Hey, regularly come across roon researching potential upgrades to my current multi room system. It happened at least 2-3 times over the last few years. Somehow every single time it works like this: I find roon, the description sounds great, I see the rip off pricing model and walk away just to forget about it until I come across it again.
I know, you guys are true believers in a subscription model and from a developer/company perspective, I can totally understand why. It makes your life so much easier. It gives you a consistent revenue stream. You don’t have to fight as much for new revenue by providing paid upgrades which people are willing to pay for, in fact, once people have set up their system around roon, they are locked in. Moving away is painful so most people will likely even accept significant price increases which so far happened every few years as not accepting price increases effectely disables one’s multi room system - a significant investment in many cases - right away.
As mentioned, I came across roon once again and I’m going to walk away once again, this time leaving a comment. I’d likely become a customer with a more traditional pricing scheme paying for the software initially and for upgrades when I believe they are worth it. Danny in one of your previous posts on our commercial model you mentioned, if roon is not worth 10$ a month, go elsewhere and I will happy follow your advice. However it’s not so much because 10$ or whatever the current price is is not worth it. It’s because the subscription model which is spreading like cancer is entirely one sided. What used to be a conversation between software companies and clients becomes a dictatorship. With traditional models it’s more like: Company: “Hey, we have this really great new version with cool new features.” Client: “Wow, nice, here’s my money, give me the new features.” With a subscription it’s: Company: “We have a new version and are increasing our prices. Take it or get out right now and good luck finding something else which works with the hardware you invested in.”
You likely disagree with this view and that’s fine. Just wanted to provide my perspective. You are most certainly leaving potential customers behind. If you feel you are fine with a smaller number accepting the subscription dictatorship, fine, obviously this is your choice.
If you were to ask people who live under a dictatorship what it’s like, I doubt the Roon business model would ever come up. YOU have a CHOICE of monthly, annual, lifetime, or not at all, far from a dictatorship.
It’s not, which is why Roon keep substantially increasing its cost - probably with a view to, at some point, removing the option entirely. Therefore, if you’re a Roon lover and can afford it, go for it now
Oh I can afford it, but thats giving Roon a quick buck it can’t survive on, if Roon can provide software that warrants its cost I’d prefer to subscribe yearly.
1/ It gives me a choice on the software I use.
2/ It keeps the company sustainable longterm.
Send them a donation then. I don’t get all this “poor Roon can’t survive if I buy lifetime” sympathy… it’s their pricing policy, you can either spring for lifetime or subscribe… easy.
In the non dictatorship days I had to pay a pretty amount of $ for an Adobe licence, and lasted 2 years until the new version. Now on the subscription model it is just another one of my bills and if I go 2 months on holiday I can pause the payments. There might be some more $ to pay in this system. They will kill your old computer with the new features therefore forcing hardware upgrades. There is no question about locking in as Adobe is no 1 on the market. The other no 1 is Autodesk, same subscription model. Tidal, Apple, Amazon, etc same.
We can say yes or no. It is up to our personal needs, benefits, budgets. But for me it is more flexible like this.
This is entirely different though assuming you mean Apple content streaming and Amazon prime content streaming. You primarily pay to get access to a vast catalog of content (and of course in part to fund the platform providing it)
The other mentioned software packages are similar though but these are primarily targeted at people earning their money with the software.
There’s a reason why most (complex) software has moved away from that: it’s unsustainable.
No it’s not and there are moe than enough examples of it. Most music production Software like Ableton Live or virtual instruments or the creative software by Affinity. Capture One is a good example. They have a reasonably priced perpetual license but you are stuck at the bought version or a subscription keeping you current.
I own amongst other Software a Capture One perpetual license for years now, same with Ableton. So far the new versions have always convinced me to buy the upgrades. The risk is simply spread more fairly between the company producing the software and the customers. I might skip an underwhelmig upgrade but I won’t lose access to my foto libraries or projects which I have spent a lot of time on.
For that matter, a lifetime license is like russian roulette for both parties. You might invest a massive amount of money in a product that dies in 2 years or it’s a financial disaster for roon if you’d be using it over the next 30 years.
But given the responses I receieved on my post, it’s clear why roon and others are taking that path. Thee seem to be (too) many people perfectly willing to enter such a one sided commercial relationship. As long as this is the case, subscriptions are the path of least resistance.
I don’t know what you are going on about. Get a Roon lifetime license then, it exists. And upgrades are even free. And 600 euros (when I got lifetime) is surely not “a massive amount” for perpetual with all updates as long as the company exists. For Roon, lifetime is one (smallish) part, the rest is subscription. Their “financial distaster” for a lifetime user is having to copy the software one more time.
Comparing luxury tools like Roon to specialist software like Ableton, on which people bet their entire livelihood, makes no sense.
These discussions are silly. It really makes little difference how a company chooses to charge for their product. What matters is the total price and if you think the product is worth the price. If it’s not, don’t buy it, but why hang out on their forum? Go find a product that works for you and hang out on their forum if you want.
