I just renewed annual this month in anticipation of (and support of) of a new release. Yeah, I know. Make decisions on what you have, not what you wish for. Anyway, the only thing that keeps me on roon now is roon radio with qobuz.
I’m not sure why anyone would balk at an annual membership. You give them your credit card and once a year they charge you $119 until/unless you cancel. I have several things I pay for that way.
The lifetime membership at $499 was a way to potentially save some money, long term, if you stick with Roon over 4 years. At $699, it’s an almost 6 year proposition.
Also, while $499 is a lot of money for some people, $699 is a lot of money for even more people. Personally, I don’t see this as a huge issue. Just go annual if you don’t want to pay $699.
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I guess it also has an emotional (romantic) aspect - at least for me.
Now I feel left out of the first class of life timers…
(And I already payed two years, so Roon would have made the same money with me.)
I have had a good think about the value of Roon for me personally since my earlier post.
The price rise for lifetime is a big hike especially in Australian $ but on reflection I would still pay it.
Roon is the centre of my Hi-Fi, since subscribing I have purchased a Meridian MS600, this was my first Hi-Fi purchase since I purchased my G57 Power amp and G02 pre-amp second hand back in 2006/7. The MS600 enabled me to use my old Hi-Fi gear with Roon running on my MacPro. Not long after I built a MOCK.
Since then I have purchased a Meridian Explorer², MrSpeakers Aeon Flow headphones, Meridian Prime Headphone amp and LPSU (second hand) Allo USBridge and now USBridge Sig and just recently a Chord Mojo followed by a Chord Poly. I also have a Zeppelin Air and A7.
Without Roon all this gear would be a pain in the arse (but not impossible) to tie together into one central library and also be able to control and play to all these different endpoints.
I really should have spent the money purchasing a lifetime straight away. Shame on me 
.
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Looks like price increase did happen along with new release 
@danny While I absolutely love Roon this is a huge blow. I am a subscriber for almost a year and upgrading to a Roon lifetime membership would have been my Christmas gift! It’s a real blow having this happen before the holidays. Would be really awesome to be able for current users to be able to upgrade to lifetime for the previous price in the next X days… Any hope?
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Nah. It’s always easy to second-guess. You can only deal with what is in front of you now.
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If it means a better app then so be it. Odd given market alternatives. A stiff premium over aurdirvana for the better visuals and metadata. As audirvana still be sq over usb. I guess the hardware equivalent is paying more for a furniture grade cabinet that does nothing for the sound. Suits a segment but not all.
The lifetime subscription was a way for Roon to generate some [much needed] cash flow during their high burn-rate period. It cost them about 32% equivalent interest rate, pretty high for an all-but-temporary situation.
Now, it seems, Roon has shored up its cash flow needs (most likely through increased annual subscriptions) and no longer needs the expensive funds.
Danny has been quite generous on the few edge cases out there. For those that didn’t move quickly enough, the offer has simply changed and no advance warning was required or prudent.
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Warnings are handed out by companies that want your advance cash. That is their motive, not some sense of altruism.
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This. We could have had our best sales month ever by announcing that we were doing this at the end of the month. That’s not what we’re looking for.
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Keep up the good work. I agree with your decision in full
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On the other hand, I love Roon and forgot to upgrade my annual when I joined last year. But I get so much value out of it I really don’t mind paying every year if that will help keep it going. My wife on the other hand… 
Hi Danny, first time speaking to you. Thank you so much for providing this Wonderful digital music platform. I am in the beginning of my third year of yearly subscriptions. Would you at least consider offering an installment plan of 3 payments for the lifetime? That would help tremendously thank you!
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Can’t you put on a credit card and spread out as long as you’d like?
I just started a Roon yearly subscription with the understanding I could upgrade in the next year for $499 with credit for what I had paid. A week later, things have changed.
I seems that there was thought behind what was done, maybe with the possibility of taking care of the customers. It will be interesting to see where Roon, as a company, works with their existing customers.
see above, this applies to you if you bought less than 30 days ago:
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I have commented on this before.
I will restate it here again:
We offered the lifetime for early commitment, not so people can rent-to-own.
The lifetime should not be an end-goal for Roon subscribers, it hurts us as a company and is not a viable business model for our future.
If you have the cash and want the lifetime, go for it while it lasts. If you don’t, the annual is the right thing for you (and for us)… or use a credit card like @garym suggests above.
@john_v’s two posts above (one, two) really do a good job explaining the situation at hand.
If we were in this for a quick financial win, I’d be begging you to buy the lifetime. But that’s not our goal… for many many years to come, we want to keep innovating and keep pushing the state of the art. The annual helps us do that, and it keeps us honest to keep earning you repeated year-after-year business.
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Thank you for your response and clarification
A generous offer, may I suggest an email to all Roon users outlining the parameters of your offer?
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