What happens with the lifetime subscribers if the company folds or is sold?

Do you mean the rent on the various music catalogues? If so, Roon is not a big enough player for that and it probably falls outside their business model, anyway.

Do you mean the metadata? That doesn’t come from Tidal, but from other suppliers.

Roon is a bargain yearly or lifetime. The interface is phenomenal. This team is dong what Apple should be doing and used to do. Sadly having owned products Apple since 1988 and being a loyal fan, Apple is now a mess. Pretty much all their products are over complicated with mindless interfaces that take forever to navigate. Full of bugs and Neanderthal slow. Compare iTunes of a decade ago with the total mess of an interface today!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKJjLwMUPJI&vl=en

BTW if you love music then Rick has some excellent analyses of great songs and what makes them great.

https://youtu.be/gtfbzyx9lNc

Hi, I’m not a Roon user yet, although I really like the software and I’m willing to spend the money on it. That is because I have worries about the continuity of Roon in the nearby future. As we all know, TIDAL has serious (financial) problems. This topic is not to discuss whether TIDAL will be able to recover or not. TIDAL will or will not recover, only time will tell us. But, a bankruptcy of TIDAL a very realistic scenario. In that case Roon will have a big problem: a brilliant software platform, without the ability to use a streaming service. That is like a car without an engine. In that case I think Roon will simply not survive. So, Roon must have a strategy in place in case the ‘TIDAL goes bankrupt’ scenario will see the light. I’m asking: what is the strategy in case TIDAL will die? I have read that Qobuz is (unfortunately) not a realistic option, but maybe other services are. Even if it would not offer the possibility for FLAC streaming or if it would integrate less smoothly with Roon it could still be sufficient to survive. For me – and I think for other potential new customers as well – that is crucial information to decide purchasing a lifetime membership. Because buying the lifetime membership is similar to investing in a company: I’m giving you now my money and I have to thrust you that you will still exist the coming X years so I can enjoy the benefits of my investment. Just to clarify: I’m not willing to go for the annual fee because in the end that will cost me too much money (after a couple of years) ending up in the lifetime membership anyway. Roon, I hope you can clarify a bit on this topic. It would help me a lot! Thanks!

I moved your post over here @Sander_vg – have a read above and let us know if you have any questions :slight_smile:

1 - Qobuz WILL be an option for Roon integration. High ranking executives for both companies have confirmed in public that “they are in advanced” talk

2 - Tidal will not go anywhere in the near to distant future

Thank you. Maybe you can elaborate a bit on my question: what is the strategy of Roon in case Tidal would stop existing? I have read the whole thread, so it is clear what happens if Roon would stop to exist. But that is the most negative outcome. My question is: what is your strategy in case TIDAL would disappear so you CAN survive? It would be almost impossible to survive without a linked streaming service, don’t you agree? Are you preparing for a scenario without TIDAL? I fully understand that you cannot share your full strategy in every detail, but I think (potential) customers need to have a bit more information about this topic? At least for me it would help me to decide to jump into the Roon world.

Joining on a yearly basis should probably be the preferred way to join for Roon skeptics, unless $120 is too big a gamble.

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Take a chance on life is my philosophy. Buy lifetime and enjoy. It cost me more to hire a Trio live for one evening…

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I had Roon lifetime before tidal was included as a feature…for me tidal is a bonus not a deal breaker, in fact many things that have come since are all bonuses and all to some extent bring in other partners that integrate.

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https://community.roonlabs.com/t/what-happens-with-the-lifetime-subscribers-if-the-company-folds-or-is-sold/4540/8?u=rrwwss52

This is the answer offered earlier (3 years ago) in this thread.

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Obviously, I have read the thread after Mike’s suggestion. I do not see the answer on the question ‘what will Roon do to survive once TIDAL is dead’ …

Nothing guaranteed, but someone should fill the void. Most likely is Quboz.

That’s interesting… I think buying Roon without a streaming service would only be justified when you own 90% of the content yourself. But as more and more people rely on the service from companies like Spotify, Tidal etc. I think the customer base for Roon would be to small (and shrinking!) to survive.

I still hope for an answer from a Roon representative. Mike?

From Quboz comes to America thread, post 4

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Your question makes an assumption that an economically significant number of Roon users only do so because it supports a streaming service like Tidal and would leave the Roon community if there was no access to a streaming service. It may or may not be a valid assumption.

I for one have never used Tidal. I prefer to own 100% of my content. Your assumption doesn’t apply to me.

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You are 100% right! That is an assumption from my site. I think that for the coming years less and less music lovers will own content and that streaming services like Spotify have the future in their hands. For sure, I wouldn’t invest my money in an ecosystem that doesn’t cater for a music streaming service. That is the reason why I’m a bit worried about the future of Roon and why I’m interested in the view of Roon. Do they share your opinion and don’t they really care if Tidal disappears? Or do they care a lot and do they have a fallback scenario in their mind? (whether my assumption is or is not true doesn’t really matter. Nobody can tell for sure anyway… :slight_smile: )

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I don’t stream at all, and even so I think your question is most reasonable and as such deserves a serious and direct answer, rather than referring to a thread of 80+ posts, not answering your question.

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You may be right for the great unwashed who don’t care that they’re listening to low-res streaming services. But Roon isn’t aimed at those people. It’s aimed at the niche market of those who appreciate high-res sources, even those that like to try to enhance the high-res sources. Thus Roon probably aren’t that interested in supporting service like iTunes and Spotify with low-res. I suspect we’d see support for other high-res streaming services added first.

Are you aware that Tidal and Qobuz offer hi-res streaming for quite some time now, including — for example — almost the entire ECM catalogue?

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There is no direct answer yet? Some hints, but nothing direct.