Hi all,
I was wondering if Roon offers a discount for annual subscription to lifetime?
I cant recall the exact prices, but annual was about Au$110, and lifetime was around Au$500.
At first I felt there were risks taking out a lifetime subscription. Things like is the platform truly stable, will the rules change, will I be required to pay further monies to update features in the future. Some of these things are hard to become confident in on a 2 week trail.
I’m nearing the end of my 12 months and I like Roon. I’d like to update to a lifetime membership, but its still a chunk of change.
After reading some posts on how Roon’s business model works it seems doubtful there is a discount offered, but I thought I’d suggest that maybe it could be offered to annual subscription customers as a “once of” offer that might get them over the line.
And please dont delve into car analogies. With roon I’m not taking possession of a material good as I would with a car. Its a bunch of 1’s and 0’s. Good ones, but 1’s and 0’s none the less.
I converted after a coupla months. They gave me credit for the cost of my unused months towards a lifetime. If you’re near the end of an annual, it won’t be much.
Yep, was what I expected to hear.
It kinda sounds like the ebay model. All face, no concern. All about the cash.
As long as you appear to be taking care of customers, the rest is irrelevant. Classic American business model. Appearance is everything.
You know, the strangest thing happened. I had a question. I forgot my password amongst the 50 or so I have. I hit the “i forgot my password” button. reset . all is good…Hang on… where the F did my play lists go?
So the problem as I see it is the millennials that are slick with the “restore my playlist” stuff dont have the cash and want to do the “rent” thing are cool with the tech,
the old audiophiles like me that just want reliability (kind of like a vinyl record gives) are over this shit.
So now that I’m forced to loose more time of my limited old life chasing up shit I had thats now lost, you can go bang it where the sun dont shine.
And I hope I speak for an ageing but profitable segment of the market.
While perhaps a bit harsh I’m finding that while the software is pretty nice the rest of the service is really lacking. Simple questions to @support going unanswered after weeks and multiple pings. Things that shouldn’t even be questions. Things that the UI should do a better job of giving context to.
Their monthly subscription rate is absurd for what they give you. I can see the justification for an expensive piece of software and a one time purchase price, which is why I was willing to shell out for the lifetime subscription, but the only SaaS they provide is the metadata. It’s a very nice feature but that’s hardly worth the monthly rate even if . you figure in the access to bug fixes and updates. Hell, access to the entire Adobe Create Suite is vastly cheaper.
And for these prices they should have a better Help/Support team and response rate. Not this “go find it all yourself by searching through droves and droves of other people’s questions which kind of touch on your question but certainly don’t answer it” model.
Does you toyota dealer steal your fuel economy once you bought your Prius? Do they make you re-install your stuff when you want to drive to the shop? Do they punish you for
All I’m saying is why should I pay for a program that claims its the shit, when in fact it aint.
I can buy a toyota or a chrysler and get a car. I understand roon want to make money and I’d be happy to pay for it if they gave what they promised. but they dont give anything thats material.
if you bought a pizza slice for $3.50, would you be happy to pay $4.00? Maybe you are happy with virtual pepperoni.
Just enjoy the slice and imagine the sausage, because its really there.
And if its not actually there, just log on, reset your password, climb through a raft of tutorials, just to get back to your pepperoni that you originally paid for.
And what ever you do, dont complain about it.
I’m just sick of all these pussy’s that just take what comes.
I like roon, its taken what Meridian offered with their stuff and worked with it, but I have a level of value for $ that I’m prepared to cop.
In essence, its just one of the many pizza piers that are out there. Many are free
ah, you’re right. For some reason I read it as $119/mo, not year. The rest stands, however. Well, excepting the yearly price is certainly more reasonable for the lack of service.
If the value isn’t there don’t subscribe or purchase the lifetime. Everyone has a choice.
Coming on these forums and spewing crap about how you feel someone’s hard work isn’t worth what they charge and they should be paid less is a little ridiculous.
To me, its all about the music. I’m sure thats true for even the roon staff.
Roon is essentially just another player in a market full of free players.
I like how roon manages my music and gives me a nice sexy front end. I use it for flac files, I’m not interested in tidal and making jayZ rich.
But as sure as my ass points to the ground, I’m not prepared to fork out a heap of cash for something that in the last 10 months has made me loose 2 sets of playlists.
Its really no better than the freeware programs.
Yeah, I don’t get the responses to me. I never said it’s not a decent piece of software. The devs seem fast and capable from what I can tell. I’ve seen bigger teams deliver buggier software with less features and complexity. I haven’t seen the UI evolve enough to know how good the product team is.
All I said was the help system and support team aren’t good and the metadata, while a very nice feature, isn’t worth the price point, (particularly given the amount of incorrect metadata I keep coming across). Not yet, anyhow. They may grow it and it has a lot of potential. But those are aspects you can’t really evaluate until you buy and use it.
And I do seriously doubt that the folk who are saying “just go use something else” really think which player to use is that black and white.
It started with a reasonable question about annual > lifetime discounts, which when answered, appears to have descended into a generic rant about Roon and Roons business practices.
Confused.
Edit. Oh I see now…
I wasn’t aware of the promised holy land, so am not feeling cheated in any way - I’m just using Roon to enjoy my music around my house.
I don’t think it’s black and white at all. But there are other good players out there. If someone states that Roon isn’t a good value proposition, that implies to me that they have some other audio software in mind that offers more for the money. For example, in my office, where music is primarily for casual or background listening and I only ever want to have the one zone, directly connected to my work computer, I’m fine with Audirvana Plus. Hell, I’m fine with Tidal Desktop.
At home, though, I’m looking for something different, and for my “needs” and priorities, I haven’t identified anything better than Roon.
Yes, there are other good players but as I’ve said repeatedly, the roon software is itself good and worth a decent price. Like any other quality piece of audio equipment, I figure.
But for those prices I expected better response times (or any response at all) from support. I expect better documentation. And for the monthly fee, beyond bug fixes and continual releases, I expect more accuracy from the meta data which drives Discovery which is a fairly unique feature. But if the metadata is giving incorrect insights then that’s an issue.
None of those things would be apparent to anyone until they’ve already paid so the “just use another piece of software” argument doesn’t really make any sense. Besides that it doesn’t actually address what Danny or I are saying.
The kicker for me Tom is my brother uses a really nice freeware program that nearly as much as roon does.
He’s a bit younger than me and a great deal more computer savvy than me, He has made me aware that there are some pretty cool freeware programs about to sneak up and bite roon on the ass.
Hence my original question.
Its a bit hard to justify forking out a big chunk of change when there are new players doing exactly what roon has done, for a lot less.
I’d like to stick with roon, but while they got their head up their own ass thinking they are the only players, its a hard call.
Now, if they gave the reliability they initially offered, thats another thing. I just want something I can use and not have to mess with.
But all this reloading playlists is getting a bit old for an old fart like me.
I guess the so far up their own ass they forgot the napster days. Seems they forgot there will always be someone else to fill the gap.
All I want is for a discount for faith I’ve already shown. Too bad if they cant see there is many other humans on the internet these days.
No, I hear you. I see the point you’re making and I think you have a valid question and complaint.
As a value prop, SaaS can be hard to justify, particularly in a space where there are competitors who charge once and give you bug fixes for free. The monthly fee really has to mean something and your complaints, while perhaps initially a little on the vociferous side ; ) deserve to be heard.
Perhaps I fanned the flames my adding my take to it but, as someone who has worked building SaaS software since before the term was coined, I’ve seen companies from those that don’t understand how to use the model, to those that abuse it, to those that find the sweet spot.