If someone has something else to say I don’t know why you’d feel the need to stop them. If you hear a conversation on a topic you think is over-discussed, do you butt in and tell them to stop talking?
And for sure people can take steps to mitigate potential loss of Roon. Albeit I’m not worried that is imminent. But this is as good a place as any to discuss it.
I can gamble now since I’m on the house’s money 7+ years later….
I did invest in a Nucleus Plus earlier this year which seriously cleaned up some flaws using my iMac as a core…
4 years left for me to get my investment back. But I’m sure Roon will be around by then.
Obviously not a lifer
Jim most certainly is
Jim is actually a 3x lifer.
I am contemplating Microsoft Office 365 but I am worried the developer may not last 
You’ll better stick with Word Star.
It seems that Yearly subscribers are not locked into any issues as lifers are. Did not mean to sound pias in any way and my apologies to Jim.
I wouldn’t see a difference for myself. The license cost is negligible in my view, traveling somewhere for a week of vacation costs the same or easily more. My time investment is what’s valuable to me, and that wouldn’t change if Roon disappeared, whatever license I might use
I have three lifetime subscriptions to keep my 3 Roon cores always connected and active. It makes it easier to keep everything in sync and Roon ARC always active, even when out of town using my Dell laptop core. My MacMini is at home and “on standby” in case my Nucleus needs rebooting or reconnecting to Tidal or Qobuz. I don’t spend a lot of money buying “things” so I don’t mind spending a little to make life easier and fun.
EDIT: I should correct myself. My Dell core is only connected when I am using it as a Roon core away from home. At home, I use it as my main Roon control device. However, I never need to activate or deactivate it as it has it’s own subscription.
I’m a happy monthly subscriber for quite some time. Having put lots of time setting up my library, I’ve also been considering the “what if” scenario given the dependency on Roonlabs to accessing my library. And so I found this thread, it seems quite some users share my concerns.
Just to put this straight, if Roonlabs would ever cease operations and release a final update … that would be for all subscribers regardless of the subscription formula, right?
Danny actually answered this very question on in May '18, so I should be at ease but the consensus in this thread seems to be that it’s only for lifers. Even the title of this thread suggests this.
I’d welcome a re-confirmation of quoted statement from 5 yrs ago, so I know if I can remain monthly subscriber or need to also take the plunge to lifetime for the sake of “insurance” so to speak.
Many thanks!
My read of that now 5+ year old comment from Danny was that if Roon went away, they would eliminate the source of streaming and meta updates but that you could still play your own music. Which also means your Roon server would no longer be contacting the Roon mothership. But since v2.0, that is now a requirement to use Roon at all. So it would be a more complicated scenario now.
IMHO, Roon has become far too successful to imagine it completely going away, but they could always be bought out I suppose. And that scenario really isn’t covered in Danny’s May 2018 comment.
Roon is unlikely to fold, but to be honest, nothing lasts forever… As users, we have no idea which direction the company or software is taking, as recent developments have shown. If you have a large local library, I’d make sure the tags (and artwork) are well groomed so everything works nicely if you’re ever inclined to try something else. Otherwise, enjoy the ride.
Danny’s statement aside, in most business failure scenarios, what he said they would do is impossible. If they go bankrupt then any buyer of assets would not allow a free version. Same if assets bought in a distress sale. The only way that works is if they fail debt free, which never happens.
Bottom line, don’t count on it!
I’ve never thought through the process of a SaaS business failing…
Failing debt-free is easy – you just close shop before you can’t pay the bills. Not super hard to do when you have no external investors.
You’d have to cut expenses as the recurring revenue diminished, and eventually, that wouldn’t be possible, so you’d do the last thing needed and close up shop. Debt is not required.
Agreed, and while it’s always fun to speculate and do thought exercises, it’s really unimaginable right now.
I wish people would stop worrying about this possibility. While it would be bad for Roon owners and employees, the rest of us would find an alternative to listen and/or stream music.
The lose of $500, $700, or $830 is not that big a deal. What if you lost your lifetime investments, your house burned down, you got a terminal disease, etc. etc. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
EDIT: Seems like this thread has run it’s useful course and should be shut down. Enough already with the ridiculous hypotheticals.
Will Roon still be functional if the sun burns out? I’m just concerned about the future.
If the Sun burns out, we’re all all screwed anyways. Doesn’t matter if Roon is still there or not.
But will Roon lifetime work on the generational starship en route to Alpha Centauri? I demand to know