Just trying out Presto streaming now. Seems to be well thought out and I hope there will be a place for it and it can succeed. Not certain how well it would mesh with Roon but might be a nice idea. First reactions are good.
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Think he said this was a winter residence. There’s gold in those advertisements…
I don’t think the numbers that Roon has even show up on Apple’s radar. Or Spotify’s. Not worth killing.
Qobuz may be worthwhile if it has substantial market share in countries not well represented in an acquirers market share…
I think what is important for Roon is access to a relatively complete catalog of music via streaming which can be integrated with their application. If Qobuz and Tidal die, or are acquired and made unavailable, Roon is done. There is great value in Roon, but for a relatively small subscriber base and an even smaller base if streaming is no longer available.
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So I had a look at the Apple Music development API documentation. Basically anyone can build an integration. It is “open” to use.
Sure.
But can Roon build an integration using Apple’s API that works seamlessly with their software? With “seamlessly” meaning like with locals albums and tracks, Qobuz albums and tracks, and Tidal albums and tracks?
That answer is no.
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Only Roon know that. Mostly it just depends on how much effort money resources you’re willing to invest.
That’s simply not true. Roon integration requires data not provided by the standard API. Otherwise, I can pretty much guarantee would have Roon/Apple Music integration already.
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Well all Roon know about my local library is album, artist, and track, and that doesn’t prevent them from coming up with all kinds of extra stuff 
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Roon integration does in fact require much more than the basic APIs provided by the streaming services. This has been confirmed by Roon employees many times.
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So, which data would it require? Because you can basically fetch everything out of Apple Music.
Use Apple Music API to access information about media in the Apple Music Catalog and a user’s personal iCloud Music Library.
Apple Music Catalog includes all resources available in Apple Music.
iCloud Music Library contains only those resources the user adds to their personal library. For example, it contains items from Apple Music, songs purchased from iTunes Store, and imports from discs and other apps. This library can include content that’s not in the Apple Music Catalog.
Use this API to retrieve information about albums, songs, artists, playlists, music videos, Apple Music stations, ratings, charts, recommendations, and the user’s most-recently played content. With proper authorization from the user, you can also create or modify playlists and apply ratings to the user’s content.
It currently requires pretty much a complete catalogue metadata dump from Tidal/Qobuz on a regular (possibly daily) basis is my understanding.
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Yes, Danny has said it is a daily catalog dump…
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Wow, okay. That explains!
It’s totally not usable as it is or you would see it everywhere it’s no use for bespoke playback engines. Hifi Rose have tried to enable it, it’s a dogs dinner with drm and authentication issues and it doesn’t do lossless. Roon requires way more than this. The api is for websites to access and use Apple Music or apps on phones that rely on the Apple Music app for playback and authentication not embed in devices or for 3rd party music library apps. You only need to look at what actually uses the api to see this.
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This is why you need one of the big boys (Amazon,Apple) in the long run to ensure survival .
This could be said about many Hifi streamers then as they tend to only integrate Tidal or Qobuz as they are the ones with the most flexible apis.
There is plenty of scope for all these smaller streaming services, they all offer something different in their approach and not everyone wants big corporate affairs and most hifi enthusiasts are niche to start with.
Everyone keeps saying Tidal and Qobuz are doomed yet they seem to be doing alright to me. Qobuz is starting in Canada now so their market is growing.
Just can’t agree with that at all.
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Agreed. If Qobuz has substantial market share in a country, then that’s probably a worthless country from Apple and/or Spotify’s standpoint!
If Apple/Prime can stream “immersive” music files, I continue to wonder why I can’t stream my 5.1 music files from my core to an endpoint such as my Sonos Arc. Or to an AppleTV.