Integrating its own music streaming service has always been beyond the reach and resources of Roon. However, now that Roon is wholly owned by Samsung, perhaps this is no longer beyond comprehension. If Samsung desires to enter the streaming space and compete with the likes of Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, et al., the Harmon division could offer synergies and some points of difference.
If it was lossless service and fully integrated with Roon under one subscription, I could see myself jumping in and leaving my current service behind.
Am I alone or are there any others in the community who would welcome this?
Who suggested that it might be limited to Roon? I could see Samsung getting into this and Roon being one of the options available and fully integrated. Remember Samsung has a lot of other devices that it could use for playback, there are phones, tablets, televisions, watches.
How well might that go in a market where every participant is walling his own little garden?
Current streaming content providers may stop support and access for Samsung and it’s subsidiaries. So with adding a hypothetical Samsung streaming service they may loose access to Spotify (connect), Tidal (connect), Qobuz and others.
There was a small window of time before Apple Music was on Android and Windows phones were at their death kneel when Samsung could of dropped their own music streaming on their devices. People would have used it simply because it was preinstalled.
Now, streaming music is sort of vanity to a brand but not exactly taken seriously. Sonos has its own for their own speakers. I’m sure someone is using it. Naim has their own. There are others.
But… oddly enough… Do you know Samsung has their own “Live TV” streaming service and its free on all Samsung TVs? It also includes music channels. Lookup “Samsung TV Plus” and you’ll find hundreds of channels plus about 40 music channels. So, could they? Sure, it makes sense they would brand their own streaming service so their products worked directly out of the box like their TVs. Would anyone use it? I probably would not. I don’t use their streaming tv service either.
Managing a content provider is not only NOT what Roon does in any shape or form, but also a crowded market. TIDAL, who made a huge mistake in my opinion joining the MQA delusion, has now reconsidered and is possibly the best streaming service out. I subscribe to both TIDAL and Qobuz because I purchase downloads I dig. But if I didn’t, TIDAL would be good enough. All of this just shows how HARD it is to be a streaming service.
So let me be clear: I DO NOT want Roon to get distracted with this nonesense.
IMHO better if they work at improving the integration with the existing ones (the famous Library/off Library issues etc.) + they would become “enemies” of the other streaming services that might somehow be less interested in integrating with Roon flawlessly…
Maybe the OP should clarify, they said „music streaming service“, and I am not familiar with using this term for an internet radio station or a multiroom system.
Depends on what you define as a streaming service? To me it’s a streaming service a different type of one but it still is one.
Wikipedia defines it as
A streaming media service (also simply called a streaming service) is an online platform that allows users to watch or listen to content, such as movies, TV shows, music, or podcasts, over the internet .
Samsung used to have Milk. It soured, and they closed it down. Now they sell tons of phones but, unlike Apple and Google, they don’t have a decent music subscription monetization story.
Roon could be a fresh brand for them, and the Roon clients are a pretty good headstart. The bifurcated Roon/ARC thing is a bit of a mess but solvable.
Concerns about a closed ecosystem are valid, but going with a brand like Roon instead of the “Samsung” brand would be a decent strategy for avoiding that.
We’ve yet to see anything substantive that justifies Samsung’s acquisition of Roon. Roon says that the additional resources will help them achieve their goals. Fine. But what are Samsung’s goals? Has to be some combination of a) advantage their hardware brand(s) and sales through new capabilities (e.g., multi-room, more streaming capabilities) and/or b) profit from subscription revenue of one form or another.
I’m going to guess that a consumer-facing streaming music service that competes with the likes of Apple Music, Spotify, etc. has the theoretical potential to generate tons more revenue than subscriptions for the current Roon offering.
Who knows if this is on path for them but I don’t think it’s crazy.