Yes, local music is still relevant. I can easily imagine that the state of music streaming is like the early days of Netflix which was a one stop shop for video streaming. Today the video streaming landscape is so balkanized that one needs several subscriptions to various platforms to view what used to be available on Netflix. I divested of hundreds of DVDs, assured that all the content would be available. Guess what! So much is not available online at all, and much of the rest of my former movies are only available via the studio’s services that created them. When will one have to have multiple subscriptions to have access to what is in our local collections? I have access to Roon until one of us dies, and if Roon is the first to go, I’ll still have access to locally stored music.
I’ve cancelled my subscription to Tidal after 4 years and will see how that goes for a while. Less and less content there for me, not a Swiftie or fan of Ye. The services are now geared towards mass audiences.
I have 1450 linked albums on Tidal. They are the same that I have on Qobuz and Apple Music and none are Ye, but lots are Taylor Swift.
I mostly listen to my local library because I KNOW I like 99% of what is there, and when Roon radio kicks in it will not play some random garbage I did not ask for or expect from Tidal. I am getting tired of Tidal pushing artists I am not interested in and, for me at least, ruining my listening experience. So now, I only use Tidal for manual discovery and then buy the album I like. Have been considering canceling Tidal as even the discovery part is becoming less appealing.
I also have albums that are not available on any streaming service, so that’s is another reason for local library to stay around for me.
We all have different tastes and requirements.
Weird on the Taylor Swift and Ye comments. I have tidal/qobuz and not a single album from either of those two. (1000 local albums ripped also, and I still buy CDs.)
On the internet thing, I would say if you have chronically unreliable internet, then streaming is gonna be an issue regardless, and you probably just need something like Audirvana to play local files.
I live in Mpls St Paul and internet is very reliable. If it’s down for an hour every six months I’d be surprised, so the always-connected requirement doesn’t really matter to me. Not boasting, but i’m guessing the vast majority of Roon users have reliable internet connections. (But i’ve guessed wrong before.)
Roon/Tidal/Qobuz algorithms for “radio” are the weak link, I agree. I feel like Pandora/Rhapsody/Spotify back in the day had a much better system. But it’s easy to turn it off, and just select another album. (And nice to be able to play albums I don’t physically own. I own 1000 CD’s and 1500 records, so there’s a lot I’m missing!)
I prefer Qobuz because many times the bitrate of an online album is higher then local. So no, its gets less relevant for me.
If only there was a technical reason for local files to sound significantly better than streaming…. But I cannot really hear a difference between local files and streamed files. The only reason then to buy digital files is if it is obscure music and not available on streaming or if you want to somehow support the artist. I find it hard to justify buying downloads when I can just stream it via Qobuz. I sold or gave away most of my 1000 cds I once had collected. I don’t miss them.
Apropos of this topic - is there a way to figure out what local tracks don’t map to Qobuz or Tidal tracks (i.e., tracks that are unique to my local library)?
I don’t think so. You could view your Roon library and manually tag all your local files that don’t also show a Tidal or Qobuz version. I do this with Tidal and Qobuz links and tag all that don’t have both as “No Match.” Then I occasionally focus on “No Match” and look to see if they have been added in the other service by looking for “Versions.”
Correct. I want to support the artist.
To many times for me I had a song or album saved and then it was removed from the service.
I look at streaming like a radio. You turn it off and it is all gone.
My locals are never gone.
–MD
Everything I really like on TIDAL (through Roon) eventually becomes part of my local library.
I like having a local collection of music. Sure Roon won’t work when there is no internet, but then I can still use another player as a temporary solution.
Very valid point. I have spent some money buying compilations from iTunes years ago but recently noticed that more than half of the tracks are not available for downloading from the cloud anymore. When I reached out to Apple’s support team they confirmed it is due to license changes from labels forcing them to delete the tracks from their services. Fortunately, I still had a local backup of the purchases, but only because I was able to download a copy after purchasing - an option that would not be available from most streaming subscription services today.
Against the background of this experience i would not expect to be able to access all the tracks and albums available today on streaming services in 5-10years or later. Even if available today, ownership of content and streaming licences are subject to constant change.
I have a nucleus + with a 4TB internal drive. That is more than enough to hold all the digital music I own. I have divided the internal disk into CD Rips and HiRes which is further divided by where I bought the music. This way it is clear, at least to me what I actually own. I also have a little database on my computer that I exported all the information from these sources (which also reside on my computer) and to which I add vinyl information as I purchase LPs so I have a complete view of all the music I own. I created some search facilities so I can get to exactly what I want, or see that I don’t own something.
It is a bit concerning to me that Roon requires a network connection now. We do have internet down time at least a dozen or more times a year (we don’t live in a big city) so this is potentially a problem. I have a lifetime license as well, but if this gets to be an issue, I have copies of all my music and would move them to some other hardware platform without such a requirement, assuming I could find one.
I hope your already have your music files stored somewhere outside of Roon. I guess you said that.
This. Steaming will only be the latest version. If what you love gets replaced by a worse sounding version, you are stuck.
For me one more reason to keep a local archive.
@mikeb I can commiserate. However, I have my prior music player software that I can rely on as my backup. Ideal? No. But my local music is still mine and I can play it as long as there is power. And, when internet service is restored, I have the much richer environment that I get from roon. This is not unlike shuffling through discs, looking for a movie if internet service stops. “You gonna have to serve somebody.”
I simply used their names as exemplars, the streaming services trumpet the artist with the most streams (Bad Bunny, Drake, Swift, Ye etc) and are catering to an audience that I’m not a part of. If you find that weird then OK.
Yes, everything on the Nucleus + is on my computer in the same file structure. It has to be this way since I am unaware of being able to download from a music site (E.g., HD Tape Transfers, or NativeDSD) directly to the Nucleus. As it turns out even that is backed up twice. Once to my local TimeMachine disk and also to the cloud with BackBlaze. Maybe overkill but disk space is pretty cheap now (at least the non-SSD variety).