ARC compared to Apple Music

Roon Software Discussion
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Newbie alert - What does ARC bring to the party that accessing your private library via Apple Music does not provide? (Besides a much nicer-looking interface.)
Thank you.

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The ability to dispense with Apple Music most obviously… assuming Roon users have Tidal or Qobuz subscriptionns.

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I will say a few things:

  1. iTunes is one of the worst ways to manage music. So even syncing is just a mess and such a hassle. I do like Apple Music subscription better but it’s just best to keep it separate from personal library.

  2. Roon Arc if you get it working properly either by port forwarding or VPN (like I do for CG-NAT networks) you get access to your entire library including Qobuz and Tidal. It’s extremely straightforward and you arent filling your phone storage up.

  3. Honestly much easier to implement than using iTunes to sync. Especially with the wide variety of formats Arc supports.

  4. Like you said interface is a big deal. Roon is spectacular at this compared to Apple Music. Plus everything just makes sense in Roon.

  5. I will say CarPlay needs a little work but unfortunately you can’t go outside of the scope of its parameters set. So Roon is trying to work that.

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Thanks very much. The interface alone is enough to make me use ARC and Itunes sync is a persistent nuisance.

(I have a friend who writes software reviews and he will randomly throw in “Just have to say it: the Music app stinks” in his articles.)

Cheers
~P

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For me, artists Bio and a lot of other information

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I don’t understand how Apple can get away with such poor music software.

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I see all of the metadata edits and bookmarks I made in Roon, that’s the main thing for me. And syncing of play counts/history

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I used to think it was a tactic to leave something on the table for 3rd party developers to make alternative apps as a … sop against monopoly charges. Now I think it’s just hubris.

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One thing I’ll add is Roon Arc is not always consistent. Best to have Qobuz or Tidal. I will give a positive to Apple Music subscription (not iTunes) that the CarPlay works perfectly.

Roon still has alot to improve as far as operation. But when it works it’s superb.

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