I installed Nicecast and use it to capture the audio stream from Spotify. Make a radio station in Roon called Spotify, and enter the IP from the computer where Nicecast is broadcasting.
I use Spotify Connect to remote control the whole thing. Only downside is a 5sec delay get introduced.
Tidal is still my primary source, but Spotify is best to discover new music.
My setup:
Spotify -> Nicecast -> Roon (running FIR filters) -> Hqplayer (running FIR XO) - DAC
Now if only it worked on windows…
@Tony_Reimann,
There are options. There is Windows equivalent software that does the same… i.e. http://liquidsoap.fm/ 
This is VERY interesting. Could you post detailed setup instructions please?
Use “stream what you hear”. Install on windows machine, set up a favorite radio station in roon for stream IP address, play something on windows machine (turn off windows machine audio), and you’ll get that windows audio through roon. I listen to SiriusXM that way.
install from here:
http://www.streamwhatyouhear.com/
once installed, right click on tray icon and in settings, tell it what codec to use (can use lossless). I used the 5901 port because someone told me too. not sure why?
Then right click and choose tools, HTTP Live Streaming. Copy this URL and make that a radio station favorite. See pics
.
Thanks for this one, works nicely.
I’ve also done this, works very well indeed, even get track details displayed on my Squeezebox Classics. Very nice!
Really cool, thanks for sharing!
Thanks a lot! Works great.
Does anyone know if it is possible to create a lossless stream? Nicecast maxes out at 320kbps mp3, which is ok for Spotify, but I am thinking of this solution more generally as a way to stream any app into Roon and thus into it’s DSP engine. For example, you could use TIDAL’s MQA unfolding into Roon, then upsample.
Cool. Now if Roon would integrate this feature somehow into Rock…
Hi Fredrik, does Nicecast have to be on the the same computer that runs Roon Server? my NUC runs windows but my Spotify desktop is on my macbook pro so can I simply install nicecast on my mac?
Hmm. Installed it, shows a (very dim) icon, and sure enough if I click on it there is a dialog box that says it is already running. But right click shows no Settings menu item. And it does not show up as a device in control panel Sound.
Windows 10.
Any ideas?
I’ve installed on both a win10 and win8.1 machine and had no issues. To be clear, the icon you right click on is the icon in the lower right of your tray (which shows running programs). This is not the icon for starting the program. This is the icon in the lower right tray after the program is started.
p.s. Yes, the icon is very dim. Also, nothing ever shows up as a device in control panel sound for me. All that I have is the URL to add as a “internet radio” favorite in my player (roon, LMS, Sonos, etc.)
I got it – the nearly black icon in the expansion menu from the tray. That is arguably the most invisible location you can put a user interface on Windows!
But I followed your instructions and it worked, fed into Roon.
But I don’t know what the lossless setting means, I get MP3 in any case.
Maybe it is just because Spotify is MP3?
I’ll experiment more.
In any case, nice – thanks. I had previously set up Spotify on the NUC to feed the Meridian 818 through a USB connection, it played fine but of course didn’t include Roon’s room correction. Plus the volume was much higher because DSP reduces the level. So non-optimal and inconvenient. This works better.
Great. Not sure about the lossless (pcm) setting and what that is doing (or not doing!). Spotify files are OGG VORBIS files (not mp3).
It is nice to stream youtube concerts now to roon.
cool stuff.
Install Nicecast a computer running Spotify desktop. It has a trial mode with 20 minutes full functionality. This can be installed on the same computer that is running Roon Server. https://rogueamoeba.com/nicecast/
Choose Spotify as source in Nicecast setup, and press the “Start Broadcast” button. Setting up Nicecast does not require any further explanation. Its fairly intuitive.
Copy the http://my.local.ip:8000 from Nicecast “Share” menu.
Add a new internet radio station in your Roon remote application. Paste in the http://my.local.ip:8000, skip the listen.m3u part of the address.
On any Spotify application logged into the same account as the one on the source computer, you can now choose to remote control it by using Spotify Connect.
Voila! Spotify played trough Roon with the possibility to use all of Roon DSP features.
NB! For troubleshooting you can paste the http://my.local.ip:8080/listen.m3u in a browser on a computer running on the same network. Your browser will play the stream if its live.
All devices must be on the same local network. If not you must enable port forwarding etc. and this gets more complicated.
This worked for me but there are a couple of things that I don’t like:
I rather listen to Sirius XM or Spotify through their apps…it seems less of a hassle and they sound better.
yeah, its a hack, not a true solution.
This is a great solution for Spotify or any other mp3 based streaming service; but won’t work for lossless for two reasons.
1/ Roon internet radio is limited to mp3/aac. Some of us requested support for .flac radio should be added as there are a growing number of .flac radio stations. I think it was Brian who replied that it wasn’t hard to do and should be done around the time of the 1.2 release; but it hasn’t been done yet 
2/ At least as far as stream what you hear is concerned although it appears to support PCM/L16 lossless, the URL for streaming always end in .mp3. I haven’t tried Nicecast or Liquidsoap yet.
Still, nice to be able to stream Spotify through roon.
Since Spotify is supposed to be introducing a lossless service soon, I hope these two issues also get resolved soon.
Thanks to the OP and other contributors for the Spotify and other mp3 options though.