Gramophone Reviews

Adding access to reviews from Gramaphone would really be great,

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I like the idea - it could really improve the Classical Experience; how this would be done, is another question. The current review database is available for individual subscription; I doubt that roon is interested in striking a content deal with MAG for the entire roon user base … it would probably be a waste. But as an add-on it would be great. I’m not interested in a stand-alone version of the Gramophone Review db; but if it came integrated in roon - accessible from albums but also from compositions and maybe composer bios, that would be something I’d consider to buy.

To broaden the subject a bit - something like a “content provider api / plugin” could sure enhance (metadata) experience; it might require interest from content providers, nevertheless useful example implementations like an inline wikipedia or musicbrainz/critiquebrainz data display could help and also give something for all roon users even if no third party would get persuaded to “buy in”. This might also be a frame for “user content” (personal review, notes), something wished for here and there (no links provided, but I’ve read about it in the Feature Request section. :wink: ).

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That’s a brilliant idea!

Yeah, this would be awesome.

Please! It’s Gramophone.

Just a point of information, Grammophone gets about $90 a year for those reviews along with the digital magazine. My guess is the economics will kill this idea. But, that said, count me in.

I assume that the subscription fees would continue to be paid by the individual subscribers, but that the reviews would be somehow integrated into Roon. Speaking as a Gramophone subscriber myself, it’s certainly a nice idea, but I suspect the pool of potential subscribers would be vanishingly small in comparison to TIDAL or Qobuz subscribers. Then the question becomes does it justify Roon Labs investing in the development and ongoing software maintenance costs? My guess is no, but I do like the idea.

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I thought I’d wake up this old topic and see whether there is any interest from Roon.

I think there is an opportunity for a significant land-grab here - Roon is already a great tool for classical music lovers, but many are still in the “read Gramophone, listen on Spotify” model.

Gramophone’s reviews are highly credible - many are written by distinguished musicologists - and probably a step above wherever Roon sources its current classical reviews.

As others have stated, the commercial model would need some thought – rather than subscription to Gramophone directly perhaps I could pay a third of that and see its reviews integrated into Roon; and full subscribers could read the magazine and click through to Roon to hear the music.

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Being a Gramophone subscriber since forever, I‘d love this! Happy to pay more for that.