Roon obvious feature set has always been traditional CD / LP type content, that make total sense given how it has positioned itself up till now and how it’s used my most of it’s users.
But there is also a whole world of audio content out there, from Podcasts to DJ mixes though to archived radio sets that don’t fit the traditional album structure.
While I can listen and playback that content via separate apps on my phone and stream it to my audio devices via AirPlay, much like Roon Live Radio (which I now use every day) it would be fantastic to be able to bring some of this other audio content into Roon.
I know that Podcasts have already been discussed endlessly and services like Mixcloud discounted (despite them having negotiated deals with other platforms).
But as an example, NTS Radio has a huge archive of radio shows covering a wide variety of genres, along with track listings for each show. If those shows + track listings could be better imported into Roon then it would provide a great source of music that could then be cross referenced with the albums in your Library or on Qobuz/Tidal.
To do that ‘tightly’ would require an agreement between NTS and Roon and it maybe that it’s simply too much effort to be practical. On the other hand, stations like NTS are always looking to gain more paid subscribers and one obvious way to do that would be to offer ‘integration with 3rd party players’ as a premium option (I for one would happily pay for this as it would appear others would too). If a deal could be hammered out with someone like NTS then the same model could be used as a basis for negotiations elsewhere. At least small online radio stations are likely to be more open to integration than the major streaming platforms like Apple/Spotify/Amazon who want to keep their walled garden closed.
But failing that, what about the ability of Roon to simply handle these kinds of ‘non album’ content better in it’s interface and then allowing users to use 3rd party tools to handle the downloading of them into their libraries?