The website for Roon pushes the metadata connections and discoverability as one of the primary features of the app. It’s certainly the primary reason I bought it and I have managed to follow connections between performers to discover some new, great music. With a lot of time and effort on my part.
It doesn’t seem like this aspect is getting much love though. The Discover page is pretty basic and at best elevates content already in my library. It’s removing perhaps a few clicks for me but doesn’t do much more. (It’s also very Sun Ra heavy, for some reason.) It doesn’t look like it considers my listening history, browsing history, ratings, etc. Or if it does it doesn’t look like it leverages those for much of a boost in discovery.
It’s the world of AI and big data now; analysing patterns of behavior and making suggestions. Even if Roon didn’t want to host this functionality themselves they could at least let Tidal pass through their suggestions though I don’t find theirs to be very accurate. I know Roon would do a better job. (You can do a lot with out-of-the-box algorithms these days with high accuracy, fwiw.)
I know you guys do a lot of great work on compatibility with various hardware which would undoubtedly require a lot of QA time and tweaking from devs as 3rd parties make changes but remember, Discovery is what you lead with as your differentiator. Your brand is built on that and your brand is your promise to your users. I think it would be remiss not to continue to expand on that aspect of your service.
Or maybe you already are?