Roon Labs acquired Today by Harman, a Samsung Company

[AndrewJohn 8,280]

interesting news..., here's the press link: https://news.harman.com/releases/harman-acquires-roon-a-popular-multi-device-multi-room-audio-technology-platform

 

I am hoping that this is a good thing.

 

Are you a Roon user?  If so, What do you think?

[AndrewJohn 8,280]

I'm hoping that this move will help Roon get more content providers under their wings.

 

Tidal and Qobuz are good, but they really need to get Amazon music and find a way to democratize (through a third party developer program perhaps) all the little content providers into the grand-unified source of musical content.

 

Just my opinion..., but I had read threads on the Roon support sites indicating that Roon could not get traction with Amazon Music because they were too small, and Amazon pondered their own similar solution.

 

This might redirect Amazon's development effort (so they don't end up competing with Samsung - a losing proposition that could suck lots of development resources better spent elsewhere), and open the market for more music content through the Roon interface...,

 

The Roon UI/UX is light years ahead of anything else out there - including Sonus and iTunes/Apple-Airplay in terms of what it does as a platform to help users MANAGE, DISCOVER, and STREAM music content universally on any device to any network-connected endpoint, DAC, and music system (like Carver!!) using a common and exceptional UI/UX.

[AndrewJohn 8,280]

The leadership at Roon published an update on their progress, and re-focused USER-DIRECTED priorities last week.  Their message is making the rounds on a number of forums.  Posting it hear if you are a Roon user and want the latest.  I think the roon discussiong groiup will be the place to read more and see others' reactions to the news.  They are announcing several new things, and lifting some of the restrictions that many Roon users were ticked off about (like required live internet connection for ARC that made the entire system unusable when power or internet was down, reboot problems, etc.).  

 

Link: A message from the Roon founders - Roon Software Discussion - Roon Labs Community

 

Here's an interview with the CEO of Roon, about the acquisition by Harmon.

 

 

So far, I'm pretty happy with what they are doing.  One thing is going to really help users, is the shift in focus on developing new features in the queue, by offloading the broader effort (resource drain) of gaining new customers/subscriptions, just to stay alive.  Geoffrey Moore would call this a "quantum leap" across the Chasm (referencing his book"Crossing the Chasm").

 

My hope is they add some more music libraries..., like Apple and/or Amazon.  Although, I have not found any missing tracks or albums from my genre preferences from Tidal - I may have a narrow music interest, as I know others have had issues.