I think that its likely that the landscape for streaming will be different in several years. It will likely follow what has happened in the cable tv industry.
I think everything will change once the majors (Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, possibly Netflix) become involved in streaming.
The hope is that they will consider Roon. However, I fear they will implement their own proprietary system.
Brave new world.
Why is there so much love for Spotify in Europe? I tried it and found it to not be worth the money. Free services offer similar sound quality and the dropouts were constant.
Well Spotify was first. I began using it in 2008 or so and it have since exploded in popularity. Iāve never had any issues with dropouts though, and I havenāt tried the free service either since I donāt find $10/month to be expensive. But I know a lot of people who did at first.
No love here for Spotify.
I have a slightly different take on this. I do not really like streaming, so my interest in Tidal or anything else is limited. However, I do use Spotify very occasionally, usually to check out a couple of tracks on an album Iāve seen recommended or similar. This is a precursor to a possible purchase of the album. I never listen to streamed music for very long. For this reason, Spotify appeals, it does the job and itās free. To do the same with Tidal, I do of course have to pay Ā£10 or Ā£20 a month. OK this is a relatively small amount of cash, but I might go two months or more without ever using it. However, āfreeā Spotify as a back up is great. From what Iāve read so far though, it looks like Roon have made the appropriate advances to Spotify, without the relationship looking like it will blossom. Such is life!
Iām in favor of Spotify and similar services. And I disagree with the prevailing trend in these comments that a focus on SQ is a pre-requirement for Roon users. Of course we like SQ, Roon should not degrade it, it should pass through the SQ of my source data and my equipment.
But imagine this case: if some enthusiastic participant in these discussions, someone who has written at length about the value of the metadata and Roonās user interface to enable āserendipitous discoveryā, about how Roon has helped him rediscover his library and new musicians and new forms of music and to research how musicians have collaborated and influenced each other, who has made suggestions about the product ā imagine if we now discover that this Roon enthusiast is a poor musician who lives in a fifth floor walkup and listens to MP3 because thatās all he can afford and listens on a 1970s receiver and some scuffed AR speakers he inherited from his uncle.
Would we shun this guy? Would we suggest that he goes back to iTunes, that Roon is not for him? Of course not! Heās a great Roon user, we would continue to learn from him and take suggestions. For him, Roonās value lies in how it helps him enjoy the music. Maybe one day he can upgrade his source material and equipment, but in the meantime Roon gives value.
Support for Spotify and iTunes would be great! (If they would cooperate.)
And Roon does internet radio nowā¦
Wrt streaming:
Streaming music has become Warner Musicās biggest business.
Warnerās streaming music revenue increased $72 million for the quarter while downloads declined by $17 million and physical revenue dropped by $6 million.
Iām almost ready to make the decision to quit Roon. Itās based on what me and others have expressed above: Spotify is the leading service in terms of catalogue and social features, and I sorely miss them both.
What I will be getting by going back:
What I will miss:
Sadly, for me at least, the benefits of Roon donāt mean much when I canāt listen to the songs I like. And Iām not exaggerating hereāTidal lacks so many of the songs I want that itās not even close to being a Spotify competitor.
I am really torn about this one.
Hey @Lundmark
I am thinking about adding a Spotify account. Can you name five artists that are on Spotify but not on Tidal? For me, if I canāt get an artist on Tidal, and I want to hear them, I buy their music. Maybe Spotify will save me some money.
Thanks,
Tom
Not really, but thatās also not the issue for me. What matters is the amount of content by each artist.
Iāve purchased a lot of songs not available for streaming, even on CDs for ripping, but I need to keep that to a minimum but itās really inconvenient.
Another thing, too: a lot of the time, content is actually available on Tidal too, but both Tidalās own app and Roon absolutely sucks at floating it compared to Spotify. You have to dig really deep to find things that really should be top of the list.
This is not to slam RoonāI know itās pretty much beta still, and that itās essentially banned by Spotifyāitās just to share my experience. And as a user, I donāt really care about business deals and such. All I want is to listen to my songs.
It is amazing how quickly this industry is moving and changing. If Roon didnāt exist, I might very well choose Spotify over Tidal. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Who knows what might be true this time next year.
I have a fairly large music library and Roon has been a godsend for me. But I do like to use services like Tidal or Spotify to find new music that Iām not likely to hear any other way. I suppose I could still do that with Roon and Spotify as separate playback solutions. I suspect many do. But for me, Roon + Tidal as an integrated solution is just way, way better than anything else Iāve seen.
I donāt use Spotify but I know a lot of people that do - even those that like high quality streaming and playback have other needs too - on the road, family, historic choices, etc etc. Spotify would be good. And Qobuz and everything else out there. Choice is good. A packed āservicesā tab would be great. 
The tricky part for any developers is interfacing with different companies and their APIs, as even though the frameworkās probably largely the same, they wonāt be identical and so still have to be modified and tested. Itās definitely a lot of work but probably not as much as doing the initial one. But Roon donāt use āstandardā APIs from what I gather so it requires not only time and development, but agreement from the service provider to give Roon a lot more access to their systems/data. Perhaps Spotify wouldnāt be interested in that, who knows.
Maybe Roon will come up with a different way of doing things in the future, or other providers will partner in the way Tidal did, but I sense thereās only going to be one service in that services tab for some timeā¦
Seems like Roon has tried but Spotify has āshut them downā
Yes, just like TuneIn seemed to do. That sucks.
Iāve quit my Tidal subscription and gone back to Spotify. Will continue to use the rest of my Roon subscription for local playback and to see where the development goes.
I think this raises a more general question about the long term viability of Roon. I hope they are making it a priority to diversify into more agreements with streaming partners. It almost doesnāt matter whether thatās Spotify, Deezer, Napster, Qobuz or whoever comes along next.
If Tidal went titsup tomorrow, a significant portion of Roonās value proposition would be diminished, and thatās not good. Having multiple streaming services on board hedges Roonās position and has the potential to widen its customer base.
The lossless quality argument is pure audio snobbery and has very little to do with music enjoyment. I was happy to make the jump from Napster to Tidal because of the Roon integration, but Iāve had to compromise in other areas because thereās no direct Tidal integration with my car audio control, as there is with Napster and Spotify. The point being is that people have lots of valid reasons for preferring one service over another and I hope Roon can tie up deals sooner rather than later to support them on its platform.
I believe that you will find yourself very much in the minority with that viewpoint on this Roon forum
The Audio Quality combined with the āMusic Discoveryā possible thru the rich metadata that Roon provides are its primary USPāsā¦and I believe that most here are interested in BOTH at the same timeā¦hence the attraction of Tidal over the other compromised services
Reading between the lines over the last few months, I do believe other integrations are coming. These are serious undertakings though, taking time and resources.
Listening habits on-the-go (car, bike, walk) differ greatly from in-home ā I like Spotify while driving, I can live with it on my iPhone, but I really would not want to listen to it on my main set. This is not about comparative listening trying to pin-point the differences, but more about the few hours of serious and happy listening time (lights dimmed, beverage of choice, etc.) each week, in which Spotify AQ does show the lifeless mess it really is.
Apart from this ā maybe Roon remote streaming (or whatever it will be called) may make these points moot, delivery the exact AQ thatās feasible and needed at the specific location.
This is very much why I was attracted to Roon in the first place, along with the multiroom possibilities. But Iāve found that
So that leaves the multiroom abilities, which I think is absolutely awesome in Roon, and I donāt have a viable replacement. (That would be Sonos, but the Sonos app has its own limitations very similar to Roon, so itāll solve nothing for me.) I donāt know what Iāll do about this.
Again, for me ā¦it comes down to the fact that Spotify has albums that Tidal simply does not. So Spotify, will never go away for me for music discovery, and casual listening. So if it can be integrated, then that is a big positive for me. Iād even be happy with a basic integration, depending on what is possible technically or not.
Basic Spotify integration like in LMS would be much better than nothing.