FThe value for money proposition is very individual. Most of my friends are what I would call casual consumers of music - music is mostly a background to their other activities that can be around the house or while travelling. They rarely (if ever) sit down to actually listen to the music. Typically, they wouldn’t even know or care about the different levels of music quality (and wouldn’t have the equipment anyway where these differences would be apparent). They are happy to listen to their favourites mixed in with some of the latest music. Quite frankly, Roon for them would be a waste of money.
However, for the serious audiophile who spends time actually listening to the music and has paid thousands of dollars for decent audio equipment, the cost of a lifetime subscription is around that of a very modest amplifier or a half decent (but not exceptional) wireless speaker. I have a combination of Bluesound speakers (for more casual listening) and a very serious amplifier and speakers for more serious listening sessions. I would rate my lifetime Roon subscription as one of my best ever audio purchasers.
On the fence however I still find another player or two “better” (this is totally subjective of course) SQ wise. I suppose I won’t be acquiring the Lifetime subscription and will stay with JRiver instead. Sorry.
Here’s an example of a response I got when I recommended Roon on the AVS forum:
I’ve been using Roon for a few days and I don’t see why it would be called good or even revolutionary.
Can you explain it’s purpose, other than providing me with a bunch of history about a band or artist which in my opinion I couldn’t care less. I just want to pay them to sing and play music.
James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
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For many people, music is a means to listen to their equipment (lots of those on AVS forum).
For others, equipment is a necessary bridge to their music.
Roon requires a love of the music to fully appreciate but also a modicum of IT knowledge - at the very least confidence if not knowledge. There is clearly some intersection but I am not sure how big that user base really is. I have lots of friends that love music that were impressed with Roon but not one even really considered getting it.
I would add that Roon covers alot of bases “quite well” and so it falls into that dangerous area of being a Jack of All Trades, which appeals on the surface to a number of different demographics, but leaves a bit of frustration when glitches or lacks kick in, when users dig deeper.
It must be a really hard juggling act for the dev team to prioritise what to add or refine next! Between perceived importance of fixes, necessity to push forward, but in what area? Hardware, UI refinements, new features? Juggling of those along with timescales to implement, etc. Must be a nightmare
I think you’re right in that Roon devotees are primarily music lovers; then there are varying levels of “ocd-ness” in us, regarding:
knowledge and history of music (and musical discovery)
music collecting and cataloguing
audio quality
audio convenience (availailabilty from a central source universally)
I fall into all four categories, not sure to what extent for each, but probably 2 (bloody OCD) and 3 are primary and then 1 and finally 4 is icing on the cake, but perhaps more important now than I think, lol.
I think that happy Roon customers can possibly fall into any of these categories, and there’s going to be overlap to a certain extent into all of them, but the extent of the overlap will dictate how well or how poorly Roon is perceived, IMHO.
Also, if certain attributes do roam into OCD territory, perhaps items 2, 3 and 4, then the frustrations when trying to curate, or integrate stuff, may well become deal fast deal breakers for many customers. This is where Roon needs to be sensitive.
Most of my friends Hi-Fi equipment costs less than Roon lifetime membership They think I am mad the amount I spend on my gear and music. I think I am lucky to get so much pleasure out of music
I have only a small number of friends who are music and/or hi-fi enthusiats. I spoke with most of them about Roon and every single one of them is not willing to spend so much money for software. To be honest I wouldn’t be a “Roonie” myself without the lifetime subscription.
I think besides the passion for music each Roon user has to be a bit of a nerd (or at least the tendency to be one) as well. Otherwise many of us probably wouldn’t spend so much time in tagging, troubleshooting, testing, coding, and some other (sometimes quite frustrating) activities.
I think some of us have more IT equipment at home than some small companies have in their offices. The majority of my friends (music lovers or not) would not be capable or willing to maintain infrastructure like this.
As a software developer who loves Roon (I currently pay for 2 accounts, separate locations), I want to defend the annual licensing. I certainly agree that it would be good for users to have a monthly option to try for a few months before making a larger commitment. However, that model may not work for Roon.
Roon is a very technical product, supporting many different hardware devices and platforms, and they do amazingly well with it. Due to it’s nature, I suspect a lot of people who try it have to reach out for tech support, because their OS/dac/network/whatever isn’t doing what they want. It’s also a bit confusing (where do you have the server, where a remote, etc.). It’s easier than any other product of its kind, that I know, but still requires some technical confidence.
Going to a monthly plan would likely gain more new users, but many would drop out after a few months. If Roon calculates the expense of supporting a new user, they may find it doesn’t pay to support users who have not at least committed with $119. They may double the number of new users, but 50% drop out after a couple months. In that case they have increased their new users significantly, but support costs have doubled. As a developer who marketed my own software, I decided I couldn’t charge under $100 for anything, because even if it only required one support call it ate up my profits. Most support costs occur in the first month after a sale in my experience.
Microsoft/Adobe etc. can afford to look at the big picture (their huge markets) but Roon Labs is a small company who have to cover expenses month to month to survive, I imagine. I think their model is working, at least certainly hope so. I too would like to get more music-listening friends to purchase Roon, and the cost is a hard sell. I would say even $10/mo. is a hard sell even. It’s on top of a streaming service like Tidal. They have to be pretty committed to make that investment. I think that commitment is what Roon Labs is likely looking for, although it surely limits the market.
@Marc_Nongmaithem implied that open source equals free (gratis) software. This is incorrect. With free software you may get something for nothing … sometimes. More often than not you are giving something back to the “developer” that arguably doesn’t respect the user. Read the news lately?
