Thank you for your honest reply.
Agreed about the use case of a simple streaming connection and the low priority - though in time this could change. I personally would like to see it happen, but I understand other aspects are more important.
One other option I find appealing would be to integrate Roon with an online store/streaming service (for example 7digital) as an option in addition to Tidal, and under your own “brand” of course. The benefits for your customers would be:
- discovery
- Metadata and music reviews on an extended catalog
- ability to listen to track samples (or more possibly) through our dedicated hifi system
- option to purchase, which a lot of Roon customers do, with a seamless and immediate integration into our Roon library
- mobility if storage is cloud based (as well as local)
- flexible pricing schemes (ex: monthly subscription for a “radio” service that would cover an extended catalog, or yearly subscription to listen to x tracks, etc… )
I think this would be consistent with the Roon “core concept” and offer an alternative to those of us who do not want to rely on a streaming service, whatever the reasons may be.
Obviously, this type of solution would require a significant change to Roon as we know it today, and possibly also to your internal organization, but it seems it is worth considering and could really provide some interesting perspectives.
In addition, to emphasize my point, and this has been clearly indicated in numerous threads on this forum : your customer base is not cash strapped and is willing to spend (on hardware and software) some money towards an awesome “audiophile” experience. Why not let them do it? Instead you have to deal with anxiety and complaints (of various nature) about Tidal…