@rrwwss52 a long time ago in a galaxy far far away… there were some great stations on sirius or xm or both the best being the one that had Vin Scelsa’s “IDIOTS DELIGHT” if you are too young to recognize him google him/the fordham univ FM station/WNEW/Alison Steele the night bird/Pete Fornatale “mixed bag” on same stations(the commercials are hysterical if you can get whole episodes on some of his podcasts)–it was all ‘free form’ FM and great whole album plays-- Vin was on the night Lennon was assassinated–we studying for finals in med school in Guadalajara heard him announce it(on short wave we were able to get NYC stations sometimes) we packed our books went home not saying a word–that broadcast is on a podcast somewhere.
bobbmd
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I started with Sirius around 2004 -2011, and dropped it for a few years. I restarted it in 2019. I enjoy having it at the right pricing. I’ll check out Vin. Should be some stuff to be found via online archive.
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I bought mine the other day after ARC came out. I had been doing the yearly subscription.
I agree it might not be the most cost effective due to things changing before I break even.
I purchased the lifetime to show support. I’m very happy with ARC.
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I bought Roon Lifetime at launch day and have used it on and off since then.
At the time and even today, I have not seen any music software that equals it.
I haven’t ever regretted buying Roon Lifetime for a second.
I bought my lifetime subscription in January 2016 for 499. That was a lot of money considering the features that roon had 6 years ago.
I appreciate that version 2.0 and ARC are included in this lifetime subscription. Many other companies would have sold the ARC app as a separate product with an extra price tag.
If you are convinced of a product and you want that it is maintained and improved, a lifetime subscription helps to finance this.
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My money is on the idea that ARC will be the death of the lifetime subscription.
ARC is opening Roon up to a whole new audience - people that only listen to music on their phone - and not through any kind of home stereo. That audience is not going to be used to the kind of cash many of the home-hifi-posessing Roon users are used to shelling out for their hobby. And if we thought Roon expensive before, the only-listen-to-music-on-the-phone folks are likely to think Roon is crazy expensive. Not to mention having to buy (or dedicate) something to run a Core. So to capture more of that huge market, with the advent of ARC, Roon’s going to be under pressure to drop prices. But it’s hard to drop prices if you have a lifetime license.
Think about it. If the monthly cost of Roon means you have to use if for 4.5 years to break even on a lifetime license, what are people going to say if they buy a lifetime license, and then Roon cuts the monthly price in half? They’ll be screaming mad.
So…
IF Roon wants to capture the Only Listen To Music On Their Phone market, they’ll be under pressure to reduce prices.
IF they reduce prices, they’ll anger recent lifetime purchasers.
So any decision to reduce prices by Roon may well be preceded by Roon ending the lifetime license.
That’s one way it could play out, anyway.
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All I can say is Touche’! I am a lifer because I did the same math.
That’s a gamble one makes. Considering how much many audiophiles spend on gear, $700 is not that much 
I got my lifetime membership for $499 in Jan 2019, so I’m pretty close to break even.
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I was thinking the same. Think of your Roon as a piece of equipment. A lifetime subscription doesn’t look that bad.
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Not sure I buy your argument. We live in a recession. Everything is getting more expensive, not less. I doubt Roon reduces prices anytime soon.
Also, I am not sure Roon s able to get into the market of young people that stream over their phones. Most of them uses Spotify. Why would they invest in Roon and pay double per month? For people to buy Roon because of ArC, they must be seriously into music and they’d want the extra bio information etc. we will see if ARC itself can increase the paying customers for Roon considerably. I think Roon remote is still the main product, ARC is just a nice to have.
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The higher the flexibility (to back off), the higher the price: 700$/lifetime, 120$/year, 13$/month.
So 1 year is convenient if you plan to stay longer than 9 months (=120/13). Likewise, a lifetime is convenient if you plan to stay longer than 6years (=700/120).
Notwithstanding the fact that with lifetime you lock-in the price, which saves you more money in case you expect the price to increase.
I immediately started with lifetime after the trial period and paid 500$ (the price of a lifetime license back then).
Do I expect to stay with Roon longer than 6 years?
Yes I do for essentially 2 reasons:
-
I love it
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the non negligible time needed to change software and customize it to my preferences (tagging, plays count…).
I’m on board with Roon and therefore lifetime license is from my perspective a no brainer.
Cheers!
Enrico
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I just pulled 30 years out of the hat…not something I committed to memory.
I would recommend to most people this…
Trial > couple months > one year > lifetime.
I did Trial > one year > lifetime. That was before the monthly plan and I only stayed on annual for one month before switching to lifetime. It was a no brainer for me.
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Marian, you have no leverage with Roon. Similarly, you have no leverage with General Motors, Verizon, Apple, or Microsoft.
Your leverage is buy/use their product or not.
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I think you do. A subscription is a vote, and it needs to be renewable to work. Granted, there are people who think voting doesn’t matter either.
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Something you noticed on another thread perhaps?
Yes, if “thread” means “discussion” in general…
I did the same. Of course Lifetime was cheaper then, so the break even time was shorter (I’m well past it now).
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No, life time subscription is better if Roon last more than 5 years and I think it will.