Legitimately curious question: If you ONLY use Roon to stream, and not to organize playlists or curate libraries or integrate ripped/local files with streaming services, why bother with Roon at all?
Because Roon still is THE best tool I have ever used for discovery of new to me artists via streaming services.
Well worth the price of admission imho
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I’ve got about 50,000 songs in my library (maybe 10% of those are LOCAL files, the rest are Tidal/Qobuz).
The local files are really the only ones I need to edit metadata for, and it generally falls into two camps:
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No image (fairly easy to remedy)
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weird/missing/incongruent track or disc data. Roon might think it’s two albums, and I need to merge. Might think it’s one disc, and roon finds duplicate track/disc info, so I need to separate it out and put tracks with the right disc.
Roon’s interface for editing this second thing can be maddening. Clicking arrows to move tracks up and down to slot them correctly seems so antiquated. It’s like one of those cheap number puzzles where you have to slide the tiles into numerical order. There must be a better way.
That said, it didn’t take too too long to fix last night.
Biggest bummer is losing playlists. The ones that are specific to Tidal/Qobuz are restored, but if I have a playlist created in Roon that crosses platforms (with local files thrown in), those are gone.
And losing play counts. Not as big a deal, but all that history is gonzo.
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I’ll grant you that. The interface is the best i’ve found.
But I don’t know that I’d use it if I didn’t need the ability to integrate with local files, or create libraries of favorite albums.
I do have all of my local files included which accounts for maybe 3000 albums of my total library.
Fingers crossed I have been fortunate on updates so far but my system is also simple and robust.
Just 5 endpoints total and all fully supported by Roon, not trying to use anything esoteric in nature.
However I have never had any interest in playlists whatsoever, I only play entire albums start to finish.
I have found Roon integrates my music and my house better than any other all in one solution ever has and I am relatively late to the party only being a Roonie for just 2 years.
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I generally share this sentiment, as I grew up playing record albums. But I also grew up listening to the radio, so I’m not so rigid with it.
I do have a few playlists for “cool dinner party” or “candlelight” or “audio test tracks” or whatever. And if i’m not listening “critically,” as they say, I often let roon radio run after an album plays.
I’ve not been particularly impressed with all the repetition with Roon radio, tho. Maybe that’s better with this new update. Ahdunno.
Radio Paradise is pretty good for that.
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Guys, I’ve moved these posts out of the thread on the database corruption because they were getting rather off-topic. Feel free to carry on here about the pros and cons of using Roon only with streaming services…
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I’m using it exclusively with Qobuz. I find it so easy to learn about the albums I’m listening to, to browse the album credits and follow the bread crumbs to discover new (to me) artists. I also like to explore subgenres, and Roon makes that easy as well. It’s possible to do these things in Qobuz (sort of) and Tidal, or just by Googling. But it is not nearly as enjoyable for me, or fruitful.
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Roon is my first experience with streaming music, 2.5 years now, and ditto on the thoughts. You would have the same experience with your own library included. My library has grown with new discoveries from the streaming and recommendations. I’ve added a lot music from Tidal/Qobuz and usually order the cd’s to rip or download hi-res versions when available. I’m always concerned that someone somewhere will figure out how to disrupt the internet on a large scale and depending totally on streaming is something I just cannot do.
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Thank you.
Roon has genre and subgenres browsable, for some bizarre reason no other streaming service seems to.
The interface to me is the best hands down, UI wise. I find discovering new music much more reliable in Roon. Clicking on an album, the suggestions tend to make a lot more sense (doesn’t apply to roon radio oddly enough).
I use the tags, bookmarks and focus and love them. Editing metadata etc but you are right, if i didnt then I wouldn’t use roon.
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I would add that buying music from "small’ artists helps to support them. If I hear something on Qobuz I like from a smaller act, I buy it and put it on my SSD.
Well, that is a good question really! I thought a lot about this already. Most of it has been mentioned already
- best music discovery tool as far as I know
- most flexible organisation of different music genres
And here is my point
- best remote control for streaming via smartphone app.
Whether is limited use is worth the subscribtion fee is another matter. I stream every through HQPlayer and obviously could run everything via AnyDesk or other remote desktop app. I tried that to save on the Roon subscription but found it so piecemeal and tedious that I gave up on that after a few days. The HQPlayer Remote App is only good to manage a locally available file collections or CD tracks but not ok to switch and manage such as Tidal to Quobuz/Spotify/CD/Amazon etc
It seems overkill but it allows you to curate and manage your music in away you just can’t do in any other app plus the benefits of it’s great support for devices and multiroom.
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Roon plus QOBUZ USA is the bees knees of music discovery. Roon Radio’s recommendation magic finds music like that you just played. If you like what you hear, thumbs-up and add to “library”. The library and the QOBUZ favorites list sync so QOBUZ in the car knows your Roon library recommendations. The more you vote and add, the better Roon Radio gets at finding music to your taste. It is rare that it walks off into pop land or other strange places. It’s pretty good at staying in genre (hard bop and straight ahead for me) and mood.
If you’re a jazz fan, Roon plus QOBUZ is super. QOBUZ has most of the ECM and ACT catalogs including all those European jazz bands that are not reviewed or cataloged in the US. Great chance to discover emerging jazz and the great players in Scandinavia, Italy, and folks playing with DVR Big Band for German radio.
Every Friday, QOBUZ picks the best of the new music for display in Roon. I recently found a newly released Art Blakey record from Jazz Messengers vault material.
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Hey David,
you seem to have the same music preferences as I have. Thank you for your information regarding ECM, Act, etc. Next year I have to think about a streaming service.
I have to, because Roon Labs since many years does not implemented a mobile (offline) app. 
Qobuz does have an app but don’t know if they have followed Car Play or Android Auto conventions.
Qobuz reflects your Roon library adds.
I just buy a compilation album - more intelligent people than me are paid to do this…
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haha I know some really smart people with crap music taste 
for example, my gf is a tenured university professor who can’t stand the grateful dead. 
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Oh, what a pity … 15 Points for Tidal.