The way you look at the problem is against what Roon is all about.
Roon is for enjoying music, and from the start, we have felt that discovery is vital. If you are against streaming for some reason, you will always lose out. Why would we want to limit ourselves? It’s a lame existence to isolate yourself from all the great content out there available at such a relatively affordable cost.
That said, we are not going streaming-only. Many features we are releasing benefit both streamers and file-collectors. Supporting local content is critical to filling the holes that streaming services have in their offering. It’s one of our core values as well.
So, let’s look at the initial 1.7 release notes, as that was our last major release.
I’ll just go down the list and break out what helps who.
| Feature | Applies to Roon users that stream and may or may not have local content | Applies to Roon users that have no streaming service hooked up |
|---|---|---|
| NRFY |  |
|
| RFY | |
|
| Artist Play and Composer Play | |
|
| RoonTag | |
|
| File Tag Credit Improvements | |
|
| File Tag Credits: Expanded format and file tag support | |
|
| Comments Field | |
|
| Search | |
|
| Classical ui cleanups | |
|
| Sort performances By Popularity | |
|
| Multi-level work parts | |
|
| Improved Credits Metadata | |
|
| Live Radio Directory | |
|
| Streaming Optimizations | |
|
| Android Audio | |
|
| Performance improvements on Roon OS | |
|
| Zone Icons | |
|
While most features do help both columns of users, some do apply to only 1 column or the other.
There are few of you out there (@evand is another) who are trumpeting that we have forgotten about non-streamers. It couldn’t be further from the truth, and it pains us that you feel this way. That said, if you don’t stream, you are dinosaurs, and Roon will continue to evolve in ways that will alienate you. It’s not just Roon, the world is headed that way.
This statement is the absolute antithesis of what the Roon Team believes and puts into every Roon release. It demonstrates laziness and a lack of open-mindedness.
Every new artist today builds on the shoulders of giants of the past. The tools are better, the inspiration is better, and the history is better. If you haven’t found better music that’s new, it’s on you. Every generation says the same thing about “today’s music”, and they all end up wrong.
While I too do not care much for today’s pop music, crap music has existed forever. It’s just that history has helped filter it out for you. That’s the laziness I speak of. But it’s the lack of trying is the most offensive to me – that’s the closed-mindedness.