Roon is great with Tidal and Qobuz ... What would the other providers add?

One point is that Qobuz is currently available only in 12 countries (11 if you exclude Luxembourg). If you are outside of those areas, then it’s Tidal or nothing. So the choice that you have, isn’t the same for a lot of Roon subscribers.

2 Likes

The benefit with Roon + Amazon is it secures Roon’s business model. Neither Tidal nor Qobuz are doing that well, and where would Roon be without a streaming service integrated.

5 Likes

If we all subscribed to them instead of looking for ever cheaper services, their long term survival would be assured.

1 Like

because not everyone has Tidal or Qobuz for whatever their reason.
in addition, the bottom line is the bottom line. If having more than 2 options brings in more revenue then why not? This is a business you know.

As someone who’s still an Apple Music subscriber but has stepped awy from Roon and TIDAL for the moment (long and boring story, but it’s more a reflection of my particular needs and setup than a perceived fault of Roon), here’s my two cents. I’m also trying Spotify right now because I can use Spotify Connect directly with my NAD T758, but the NAD doesn’t support either Apple Music or AirPlay 2.

There are problems I had with TIDAL on Roon that, I suspect, were limitations of TIDAL’s API, and as people have pointed out, TIDAL doesn’t have as big a music library as either Spoitify or Apple. But, more to the the point of the actual question of what other providers would add: the ability for people who are already using those services to adapt Roon with little to no friction.

If you’ve been using a streaming service for years, you may have hundreds – if not thousands – of albums in your library, your own custom playlists, your own radio stations, and you are probably used to being able to take all of that with you from device to device. If your new device doesn’t support your chosen service, this is going to be a serious drawback. I don’t doubt at all that there are Spotify diehards out there whose interest in Roon is significantly tamped down by its lack of support. I went in knowing it didn’t support Apple Music, of course, and… well. In aspects from UI to library size to new music discovery tools to human-curated playlists to the general quality of algorithmically generated artist radio stations, Apple kinda stomps TIDAL, and I have little doubt that if I were more familiar with Spotify I’d say the same thing about it.

Sure, if you demand lossless or hi-res streaming, neither Spotify nor Apple Music are going to turn your crank. But I imagine there are people who use Roon who really can’t hear much difference between lossless and well-encoded, high bit rate lossy audio, even if they don’t dare admit it on the forum. :slight_smile: Personally, I often use streaming services as an equivalent to radio, so the question isn’t as much “is 256kbps AAC as good or nearly as good as FLAC” as “is 256kbps AAC better than FM, XM/Sirius and HD Radio,” to which the answer is “absolutely yes.”

Honestly, if Roon had been able to integrate Apple Music – which does have an API that lets non-Apple devices use it, so it would be technically possible for this to happen – there’s a good chance that would have tipped the balance and had me stick it out with Roon. (“Technically possible” is of course distinct from “allowed by Apple,” but there are non-Apple devices that have Apple Music clients, including Sonos, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung Smart TVs.)

So, to sum up: what other providers add to Roon is “a wider potential userbase.” Even if you personally don’t care about those other services, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

3 Likes

Being a Metalhead it’s hard to find some albums or artists on Tidal (which I think, don’t care much about the genre)
Qobuz is not available in Argentina, so a Deezer integration would add a lot of options for me since a lot of bands or labels don’t edit their releases here, and buying them overseas mean, sometimes, paying almost double the price of the item + shipment.

For “geographical reasons” I can’t buy hi res music from Argentina, and even if I could we can’t pay through Paypal’s platform for purchases in dollars outside Argentina

So I think it would be a great feature to add another service (and I say Deezer because it’s available down here).

It’s always great to be able to choose.

6 Likes

Roon needs more than just an API for integration it requires the service to provide full database dumps daily amongst other things. These are areas that the large companies are not willing to oblige. Roon will not change their way of integration as its what make sit stick out from the rest.

I would like integration with Spotify for casual listening. Best would be using the Spotify playlists for Qobuz/Tidal playback :slight_smile:

2 Likes

You’d be surprised, I tried both Primephonic and IDAGIO and still get their mailshots. As an exercise I take their new releases and try to find them in Tidal. Other than their “own” content I am rarely disappointed

Btw the reason I didn’t follow on with either was integration, the best I could mange was to stream to my iPad the AirPlay to my CXN , bit of a grab. No real way to feed into hi fi

If you know that TIDAL and Qobuz are providing extra access to Roon over and above the API, I’ll take your word for it, but my subjective user experience wasn’t one of Roon doing anything with TIDAL that BluOS’s third-party interface couldn’t do – and neither Roon nor BluOS can do everything with TIDAL that the native TIDAL app can.

(If I’m going to be perfectly candid, I recall multiple instances of searching for albums on TIDAL in Roon and having them not show up, even though they were readily accessible in the native app. And I think the same experience was true in BluOS’s app. As a reformed web developer, this sure seems like both Roon and BluOS are using an API for searching that isn’t working super well on TIDAL’s end, and that Roon is not using their own private copy of TIDAL’s database to drive a Roon-specific search engine. It’s been a few months now since I’ve done such a search, though, so maybe that’s changed in the interim.)

You may be right. I’ve had that same problem where I search for something in Tidal and it’s just plain not there one day. I’ll try again because I forgot and it’s there.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the tidal search was an API thing, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they needed more for the the recommendations that include tidal and Qobuz, There needs to be an understanding of everything that is available to provide recommendations without a zillion api calls.

Sheldon

Would love a Deezer integration. Qobuz has excellent sound quality, but still lots of gaps in their catalogue. Deezer HiFi has one of the largest catalogues available, I believe, and I’ve often found that they (and Spotify) have tracks that Qobuz and Tidal don’t.

Tidal sometimes sounds harsh to my ears and equipment, although I am persisting with it for the time being. I would ditch it for Deezer or Spotify if either integrated with Roon, as my back-up for tracks that I can’t find on Qobuz.

If Deezer integrated with Roon and could match the Qobuz sound quality… I’d be extremely happy and drop everything else.

1 Like

Totally agreed about choice. :sunglasses:

So much so, I don’t get why some people argue that they are happy with the current choice of two streaming services only (one not even officially available to most), when others suggest that they do not suit their needs for whatever their reasons.

A greater choice cannot hurt those currently satisfied & can only enhance the experience of current & future users by providing additional options.

Cheers. :musical_note:

I will add as per below and noted by @CrystalGipsy
On the basis, the consistency of service remains constant and does not change the behaviours of Roon as we know it.

I will further add that I had assumed that was a given, (but rightly pointed out by Gipsy) as others, when they write, may want additional integration at all costs.

1 Like

Perhaps, but not necessarily.

They are, its been said by the CTO and CEO of the company many many times and from using Roon it’s pretty obvious. I have had BluOS it does not have integration with Tidal or Qobuz in the same way or level at all.

Not if you want consistency of behaviours and interface. BluOS has many many servics it sucks as non are unified , all have different levels of integration features , It’s jarring and frustrating to use. If the services will play ball so it works the same as the the rest do in Roon great add them. I do not want them to throw them in to be a me too product.

2 Likes

Fair call Gipsy…I should have added…

On the basis, the consistency of service remains constant and does not change the behaviours of Roon as we know it.

Cheers mate. :musical_note:

1 Like

And that is very doubtful IMHO. Depending on who they add and why, it could change the total complexion of Roon.

I’m not sure why you surmise in such a negative light?

My opinions are those in a positive light and did not even think of further integration in such a way to damage or even alter the current experience.

But yes, as per above:

Caveat: so long as it doesn’t alter the current user experience.

I am all for, as I’ve said countless times: Roon improvements, whether they suit me or not (on the basis it doesn’t alter what we already have now).

And as most (regulars) will know, I don’t have any streaming service, I just use my local library. I got rid of Tidal after some months of limited use prior to jumping on board Roon. :smile:

Thanks Jim. :sunglasses:

1 Like

I have seen great companies and corporations lose some of their “greatness” when they grew too large too quickly. It happens. I would not want Roon to add providers unless they bring something to the party we don’t currently have. Better geographic coverage could be one such thing. Just adding another “me too” streaming service to gain market share is not something I would want to see, but it could be beneficial for Roon, or not. I’m just making the point that adding other providers is not necessarily a good thing.

1 Like