Such is life😊 . It all depends on what you enjoy and then everything becomes relative. Your friend may see £70 as cheap and worthwhile because the person enjoys TV. It all comes down to how much you are willing to pay for things you like.
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Totally agree! Actually my friend just cancelled Sky (his satellite dish needed replacing) and has just bought himself a Chromecast and now has Netflix, Amazon Prime and I think a couple of other services and he’s still only just over £20 month… he’s suddenly found the joys of streaming from his Apple iPad… I’ll never get him to the pub now!! 
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The value of a product or service is relactive.
I think iPhone and iPad are expensive, sure we do not need to upgrade every year, but a lot of people do. The price of an iPhone is more expensive than a roon lifetime, and I use more roon than my iPhone.
Business need income to inovate, support, pay tax and workers, licence fees and be lucrative at the same time, the costs of mantaining a business are high. And we are free to opt out if the product does not have what we think to deserve the subscription fee. But there is nothing like roon at the moment, it is unique for what it does and it does very well.
For me we are discussing in this toipic something that is what it is and need to be respected.
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I guess costs need to be determined by where a product is produced, not where it is sold. In the case of Spotify then costs can be based on the cost of licensing music locally but that doesn’t really apply to Roon.
Streaming is the new “substance” abuse 
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It was mainly on licensing for music information and MQA. Even if these costs are recurring these should ideally break even as subscriber base increases. People who use Roon along with HD streaming subscription such as Tidal, essentially are paying twice for the artist bio and other music related information. Also, in the case of MQA, I feel costs should be negligible in overall pricing scheme, since Roon only does a first unfold.
I’m in India $1 = ₹70 so everything is x70 for me 
and the reason why questions such as cost pops up in my mind. 🤦
I understand. I do think that Danny’s answer does help unpack some of those points.
I suppose, as others have said, we have to weigh up whether Roon is worth it for us as individuals. I do understand the exchange rate frustration regarding US Dollars, but that’s the model that Roon has chosen to use regarding pricing.
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Totally agree, my intention was not to question Roon’s business model or their intent. Even with the pricing frustration, I still maintain that there are no parallels to Roon and also appreciate the fact that they have kept the software sufficiently open so that any developer can expand the experience through extensions.
I’m new to the audiophile world, maybe thats why I find the cost high… (meant as a joke)
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some of these costs are PER USER, so larger base just increases their cost.
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I totally get that… Since Roon is offered as a SaaS, it makes more sense to pay as you go like any other SaaS service. Something like, pay x amount if you have more than y amount of files in your local library or if you play z no of MQA file.
If you’re outside the US/Europe there’s a good chance you’re saving money on Tidal relative to those regions. You can put the savings toward Roon. In Brazil I pay the equivalent of UD$6.30 for Tidal Hi-fi. Those savings ccompared to the US price would just about pay for a Roon monthly sub (although I’ve been a lifetime subscriber since the beginning).
Perhaps a little accuracy !! Where does $50 come from even the upgrade for the 3 OS license is only $28 if you take the early bird offer. JRiver licensing is by Operating System , if you have all 3, Windows, Mac and Linux its a bit more expensive
Also JRiver applies this “upgrade” annually (not strictly to the month), OK its a subscription by any other name. What keeps them in business if not ?
I got a usual mail saying V.28 was coming soon it cost me $20 to update , I do it every year as my payment for keeping JRiver running. JRiver covers all my Video needs , Roon my Audio.
I do not begrudge JRiver a penny !!!
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I live in South Africa , our currency is hardly seen as one of the shining lights of FOREX , add to that I am a pensioner , for me R 2000 a year , R40 a week , I pay that in car parking fees to go and do my essential shopping .
Does parking give me pleasure ? Roon does
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Right there…if you don’t take it then…
It looks like fees have changed…or I was mistaken, at my age anything is possible…lol
I swear when I did the upgrade from 24 to 25 it cost me $50, does not look like I kept the receipt but I was sure it was?
Anyway went to look this morning and while I had passed the “early bird” offer for 26 and 27 they offered me upgrade to 28 for $19.98 so yes I did take it and upgraded this morning.
I stand corrected!
Cheap at half the price 
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Things cost what they cost, companies have wages to pay for the best people. Music isn’t free…
Wish I could reduce my operating costs 70x 
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Don’t let your developers hear you say that! 