I used to have Spotify years ago and I’ve been having such a hard time with ARC’s reliability that I’m getting ready to give up and sub to Spotify to use in the car. I remember voice controls working really well back when I used it, and of course the recommendations are on par with Roon. I’m not worried about getting hi res audio in the car at all so this may work for me.
I’m curious if anyone else is in the same boat and if so what you’ve settled on?
Also, consider Apple Music. You can use Soundiz to sync with your Roon library.
I’m an Android/Windows user so Apple Music is like not the best on those platforms.
Windows is fine, I don’t know about Android.
Works fine on both those.
I would consider it, but I have an aversion to Apple. I prefer to avoid them. I have Qobuz, but their app is really not great. I’m not a huge fan of Tidal. I’ve always liked Spotify with the exception of the lack of lossless audio, but for this use case lossless doesn’t matter. I may consider YouTube Music, but it seems like Spotify may be a better overall user experience, on par with Roon and ARC.
My issue is ARC drains my battery significantly. I’ve reported the issue many times for a while now and it still isn’t fixed, so I’m getting ready to give up on it because I can’t deal with losing 10% battery per hour of listening. I have a brand new Pixel 9 Pro XL and it did the same thing on my older Pixel 6 Pro.
I don’t use Spotify because I am in the Apple ecosystem, but from everything I have heard, the Spotify playlist and social aspect is second to none. I have a taste of it with Qobuz, but it sounds really cool for Spotify and can be perfect for music discovery.
I think we all use what works best for us and what we like. I like Apple and Apple Music but just dropped it because Roon ARC works so well and my new Verizon plan no longer offers free Apple Music. I will probably never try Spotify again.
Are you on iOS by chance, I wonder if the power management issues are more isolated to Android?
Yes, I use Roon ARC on iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPad Mini 6, and iPad 8th Gen. No battery issues that I have noticed. However, I’m usually plugged into my car with USB or indoors with A/C power and camera adapter. I don’t walk around using Roon ARC very much.
Call me olde skool but I still have a soft spot for one of the original streaming service, Pandora.
I do still use it as the “personal radio station” function is sublime.
Although I really have no issues with ARC either and that’s on a Pixel 7 Pro.
Honestly…I can’t stand Spotify!
You aren’t seeing high battery usage? Unless I have my phone plugged in while listening ARC will drain my battery, and will continue to do so idle in the background across two seperate devices.
That’s a great question and one I probably need to investigate a little more.
Like @Jim_F I mostly have my phone plugged in by USB in the car and I really don’t use ARC much anywhere else.
When I travel I tend to use Roon on my laptop in the hotel.
I will make a mission to use ARC this week just on battery and let you know.
But in idle mode it definitely is not affecting my battery life.
Thanks! The idle drain seems to be intermittent, sometimes it won’t happen and other times I can confirm the high draw with Accubattery, then I kill ARC and it stops. The unpredictability is the worst part because I never know when my phone will be down to 60% at 11 am when I have the whole day to get through. I also reported this in February and it’s September with no fix.
Just did a side by side test with Spotify (I paid $11.99 for 3 months) and ARC running them both playing audio for 20 minutes or so and the drain was the same. 
The idle drain is still an issue but it seems like the playback drain is on par with other apps.
Edit: to give credit to Spotify, they refunded me with zero effort. I guess I’ll stick with ARC and try to kill the app after I’m done using it.
My phone is like 3 weeks old! Brand new Pixel 9 Pro XL.
I’m a Spotify user.
I’m confident that feeding an iPhone 7.5W will not deplete battery, while streaming Spotify with screen on. My modest charger is up to the task.
Too many things to worry about while driving to be listening critically. It’s fine otherwise at the highest settings (320 kbps).
With all that said, I’m not convinced I’d be happy with Spotify exclusively. I suppose my play history can be of use to the artist/s, but certainly not my money. For that I’d be paying for hi-res.
FWIW, I’m a Android user for the most part and Apple Music these days run very well. You can also Chrome/Google Cast with it.
I subscribed to Tidal for Roon, and use Tidal in the car too (when Roon ARC fails).
Ok, I will 