Not of a great interest to me - except if it is an enabler of “remote Roon” - whereby I can access Roon offsite. However, even that is not a major issue these days with streaming services providing huge content and OK apps.
I am a bit old fashioned and rely on manually ensuring I have three separate copies of my library on two HDDs and a NAS. I have had a few occasions when one of the HDDs has failed and have had to create a new copy. Surprisingly, the most robust has been the NAS (which I now only use for backup) which has lasted five years and continues to function. It will require replacement (or supplementation) as my library is now close to exceeding 4Tb).
I don’t think I’d use such a service. Firstly because I’ve got two backups of my local files, one off-location, so I feel reasonably safe as far as backup is concerned.
Secondly because I have an efficiency objection about using the Cloud to store multiple copies of the same data. Maybe it’s an unpopular or technically naive objection, but it still feels wasteful.
I’m currently using Backblaze B2 and configured it to keep multiple copies of the same file for a certain time span. This works extremely well in terms of backup (in the true sense of the word). Restored backups from there as well. Main benefits are cost and speed (it’s blazing fast).
If there is a form of native integration with Backblaze B2 to keep in sync (and backup) the music on the internal SSD and/or the core database, that would be a dream come true.
What if your RAID hardware fails? Seriously. Many NAS devices can’t be replaced (no longer/barely available) and some (e.g. WD MyPassports with multiple drives) have hardware key encryption, so if the host NAS dies, you’re stuffed. Even if can find another bit of “identical” hardware, you might not be able to recover ANY data from two good encrypted and/or custom-sliced drives.
Or one of the modern encryption trojans makes the data inaccessible? The NAS is still there and can be reset, but there is no backup of the data to restore service from.
I would love an integrated backup solution. Currently I’m using Synology C2 for my music backups because it’s integrated with my NAS and does versioning. My music library makes up around 90% of my overall backup size, the remaining 10% I back up to iCloud.
If an integrated Roon backup solution offered a better feature set at similar pricing to C2, I would switch over in an instant.
I use OneDrive to hold a Cloud backup of my music files, I wouldn’t be interested in paying extra to Roon Labs for a service I already have.
With a Microsoft 365 Family account, I get up to 5TB cloud storage (1TB each for up to five family members) + Office for the annual subscription of $99.
I like many, would love to see a mobile / away-from-home solution to using Roon. So 100% with you on that.
But I’d be extremely unhappy if Roon introduced a mobile solution that solely relied on an (additional cost) hosted backup service.
Apologies if I have jumped the gun here. It was just Danny’s comment “I assume you would you want transcoding for all the hi-res content” that made me wonder.
No issue with this being an option for those who can’t stream directly from their home network and it could work well in terms of transcoding. But to introduce a mobile / away from home feature in Roon and then charge an additional fee to use it (with no other option for users not wanting to use RoonBackup™) would leave a very bad taste.
Same here. I do all the backups from my Nas. Some sort of copy backup solution of your music store would be useful though especially for migration to large storage or just moving it to a new server. Currently I get my NAS to pull the files from my Rocks USB music storage every night. Then this is synced up to OneDrive afterwards.
I do a similar thing… This is a great example of why a Roon service is a great idea! Most people don’t have the extra machine to do this nor the patience to set this up and then keep an eye on it.
Unless you somehow have an offsite backup without using the internet, your solution likely isn’t robust enough for a lot of individuals. 3 copies of your data, 2 of them on different kinds of storage media, 1 offsite
I currently pay around $150/year to store my music files in the cloud in case, God forbid, a disaster like a housefire destroyed my 3 local copies in one hit. For me, having that integrated with Roon, and at a comparable price, would work just fine.
Yes, roughly speaking, there is a price at which I would buy a “music-only” backup service. The price which I’d be willing to pay is highly dependent on the value-added I get for it being music vs any old data. If I can play my files remotely without it interfering with the safety of my backup? That’s highly valuable. If somehow it improves metadata accuracy / consistency? That would be highly valuable. If somehow it checked for new corruption or told me when I had bit errors (vs other users with the same recording), that would be a little valuable. I can think of a few ways you could do something that would be use-case specific… and I’m sure you could come up with some more. However…
If it’s “just” backup that I can achieve with Synology/glacier or backblaze, then I could easily buy, but I wouldn’t pay more than a few tiny % above commodity pricing.
So I think that the real answer I’d give you is… if you intend to make it a fully fledged product which enhances the core experience, then yes I’d guess it could be really useful. Though to what % of users, and to what % of new users I’m not sure. But if it’s solely “slightly simpler backup”, I’d do my research really carefully before proceeding with development.
Agreed. I have three copies in three different geographic locations and all are accessible to me on-line. High cost of hardware but no fees and complete control.
The interest is there, for some type of a backup solution. I don’t have much of one now. Currently using T5 and T7 SSD’s and 1 HD. Nothing offsite. It is a manual process and I have to remember to do it. Plan to keep at least one of those devices in an onsite FireKing file cabinet but that is not totally safe and I have to remember to do it.
Wasn’t really concerned about it with my small library but the recent addition of a DAC with DSD 256 MC and 512 Stereo capability has started me on the road to purchasing music online. I’m going to need more onsite storage and a reliable backup solution.
Textbook advice. 