This schizophrenic practice was necessary because no single portal gave me access to all of my music library, cloud-based and local. In the past, for me, listening to music involved jumping among Tidal, Apple Music, and JRiver Media Center 21. You can even add to Tidal albums and tracks from within Roon, as well as import playlists created in Tidal’s app. Your Tidal library shows up in the Roon interface, alongside ripped and downloaded content stored in your local library on a computer or NAS. Roon is also a fantastic option for Tidal users, because it was engineered for tight interoperability with that service. No surprise there, as Roon gets its editorial content from AllMusic, though in this case you don’t have to leave Roon to read it - something I often found myself doing before I started using the software. It also brings the browsing pleasure that clicking through links on music-review websites like provides. Whether you’re at your desktop or in front of a stereo, iPad in hand, Roon delivers the satisfaction of holding an LP, with its big art and readable liner notes - something left by the wayside in the eras of the Compact Disc and iTunes downloads. Why would you want Roon? The main reason is that its visually rich, metadata-driven interface provides a user experience superior to those available with other music softwares. The consensus here is that we like Roon, and recommend it despite the relatively steep cost of entry: $119 USD per year, or $499 lifetime.

Are you aware of Roon? Launched in 2015, the music library, discovery, and playback software has since been written up in several feature articles and reviews appearing on SoundStage! sites.

Jriver media center tidal