But Roon is a service.
Roon features have grown exponentially since day one and all along the yearly price has not increased. If you missed lifetime at the 499 then get over it and either bite the bullet at 699 or get on with your life using the yearly…vote with your money if your value is not there then go try to find something better.
see #roon:software-release-notes for whats been going on over the years of Roon Development
Some spend more on coffee a day than roon costs a month. Some spend more on piece of equipment or cable than a lifetime at 699.
Please close this thread @danny … everyone has had their time to post already … and everything that has been said thus far has made no difference to the situation that you have chosen for the purchase options … and you have the end say after all.
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What is the service? There’s a lot of features I don’t use so maybe I’m just overlooking that aspect.
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Show me any software where you use ALL the features ,
Have you ever played with Visual Studio , Sql Management Studio etc they are immense products , I use maybe 10% of them !!
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Huh? I was asking which feature is the service.
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Sorry Thomas Misunderstood
Roon itself is a service , depends how you view it , every time you view the metadata that is the service that you are paying for , the source , the manipulation , the presentation not just the software .
Roon without the “Service” behind would be a pale shadow
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Oh please, if you don’t like what these folks are saying, don’t read their comments, but don’t attempt to prevent them from saying what they’re thinking and feeling; that’s not what a forum like this is about. I commend Danny for keeping this thread open considering how snarky some people’s comments are. This thread will eventually die on its own, without any help from you.
BTW and FWI, I purchased my lifetime subscription at the $499 price, so I don’t have a dog in the fight.
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As noted way back in this now TL;DR I too have LifeTime…
Danny’s first post sums it all up. No doubt when LifeTime get dropped (and it will at some point) this will all start over again with “why is there no longer a lifetime option”…there is no pleasing everyone.
Then why do you care if others are allowed to vent??
40 percent increase? Way to capture those on the fence.
No problem, Mike. It’s a long thread and if anyone makes it down this far they’re entitled to blurry eyes. 
I think you’d agree “depends on how you view it” is a very loose definition of a service. But I guess aggregating data is a service. It’s not anything a person can’t do themselves and I’ve done the browse Allmusic for related artists and connections and then go look up their music. Roon does save me some time in that regard but it feels like a pretty thin offer. A scientific calculator saves me time too but I would be surprised if many people would pay $119/yr for differential calculus. 
Anyhow don’t get me wrong. I’m here because I’m a user and I do find the app adds value. It’s not a point I need to push.
Edit
Also, I don’t get into the deep customization of the signal and all the tweaking Roon allows. Like I said, there could easily be aspects in there I’m overlooking. I have my core, DAC, AMP, and speakers and they sound probably as good as my ears will recognize as-is. Heresy to many here, I’m sure.
They weren’t trying to capture those on the fence. They were trying to make the lifetime subscription unpalatable.
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At these prices or even at 50% of them, Roon will never be a mass market product.
The mass market has a $9.99 monthly limit for what they will pay for streaming music. Extremely inelastic. Higher prices - even $12 or $13 a month is a no go. Higher than mp3 quality streaming also doesn’t convince them. It also has very little to do with income levels - lots of very well off people just don’t think it is good value to pay any more than that, at all.
And you somehow think Roon lowering it’s price will bring these people in? Nope, it will never happen. If you aren’t willing to pay more than $9.99 for music in any case, you’ll never pay even more for playback software. Especially when Spotify has a great UI, in most users opinions.
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Imagine Roon would lower the anual price tomorrow to $50,- / year. I wonder how many lifetimers would start complaining they lost their value. This thread is so filled with envy, it’s on the border of a civil war between lifers and anuals. This really leads to nothing but trouble. Lets all just stop here before it gets any worse. What is it that so many people are speaking on behalf of Roon as if they run this business by themselves? It’s all completely meaningless imho. Just enjoy the music and have fun guys.
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I disagree. Tidal, Qobuz and Netflix deliver content to you, Roon does „only“ deliver to you with enriched metadata which is considerably cheaper in licensing compared to a movie. Especially when you are listening to your already bought music (no use of Tidal or other streaming service).
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If that’s your understanding of what Roon does, then fair enough not paying. I don’t need to hear all that much more about the reasons why, though. Kinda like me not buying a fruit salad because I only like oranges.
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So many people miss this aspect completely.
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Software is an integral part of the digital delivery systems these days…Dac’s most notably have software that can even (for some - like PS Audio DS DAC etc) potentially make or break sound quality when updates happen…software is all around us.
@danny, I can give you two examples. First, Slysoft sold lifetime licenses to AnyDVD and then shut their doors. Magically they opened several months later with the exact same software (AnyDVD) at redfox.bz. Even thought I paid for a lifetime license my software no longer worked. And they were selling lifetime licenses all over again. Some BS story about how the owner skipped town and the developers happened to have all the source code to keep the product alive so they started their own company. Yeah right!
Second example is PlayOn. When they first started they were selling lifetime licenses and I bought one. Then they started enhancing the product and claimed the new enhancements weren’t covered under the lifetime license. Screwed again.
By the way, I’m a Roon lifetime subscriber. What do they say? Third time is the charm? Haha!
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