You can have anything you want in life, but for most people, you can’t have everything. If Roon is important enough to anyone, they will buy it.
Call me old fashioned, but I save up and I prioritise. So, I don’t buy flash cars, I live in a normal house but I did buy Roon Lifetime. Choices are endless, all people have to do is make them.
I’m sure Roon would make monthly available when it made sense to do so from a business perspective. That will be great as an option.
11 Likes
Don’t know what this means, but I’ll ask you the same question I asked the OP -
1 Like
Well, in the interests of disclosure I’m already a customer so what I would be willing to commit to is something of an irrelevance since I have already, well, commited 
What I am interested in is opening up the Roon experience to as many music lovers of possible. And the best way to do that is increase access methods.
Although it’s only an anecdote and not data, I was at a HiFi bakeoff with around a dozen others just last weekend, and the subject of Roon came up. At least 3/4 of them explicitly raised the issue of the current subscription model as being off-putting. Not the cost per se, but the lack of a monthly payment option - probably the most widely adopted model in the world. We aren’t talking some wacky, half-baked request to pay in Bitcoins here.
1 Like
Surprising crowd of hi-fi enthusiasts you were with, since Roon membership is in the price range of tweaks and cables. (Think of it as a piece of equipment and it’s not so expensive.
). As Slim, and others have stated, if it made sense for Roon’s business model - they would offer a monthly subscription option. Apparently it doesn’t fit at this point in time. As in previous threads, Roon management has also indicated the lifetime option could be discontinued at some point. Possibly once that move is made, the monthly option could be extended.
I say whatever keeps Roon viable and improving is the best collective option for all concerned.
4 Likes
This is the line of argument that goes: don’t discuss x because if idea x was any good, they would have already done it.
Well, interestingly the “surprising crowd” I was with were all treating it like software, not a piece of hardware.
Incidentally, I never heard of a piece of hardware where the main option is to lease it in perpetuity on an annual basis, have you? That’s why that often trotted-out analogy is poor.
We agree to disagree. Have a nice weekend.
1 Like
Perhaps your crowd need to re think things for the modern world. This is a challenge I understand. Things are moving so fast and people get caught in the headlights.
Maybe monthly would move them on to lifetime as once you have something you don’t want to lose it. They call it “The Puppy Dog Close” in sales circles. Once you have the puppy home you have to buy it.
But this is down to Roon and their business model ideas. I think it will happen one day but my advice to Audiophiles who haven’t taken the leap is, jump in, the water is lovely and a lifetime subscription is the bargain of the audio world right now.
By the way, I have forgotten how much I paid already…
1 Like
Here’s the problem I have with this whole discussion.
Since it’s been discussed over and over, any further discussion takes the character of asking Dad for the car keys. Continually asking isn’t, in and of itself, going to change anything.
I’ve already got Dad’s car keys. In fact, I’m Dad.
Hey, maybe we will get to the point of hardware being leased with the way prices are going… in fact with jet aircraft now you can lease the engines rather than owning them. The manufacturer retains ownership and is responsible for repair. Bizarre world.
Seems the OP and others are saying an annual commitment, billed monthly is a palatable option. As for why roon doesn’t offer it - who knows. Their business, their model.
Yeah, it’s not only funny because it’s exceptionally condescending but the “modern world” treats software exactly as is proposed by the OP.
Look at how Microsoft, Adobe, Apple etc charge for their software products. They are all moving to the SaaS model, paid monthly.
Paid monthly, but committed to for a year.
1 Like
Yes, and I wouldn’t see this as a problem although as I said above I’m already invested.
There are lots of viable models (Netflix being a different one). That’s the point. We are trying, to increase exposure and take-up amongst new demographics, as long as the economics of it work.
Yeah - I’m thinking the Netflix “dip in - dip out” model wouldn’t work for a company like roon. But if it was an annual commitment it could work possibly. Maybe in the short term they’re wanting to keep it small while they build out the infrastructure and scale out.
1 Like
As you say who knows…
Pure speculation … I wonder if Roon would be concerned with monthly subscribers breaking the 12 month commitment contract and defaulting by cancelling their payment mandates. Given the relatively small outstanding amount, I don’t think it would be viable to take legal action to recover monies.
I guess that’s a risk that needs to be balanced against the potential extra revenue that might be achieved.
One thing is clear, no active subscription no Roon… so Roon would not be supplying a service to those that default on payment.
3 Likes
Reference your Topic 1, Roon to Go will be undertaken in the future. That’s been on the table for around a year. Release date is in house, so when that will happen is unknown. Topic 2 has been bantered around for the last couple of years, with lots of pro and con posts to read.
Mobile Roon to Go will be awesome when it gets here.
How is someone committed for the year? The subscriber is in control of their payment method.
Slightly higher priced monthly subscription sure, why not.
With Adobe if you cancel during the year they bill you the remainder of your years fee.
If the card is already cancelled they can’t bill you. Adobe has the resources to deal with that scenario, Roon probably not. That was my point of not committed.
Fair enough.