Why Does BluOS supports Neil Young, Amazon HD streaming, - and Roon does not?

Sorry if I missed that first part.

I certainly agree on that point. Roon seriously sucks in many respects. I have been bitching louldly if you happen to scroll around here a bit. But I dont think BluOs comes even close. And I dont think integrating mediocre streaming services that appeal to the masses is the way forward.

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Like wise. Adding more content isn’t always the right solution though to longevity or to make a better product likely it will become more fragmented, which a loud majority already hark on about the alleged lack of local music additions and fixes. Add services that add value and quality to the product not appease the mass market and dumb it down.

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Bandcamp only streams low res, and they do not maintain any metadata (I asked them a while ago, they confirmed that they just serve what labels/artists give them). I have bought 299 digital albums from Bandcamp as of this evening, but all of them are stored on my home servers. Quite a few don’t have any metadata in Roon’s metadata sources. When I have time, I add the metadata to Musicbrainz and it ultimately filters back to Roon. Yes, artisanal, but that’s the state of independent music…

In general, these integrations are unfortunately much more challenging than they appear at first sight. There are all sorts of business constraints, API limitations, and data/metadata format. We all wish it were different, but the incentives are not there for the various parties involved to agree on common standards. I’ve been pretty close professionally to teams working on digital music distribution since the late 90s, and very little has changed for the better.

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Because BluOS is the operating system for a hardware company selling “end points” it has to include these services to help sell its product. MQA, roon, Amazon HD, Airplay2 etc etc are selling points for Bluesound so it can compete with Sonos etc.

Just my two cents. It might be good for Roon to consider two levels of integration - loose and full. Loose might point one to another interface and redirect it for playing (but not perform UI integration) – or some such workflow. While the seamless experience is nice, job #1 is music, we Roon users have less of it available - but once available it is handled much better.

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Well, I am not a Roon employee so I don’t know what the roadmap is anymore than anyone else who reads the forums.

However, my gut feeling of why not a “lesser” version of Roon like you describe, is to avoid creating a second class Roon experience and all the extra support hassle that would come with it.

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I’m afraid people won’t understand why some features would not work with Spotify as they do with Tidal. A halfway integration would mean you have to explain this thousands of times and even then a lot people won’t take that as an answer. So as much as I would like to see a feature like this I do understand the choice.

Would it be nice if Roon were to be able to integrate Amazon Music (and maybe others)? Yes. Necessary? Not even close. With about 18,000 tracks on my Library and no telling how many tracks Quobuz currently has, that is way more music than I can even think about, much less actually listen to. And I bought into Roon (Lifetime) because it was a high end niche solution for music management. I have zero interest in them “dumbing it down” to accommodate other services.

And I would agree that neither Apple nor Amazon have any interest in accommodating Roon. There are just not enough commas in the potential income stream to interest either of them.

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Agreed, but for years we had to endure a very second class experience for Internet Radio (always in Beta), so I suspect many would quite happily accommodate a Beta streaming service for Amazon HD, Spotify etc; On the understanding that it was not fully featured or supported in that state until the streaming services play ball with Roon metadata/API requirements (unlikely to happen but it did with Qobuz).
Of course Roon may have decided that this type of Beta functionality is no longer appropriate for Roon in its current state of maturity.

Keep amazon and Spotify well away, i for one, do not want their lowest common denominator services when we already have 2 excellent services fully integrated.

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Well Spotify has one very big advantage above Tidal and Qobuzz. It is everywhere imaginable.
Go to a festival website and you can listen to the whole lineup in Spotify. Play LastFM recommendations directly in Spotify, every radio station has sites with playlist in Spotify. Every artist fansite has links to…spotify, every magazine has QR codes that link to…Spotify. Now ask any 15 to 30 year old which they prefer Roon with Tidal/Qobuzz or Spotify, I think I know the answer to that one, I know enough people in that age that are fanatic music lovers but won’t touch Roon/Tidal in a million year as long as Spotify is available.

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Chris, with all due respect, this isn’t about what you or I want. I have Tidal which suffices, but others don’t and quite reasonably ask, why not?

The reasons why not have been stated innumerable times and so repeating them is of no interest. All I can add is my view, for what it’s worth.

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Why is it that questions that challenge the functionality in Roon are often received as negative.
Is Roon becoming a cult platform ?

Would it not be better to embrace the feedback provided ?
If we are all looking at Roon to have a long lasting life it has to be a able to renew itself.
If it fails to connect more people to the platform the prices have to go up in order to survive.

By the way, I have no interest in this feature but I do support the request.

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Roon is surely interested in having as broad a set of integrated services as possible but have been clear that they don’t want to compromise the metadata experience and therefore need deeper access to data than some service are willing to give. I respect that and in general, and to this point, have had no desire for Spotify integration.

However, @Chris_Barker makes a very solid point that Roon radio brings a different metadata experience and Roon have chosen to support that so what is different about a different tier of support for a service like Spotify. I have trouble coming up with a good answer to that and the one given in this chain of responses (we’ve always done radio) doesn’t really stand up IMHO.

And many in the Roon community have made the point that if Spotify was included, there could be broader support for Roon in a home comprised of an audiophile Roon user and the rest of the family that all uses Spotify. And that would be good for Roon IMHO.

So while I was firmly in the camp of no need or desire for Spotify, with more thought, I do think there is some merit in considering a more lightweight integration.

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Are you certain it is technical? Could it not also be related to legal agreements or simply lacking a justifiable business case? We don’t have access to Quobuz in Canada, so another hi-rez alternative to Tidal might be appreciated. Not all services are available to all markets…

I’m not sure about anything, an official Roon spokesman will have to speak to that. I am sure that legal probably factors into it, as it does on many decisions.

I subscribe to Neil Young Archives. It’s an amazing and brilliant website.
And his insanely huge output of music is all there, in high resolution files.
I have an NAD amp w/ a BluOS module built into it. Since BluOS added the NY Archives, I can stream it on my good stereo. It’s terrific.

I’d love to see Roon add it. He is, of course, all about high-res music and giving a great listening experience.

He put a ton of time and money into building this exhaustive site, so he may be unwilling to share that work w/ Roon users, as much of it is history and articles and photos and films.

But Spotify - no. Just hi-res for Roon, please. If Neil Young could be brought on board, it would enhance the high-end quality of Roon’s brand.

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On Qobuz a quick count shows around 70 albums with Neil Young as main artist, with around 40 of them in 96/24. the remainder at least CD quality - one of them “Neil Young Archives Vol. 1” with a meaty 125 tracks :sweat_smile:. For me personally it means he is on board and it is certainly enough NY for me - but not a devotee.

I would be very surprised to find NY archives integration high on Roon’s priority list. (But no issue with the request - if it is one - and good luck!)

I for one would LOVE to be able to stream Neil Young on Roon.

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