Hello. I live in Turkey. I’d like to buy roon but it is so pricey in here. Will you make a price policy for countries?
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Roon is a software product and has a fixed price globally so not affected buy local stocking, shipping or support etc so I dont expect you will get any relief based on geographic location I’m afraid.
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Well, it’s not actually the same for everybody & yes of course it all depends on exchange rates. For Roon it’s the same sale price, not for the end user.
I would suggest for @Deniz_Kaymakci approximately 780 Lira for a yearly subscription is considerably more to him than US$120. People living in countries with low & volatile exchange rates do pay ‘more’. There are also still some countries with fixed exchange rates!
A strong currency is not always good for an economy. Government’s typically try to improve ‘terms of trade’ & are often motivated by governments trying to reduce deficits & stimulate economies through promoting the purchase of local goods over imports. How often have we heard (your gov’t - gosh the Tr word got flagged) accusing the Chinese government (rightfully or wrongfully - that doesn’t matter) of artificially reducing their Yuan/Renminbi giving them an ‘unfair’ trade advantage.
That is key - the price is fixed, which is Roon’s business model. Whether Roon will at some point determine price based on location, I have no idea.
Whilst it can be argued that as the product is digital and is not influenced by some of the above mentinoned concepts, it’s far from unusual for companies that operate in the digital domain to charge according to location.
Would that make things fairer for those living outside the US with struggling economies? Of course it would! Would Roon (the company) get more customers/increase sales & profit? I have no idea.
These are typical issues that companies face when they operate both globally & digitally - their price structure.
Personally, I don’t have any strong thoughts on the matter. No doubt the more users of Roon that better for the community as a whole. Notwithstanding, as a company, Roon would not like to impact detrimentally on its bottom line.
I will add that I would have liked to have bought Roon in full at the time of my trial expiry. However, it coincided with some of the worst economic fears associated with covid 19. Our dollar dropped 10 points overnight. This meant for me an increase of ~ $400+ on the typical full price. Alas, the dollar bounced back a few days later. Sure that’s an atypical example, but one where price by location would avoid price disparity amongst users.
Cheers!
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Well, thank you for all the answers. Tidal has a good price policy. my subscription to tidal is 20 liras which is not equivelant for the 20 dollars. Maybe roon will make some changes like this in the future.
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Humourous but true
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Most expensive in Switzerland, yet they are 4 (Zurich) & 6 (Geneva) ranked the fastest earned. Egypt on the other hand, the cheapest Big Mac, yet fifth slowest earner to be able to purchase a Big Mac.
Sure - food is often a good guide when comparing like for like products… However, never heard of this!
I also live in Turkey and used Roon in 2020 with an annual subscription and later continued with monthly subscriptions. At that time it was affordable but now the currency in Turkey is really high, even I love Roon I cannot afford it now. I know Roon probably doesn’t care about countries’ economical problems but country-based discounts would be helpful for us and also Roon could have more subscribers.
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I agree with this, Roon costs 2.5 times as much in Mexico as my Tidal subscription does.
I guess I don’t really understand this issue. I have an MBA in finance, but not in international finance. If the exchange rate in some country is 1000 units = US $1.00, then an item that sells for US $20.00 should sell for 20,000 units is said country. Why would Roon, or any other US company, sell it for less?
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Due to cost of living in that country. Average salaries etc
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Maybe people who live there need to purchase local items.
That’s probably what they are doing. But then said company, e.g. Roon, would lose out on business. So it’s not uncommon for a company to have different price settings per region, so instead of having no business, they get some business.
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But, what good is more business if they are selling it for less than their variable cost?
I’m assuming they usually sell it for more than cost. They might sell below cost (if that’s legal in that region) to get a dominant market share?
Again, what good is market share at a loss? I’m not sure the world economic inequalities is Roon’s problem. I need to be careful here. I don’t want to sound like a Republican.
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Being the dominant market player has its benefits. Look at ride hailing companies like Uber, or serviced offices like WeWork. That’s exactly what they were doing. Not always a good idea, as shown as proven by the same examples I mentioned.
Also, by no means am I saying Roon should or shouldn’t do this. Just explaining a market phenomenon.
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Then you have the real problem of certain people using a VPN to take advantage of another countries lower rates…this has happened many times with Tidal.
Remember seeing various examples posted in this forum.
Not sure if that would work with Roon but don’t see why not if they followed Tidal example.
For every good deed you always get those who take advantage.
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A lot depends on the competition, Apple Music launched here at R 60 , at that time Tidal was R 120 and had no intermediate tier (now Hi Fi). So everybody (Spotify, Tidal etc) scattered and now you can subscribe to any of the majors for R 60 . Competition / Supply and Demand ?
These types of country related pricing is quite common, eg Netflix do it too…
The Rand is very weak wrt the major currencies and a $120 annual fee is a significant sum that many SA people couldn’t justify .
Look on the bright side , the dollar payers are subsidizing me in the “Third World” 
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People have come onto this forum and described in detail how they got this service at that country’s rates or how they got a service they weren’t even entitled to because said streaming provider hadn’t launched in their territory yet. That doesn’t exactly incentivise a company to offer different rates around the world.
Also, if a provider negotiates its deals locally, it is cheaper there because the negotiation was cheaper, not directly because the cost of living is lower. Roon misses that step.
Finally, a perfectly decent strategy is to aim for the top 5% (or less) of customers. That might result in a bias towards custom in wealthier countries because if you charge ‘first world’ prices you get first world customers in parts of the world where supporting infrastructure will universally be up to the job.
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