Thanks for this question, and for the record I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be concerned about the long term prospects of your music collection! Everyone in our company is a collector to some degree, and most of us border on obsessive. Obviously we’re all careful to backup our local media and Roon databases, but you’re not wrong to ask how you might secure a collection of streams, and it’s absolutely something we’ve thought about.
As a few people have mentioned, streaming content is available because of decisions made by rights holders. We can give you the ability to export a list of titles that are currently available (and we do), but ultimately when a decision is to no longer make an album available, there’s nothing Roon, or TIDAL, or any other steaming service can do. That’s just how streaming works.
That said, we have a clear track record of supporting our products long term, and doing what’s needed to protect the investments people make in those products. Even today, our team works to provide the metadata cloud service that powers Sooloos, a product we announced in 2006. Our work ensures regularly updated metadata for customers going back 2 companies.
Even with TIDAL content, the metadata you are seeing in Roon is powered by our metadata service. While we don’t have any indication that our relationship with TIDAL is going to change, the architecture of our system works to our advantage, should we ever need to migrate your collection. Again, we don’t see that happening anytime soon, but there’s no question we feel a responsibility to have a contingency plan in place.
The volatility of streaming services aside, our goal is absolutely as you describe – we want Roon to be where music fans, collectors, and audiophiles build their music libraries long term. We’re in this for the long haul, and we take that responsibility seriously.
To answer some of your other questions, right now a Roon license is based on a single Core, which you might also think of as a single library or location. The other devices in your home (remotes or audio zones) need to be on the same local network for now, but our goal is to be your music player wherever you are.
Using your phone as a remote in your living room, and then having it work equally well in the car is where we’re heading, although I should be clear that I don’t have a timeline I can commit to right now. I will say that it’s a major priority for us, as is easy syncing of your library for people who want the “full” Roon experience at multiple homes (meaning unlimited remotes, unlimited zones).
Can I promise Roon in the car before Christmas? No. Can I promise that every album currently available on TIDAL will be available to stream in Roon forever? Nope. But I can tell you we take these questions very, very seriously, and anyone who’s become familiar with our products, our business, or our passion for music over the past decade can confirm that.
And Adam, if you have any other questions, please let us know. Thanks!