Hello Everyone,
We are very excited to share the latest release of ARC and Roon!
After reading many of the posts here on Community, speaking with many of you directly, and reading your responses to the recent survey in-app, we learned that downloads in ARC weren’t quite cutting it. Among the issues, we learned that:
- Downloads were slow
- Downloading many things at once was tedious and difficult
- Download quality settings were rigid and inflexible
- Shuffle play was missing
We are excited to announce a suite of several features that are aimed at making the download experience first class and directly address the issues you’ve raised.
Namely:
- Download Performance Improvements
- Download Quality Settings
- Download All
- Smart Downloads
- Play All
- Shuffle Play
Download Performance Improvements
Downloads just got faster! We’ve gone under the hood and sped up our download engine.
Background downloads
On Android, downloads will now process in the background.
For iOS, due to the tricky way in which iOS handles background tasks, downloads will operate at a reduced speed when the app is in the background.
For best results on either platform, keep ARC open and in the foreground for downloads to finish processing.
Download Quality Settings
Need to save space? Now, you can select from various quality settings when you download. Choose from four options from unadulterated original format to space-saving bandwidth-optimized (OPUS). All options are the same as the streaming quality options.
Replace already downloaded music by changing your download quality setting and selecting “replace at [new quality]” via the download context menu.
Download All
Found in your context menu within the albums browser, download all lets you grab anything in your browser’s current view. Combine this with tags and filters to download exactly what you want.
Smart Downloads
Download management can be tedious. It can take hours to organize and download all of your music, and it can be impossible to anticipate every musical urge you might have once you’re offline.
Smart Downloads takes care of your download logistics—automatically transferring your favorite music to your phone so you have it whenever you need it. Just connect to WiFi, give it some storage space, and select enable. Smart Downloads is a perfect companion if you are regularly offline, often in bouts of poor connectivity, or if you prefer to save data.
Play All
ARC now has the ability to play multiple items sequentially via “Play All”. Find this new functionality in the three dot menu on the albums and tracks browser. Perfect for diving through recent releases in chronological order or thumbing through your latest library additions. Use tags, filters, and sorts to whittle things down even further.
Shuffle Play
As one of the most frequently requested features in ARC, Shuffle play was a missing essential. Now, you can find it in the albums and tracks context menu, as well as in Carplay and Android Auto. Just like all other context menu functions, it works alongside filters and tags so you can shuffle through your entire library or just your albums tagged with “japanese ambient.”
Happy downloading!
Thank you for reading and for your continued support. For more details on our latest ARC enhancements, check out the Roon Blog.
The Team at Roon Labs
Build Numbers
| Application | Version |
|---|---|
| Roon / RoonServer | 2.0 (build 1359) production |
| Roon ARC | 1.0 (build 226) production |
Updated versions for Android and iOS have been submitted to their respective App Stores and will be available soon.
Changes
- Implemented Smart Downloads feature
- Improved download performance
- Introduced ability to select quality of the downloaded content
- Implemented mass download functionality
- Introduced Play All, Shuffle Play actions
- Various minor enhancements and improvements
Installation
Cores, remotes, and ARC installations already running Roon 2.0 Production should update automatically. If you need to reinstall, the latest builds can always be found on the downloads page.
Additional Notes
There is no new Roon iOS / Android build in this update. The latest Roon iOS / Android version remains at build 1357 for production.