[GeorgeAb]

Today's Roon 2.0.28 update restores offline functionality that was previously only available in 1.8. There has been discussion, theories and speculation after the release of 2.0 which required an internet connection to work. Seems the peeps as Roon responded by restoring off line functionality.

[newzooreview]

Roon was very aggressive in shutting down objections last year when hundreds of users complained about the switch to requiring a constant internet connection. Their responses were downright uncivil.

The letter to the community that they posted today says "We’ve found many Roon enthusiasts at Harman and Samsung.…At Harman, we’ve been given a mandate to reconnect with our core audience.…Going forward, we aim to prioritize features that best serve our community."

I've snipped large chunks of text out, but I think the message is clear: Roon alienated its user base and Harman saw that as a liability that had to be addressed. That eases my concerns about Harman's intentions with Roon. Hopefully, Roon certification of streamers and components can also be fixed. It's been taking months, even when the manufacturer is just releasing a new model with the same embedded software.

The full non-apology from Roon can be found here: https://blog.roonlabs.com/a-message-from-the-roon-founders/

They should have said "we apologize," but it's better than nothing.

[Saturn94]

I’m glad to see this change in direction from Roon.

I can’t help but suspect that Harman’s directive to refocus on Roon’s core audience, ie enthusiasts, means Harman wants to pursue fatter wallets. 

[newzooreview]

The natural thing to do would be to make Roon exclusive to Harman products.

Fix the massive issues with Roon 2.0, then make future significant feature updates exclusive to Harman family components. Or let other manufacturers keep Roon certification if they pay significantly higher licensing fees.

Harman forcing Roon to back off on their user-hostile policies doesn't mean this will benefit users in the long term. Being exclusive to Harman or adding a hidden tax to component prices (like the MQA lossy compression scam) are both bad.

[Saturn94]

2024 should be an interesting year for Roon. 

[artur9]

I could see Roon, pre-Harman, thinking that there was a huge untapped market in those that use streaming services.  So, they prioritized "streaming features" over those of the original Roon users, which were (and are) collectors of music.

I could see Harman, telling Roon, "those streaming users do not spend, ignore them."

(I've been through that particular experience a few times, with different companies.)

P.S. now, having read the blog, I see that the above is literally what they are saying.  Interesting....  Usually that sort of talk is back room, secret stuff...

[GeorgeAb]

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of the blog. Really like hearing that they will focus on users like me. Interesting comment on the internet connectivity requirement, "That decision was driven by strategic considerations,". Maybe there was something to the speculation.


"At Harman, we’ve been given a mandate to reconnect with our core audience. These are the curators who are passionate about shaping their music collections, the audiophiles who appreciate the nuances of high-performance audio equipment, and the genre experts who depend on Roon to expand their knowledge of music. These are the people who have multiple streaming services or who have extensive libraries of music files – the people who simply want the best platform for experiencing their music library. Within this community, Roon is still the only product that comprehensively caters to their diverse needs, and now, at Harman, we’re excited to refocus our efforts on serving them.

We’ve taken some steps in this direction. In 2022, we introduced an internet connectivity requirement to Roon. That decision was driven by strategic considerations, but we acknowledge that the change caused genuine dissatisfaction among our users, and we understand why. Today, we’re announcing a return to Roon’s pre-2.0 behavior. This means our users can once again enjoy their music collections without the need for continuous internet connectivity."