Yes. I have gone full-circle on the common discussion topic of: Roon is of little value without an integrated streaming partner. The more I use Roon and dig into features like Focus and Bookmarks, the more I can see continuing to use Roon without Tidal (or any other streaming partner). I would prefer an integrated streaming service (my preference would be Spotify, but I can only dream on that one).
What I like is the notion of acclimating to a user interface that is end-point agnostic and rich with information.
Now, if Focus only supported my file-based attributes ā¦ again, still dreamingā¦
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James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
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I think something like voice control is a nice to have as a secondary interface. I use voice controls in the car and at home and I like some of the functionality they bring to the table. I agree that Roon has defined its core functionality and I would not want that to change significantly.
In regard to Amazon music (or really any streaming service), Iām looking for those ephemeral services to aid in music discovery. I do not want to be at the mercy of a capricious content provider or one that simply closes its doors after a few years. So if I hear something I really like while streaming, Iāll add it to my wish list to buy.
It seems that many casual listeners today are using streaming to fill the space formerly covered by records/tape/CDs and radio. That approach is not what I am comfortable with. I think that (most) enthusiasts are going to continue to want to own their collections.
I have used a lot different systems for playback of ripped files, but Roon is by far the best. Hopefully it will continue to fit my needs.
I agree, voice control is a wonderful nice to haveā¦ Iām finally integrating an Alexa into my house (at $30 vs waiting for Apple, the answer was easy). But for Roonā¦ well, I think voice control would be the epitome of ānice to have, not urgently requiredā, simply because it would make me too lazyā¦ the whole point of Roon is to open it up and rediscover your music (or learn new music) with the benefit of the interface/GUI.
Iām with you on owning copies of your faves. But Iām doing that through vinyl. For my digital music, Iād like to have some permanence as wellā¦ but buying digital downloadsā¦ itās great when they are included with the vinyl, but it seems like overkill. Maybe MQA will change that for me, but for the moment vinyl is where my āmust ownā albums are.
Iām not saying Roon āmustā become indexible to other streaming services, but wouldnāt it be nice? As others have said, all of that metadata is wonderful. Playlists, play counts, album reviews, album art, etcā¦ etcā¦ wouldnāt it it be nice to have that portable by album and song rather than by the location of the bits/bytes that make the music?
Maybe one day we could have a metadata entry for āAWESOME NEW ALBUMā that we started when we first heard the music on Tidal and maybe a year later tidal is goneā¦ but not to worry, Roon helps us migrate the database record to STREAMING SERVICE Yā¦ and then we finally get around to buying the album for āsafe keepingā on MQA, still using the same database entryā¦ and then ultimately, 10 years from now there is a new audio format that bests MQA and Roonās *** three dotās allows us a one click option to upgrade to the newest formatā¦
ā¦ that would be a music organizing software worth paying a premium for (and Iād argue, an indispensible part of the audio ecosystem with multiple cross-licensing opportunities to satisfy Roonās shareholders).
On voice control, Iāll throw in a few thoughts. I love the concept, but not the thought of giving (even) more data to Google / Amazon. For that reason, Iām looking at the Mycroft open source approach.
So if VC does come about Iād love for it to accommodate open approaches as well as proprietary.
For me voice control has no priority as long as it does not work well. Yes, I can create a reminder or calendar entry. But even these easy cases are still error prone if I donāt learn how to spell it right. Nested sentences are a problem and mixed languages are a big problem nowadays. For a non-native speaker itās also hard to control a foreign assistant. Try to play a song from Ćz ĆrĆ¼gĆ¼lĆ¼ or ĆrstĆĆ°ir.
And voice control is not very helpful, when so many music is unidentified and has missing meta data. I think the focus should be on meta data and discovery.