts, with experimental macOS support.

Contributing

Contributions welcome. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before submitting issues or pull requests.

Contributors

• @vorce
• @boxdot
• @arminfelder
• @afonsojramos — macOS port
• @GwendalBeaumont — i18n
• @AdamArstall

License

MIT