There are 7.5 billion human beings.
About 217 million people use Spotify.
There are about 150,000 Roon users.
So about 3% of the planet uses Spotify.
Of people that listen to Spotify, about 0.07% use Roon. That’s a niche.
The particular needs and/or preferences are what define a niche, not the numbers.
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adjective: niche
denoting or relating to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.
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Not a big deal for me. The few Radio stations I am interested in are already pasted into the current radio function and that’s all I need. Given the the vast amount of material on Tidal or Quobuz and Roon’ own Radio feature there is so much high quality material that I can listen too I’ve no interest in searching though myriad internet radio stations.
I would rather Roon worked on other things. Of course I understand others will have a different view.
How do you think internet radio can integrate with existing libraries? What would that look like?
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Your definitions of “investment” and “niche” are different than most people’s.
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I have no idea what that would look like or if it would ever happen but nothing would surprise me.
Whatever Roon work on will be of greater interest to some than others but it all has to be done if the goal is a well rounded product.
Personally, I don’t need or use the Roon DSP engine but I am glad it’s there for those that want or need it.
I think Roon is a wonderful thing. I used it for just one week, saw a compelling case for pay-back and real worth, then purchased a Lifetime subscription. Heck, in no time it will effectively be a no-cost thing of beauty for me, ever improving and upgrading. I have had ZERO issues with setup and running of Roon. We are all different, some glass half full, some glass half empty … VERY happy Roon-er here … My two bob’s worth.
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Yes,Yes,Yes exactly! I could not have put it better myself. Bloat for Bloat sake never ends well.
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It would be nice if they could actually implement Tidal “Top Tracks” correctly. It has been requested for years… It can be done… USB Audio Player Pro implements it perfectly… And it cost less than $10!
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Same here. Except for Alexa*. I am not in a hurry, though.
*Kitchen, bathroom and other lofi locations.
What makes Roon niche is not so much it’s function, but rather it’s price. Continuing the Spotify example above, the average user is not going to pay $500 once, or $120 per year perpetually for something like Roon that provides no music (actual songs) content. Spotify, and the other music services, all provide their own app at no additional charge and come with access to 50+ million tracks.
But the big players, Spotify and Apple Music do not integrate with Roon. Tidal and Quboz are super niche for audiophiles and have a tiny market share.
On the content front, Roon only supplies meta data.
Roon ability to organize a large local library combined with Tidal is brilliant. But this seems to be primarily an audiophile concern.
I believe Roon’s very high price is based on the understanding that its market is niche, and that audiophiles are usually well off, have spent tons on their systems, and can afford to pay for Roon, so they’re placing a premium on the asking price. The other audiophile software players are archaic in comparison and only compete at the level of pricing.
Roon is brilliant, but without Spotify/ Apple Music integration and a much much lower price tag, its difficult to see Roon moving beyond niche. But lowering the price really makes no sense for Roon, they need to get all the audiophile cash they can.
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Roon, as I see it, is something for people to aspire to, audiophiles for sure but any music lover in reality.
I think one of the biggest updates will be remote access to the core. Being able to access your whole collection from work or phone from anywhere will be a huge difference. Tried to sell my friend on roon but this was a sticking point. Interested in all the home endpoint stuff but didn’t like that was useless outside the house.
For me, think I’ve had for about 4 years now. Originally got it so I could play Apple ALAC files thru HQPlayer. Now I don’t even use HQPlayer. Lifetime member that doesn’t expect new updates but happy when they arrive.
As far as new features, I’m also looking forward to remote access. Also hoping the discovery page improves and makes suggestions from Tidal and/or Qobuz that are not currently in your collection. Would like it to tell me when a new album is available from artists already in my collection. Think current discovery page is a bit stale.
Interested in new internet radio feature if it has ability to identify the songs and make easy to add album or track to your collection if available.
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With all the talks here about pros and cons of Roon, why do we buy Roon or not?
But the main question here for me is:
When is Roon going to make a new release? How long should we wait now? 1 day, 2 days, 1 month, 1 year, 10 years or never?
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I believe the release schedule is based on features they want to release and not a time schedule. So it’s ready when it ready. Currently we know they’re working on a new internet radio feature for the next few weeks, so can’t expect a release until that’s finished.
I’m sure they have an outline of what features they’re planning for the next few years. We’ve heard them talk about how play section doesn’t match current UI because they will have complete overhaul by end of the year. Remote core access has been mentioned for last 2 years.
Think some features get swapped out. Pretty sure remote access was going to be released last year but Qobuz integration was priority.
I know a lot of software companies have moved to quarterly releases and just gives you whatever is ready at that point. If features not ready, get pushed to next quarter. Roon does not work this way.
Not clear! Next quarter, which day?
Did you read my full post? They don’t announce release dates or features like other companies. They’re not on a regular time schedule. They probably have an internal one they don’t share with public.
Just guessing I’d say we’re going to have a major update end of Aug or beginning Sept. This is just based on fact they said they wanted people helping with internet radio over next few weeks. That’s just curation, so software probably in beta stage almost ready to go. Also been awhile since big upgrade. I have no inside info and didn’t even sign up to be curator.
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Better. 
I haven’t seen a worthwhile update in over 2 years. Granted, what’s worthwhile for some is not for others. I use Roon to stream local and Tidal music with HQPlayer. Simple as that and Roon still functions the same way it did when I bought in.
There are two issues that negatively impact my experience and after 2 years still exist. Both issues were acknowledged by Roon as on the list. Anyone who’s used Roon on an Android tablet (not phone) has experienced screen edge tearing. This is a visual effect and doesn’t hinder functionality. When you add a significant number of albums to an artist the Android tablet version of the app can’t handle it and becomes worthless to use for that artist. Two issues directly related to Android tablets. Two years and nothing done about it.
come on guys / simple cough up more dough for niche software development or put up with a product that is far superior to what is available in the audio world as of today’s date (unless you are software audio expert) / I remember threads how team Roon was so wedded to Tidal and backwards in their thinking and now we have Quboz and then some _ internet radio which is a low res format was never a core Roon proposition and really should not be a offering (like what Synology offers with their NAS server , e.g. DS Audio and radio option or Surveillance which you need to pay extra for) In my view Roon should be looking at their commercial model as they are not a open source software entity like Kodi or like / for some of you (excludes the Quboz fans which I am also a fan off) they have saved you from purchasing a “MQA” ready hardware for streaming those Masters from Tidal. Please stop the complaining unless you wish to outlay cash in form of increased subscriber fees or one of.subsidy (and yes that includes the likes of lifetime subs like me as what we paid for is now sunk cost ) / bottom line guys someone needs to subsidise all the new features you want so regularly, I say to you get a grip !!!