Many of us were happy to see movement on the Playlist front. For people who primarily stream, we are in a bit of an awkward phase where you’re not sure whether to host your playlists on Roon or Tidal (I am using Tidal as example, but I think same on Qobuz). Below is my comparison, I could be missing some points. I put a few notes about Discovery as I think Playlist creators want to find songs that “fit” a playlist, but obviously there are many more ways to do Discovery, so I only listed a couple key points.
Here is my summary of the two options:
Host Playlists on Tidal
- Tidal folders on Tidal app
- No Roon folders (work around with structured naming of playlists)
- Can be edited both on Roon and Tidal
- Remote - use Tidal app with downloads, ARC cannot download Tidal content
- Playlists do not show up in the main Roon Playlist Screen without clicking Tidal folder
- Playlists DO show up on left menu
- Discovery: at bottom of playlist, Tidal recommends similar songs to add with one click
- Discovery: Tidal has user and company made playlists that can be explored
- Discovery: My Daily Discovery (not avail on Roon)
- Sharing: easy transfer to Spotify or others with Soundiiz
Host Playlists on Roon
- This is the only way to include local content
- Can use folders on Roon to organize
- Can only be edited on Roon
- Playlists DO show up in main Playlist screen and the left menu
- Discovery: Roon features can be good, but are Artist and Album oriented. For example, I might go to a Related Artist and add the Top 3 favorite songs to a playlist. This can be good but is a bit more involved than the streaming services approach of finding similar songs to an existing Playlist
- Discovery: Playlists by Roon curated lists are good and can be saved
- Discovery: Your Daily Mixes can be good and can be saved