Alternative to Roon....

[Krist]

There is one killer feature Roon that I liked a lot when I gave Roon a try for a few months.

Link Roon with Tidal, and you have a whole new way to access music that is very useful when you listen a lot to classical music. You can select a composer, a piece and then you get a list of all the different recordings available for that piece. You cannot do that directly on Tidal (not that I know).

Roon is not open source however. Is there an open source alternative that has this functionality? I guess it would need some free music database in order to function. Does this exist?

 

[AudioStudies]

Not sure about open source. There is a private one called MusicBee that I think is still free. Plex is not open source or free, but it is cheap and can be used for both audio and video.

 

[telemike]

Emby. Plex. Volumio

 

[Krist]

Musicbee is windows only, so that is a non starter. But I also feel that my question has been misunderstood.
I am aware of Plex, Emby and Volumio. I have used both Plex and Emby.
What I am looking for is not just an alternative music server.

What I am looking for is a better way to find music in the big amorphous blob that is Spotify and Tidal. Especially when it comes to Classical music.

There Roon has a killer feature. It allows you to do the following:

- Select a composer, eg "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
- Be presented with a list of pieces by that composer. In that list you can select eg. "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik".
- You are then presented with a list of recordings of that piece, by various orchestras and conductors. This allows me to explore different recordings of the same piece. You select what you want to hear, and then stream it from Tidal.

Classical music is different from modern music, in the traditional way of Tidal and Spotify to present music is not really suitable. The way that Roon presents Classical music, even though not perfect, is for me its main killer feature.

And I would be interested in knowing if anyone else is also offering this however.

 

[JoetheLion]

Musicbee is windows only, so that is a non starter. But I also feel that my question has been misunderstood.
I am aware of Plex, Emby and Volumio. I have used both Plex and Emby.
What I am looking for is not just an alternative music server.

What I am looking for is a better way to find music in the big amorphous blob that is Spotify and Tidal. Especially when it comes to Classical music.

There Roon has a killer feature. It allows you to do the following:

- Select a composer, eg "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
- Be presented with a list of pieces by that composer. In that list you can select eg. "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik".
- You are then presented with a list of recordings of that piece, by various orchestras and conductors. This allows me to explore different recordings of the same piece. You select what you want to hear, and then stream it from Tidal.

Classical music is different from modern music, in the traditional way of Tidal and Spotify to present music is not really suitable. The way that Roon presents Classical music, even though not perfect, is for me its main killer feature.

And I would be interested in knowing if anyone else is also offering this however.

I think that in this respect Roon is unique. You will not find an alternative to it. But the reason is rather that it's not (just) clever algorithms, but simply a lot of manual work that the people at Roon put into it to maintain the metadata. That costs money. In my opinion, they should be paid for that.

 

[Zensō]

Primephonic is coming to Apple Music.

Apple acquires classical music streaming service Primephonic

Apple has acquired Primephonic, the renowned classical music streaming service that offers an outstanding listening experience.

www.apple.com

 

[litemotiv]

I think that in this respect Roon is unique. You will not find an alternative to it. But the reason is rather that it's not (just) clever algorithms, but simply a lot of manual work that the people at Roon put into it to maintain the metadata.

Roon uses data from https://www.allmusic.com/, they don't curate anything manually. What Roon brings extra to the table (which is obviously useful) is that they link this data to the music you are playing.

If you don't mind having an extra browser window open, then you can do searches on AllMusic for any artists or albums you're interested in, and you will have (roughly) the same data available.

Edit: pro tip, the ads on AllMusic are somewhat intrusive, you can browse the site ad-free with a yearly subscription of $12.

 

[JoetheLion]

They don't curate anything manually, but they have to do a lot of work in programming to include (free and licensed) metadata in the best possible way. See here (a few years old but maybe still relevant?):

Roon Metadata: An Update

Arguably nothing is as central to Roon’s mission as our deep, extensively linked metadata. Our current system was born from nearly a decade of work focused on finding new ways for collectors to browse their music, beyond what’s possible with text fields and file tags. We’ve been extremely proud...

community.roonlabs.com

 

[litemotiv]

They don't curate anything manually, but they have to do a lot of work in programming to include (free and licensed) metadata in the best possible way. See here (a few years old but maybe still relevant?):

Sure it's arguably quite a bit of work.

Funny by the way, the forum post from 2013 where one of the lead programmers from Roon asks for help on how to retrieve data from AllMusic is still online:

AllMusic web search API?

Anyone know how I can search allmusic.com programmatically? Specifically, I want to get hold of Style information for a given album.

www.meridianunplugged.com

 

[Krist]

Thanks for the link to AllMusic. That is indeed usefull.

 

[Steve Rogers]

Krist, can't you just use the search function in your streaming service? I do this all the time with Deezer or i look for a review on Gramaphone and then search for a specific recording. Its true that sometimes the same composition is given different names so you sometimes need to search more than once but in general i am only interested in the top recommended recording or one by my favorite artist which is an easy search.

 

[Apesbrain]

Roon excels at handling classical music; nothing is its equal. Though not open source, LMS is free and can be configured to offer a "Roon-lite" experience. Install LMS on your server and let it index your local library. Then add the TIDAL, "Material Skin" and "Music and Artist Information" plugins. It might be all you need.

EDIT: You'll also need the "UPnP/DLNA bridge", "Chromecast bridge", and/or "AirPlay bridge" plugins if you use non-Squeezebox streamers.

 

[Snoopy]

All that raspberry pi stuff ends up costing money too if you want qobuz support. And it still won't be as good as Roon.

I tried Roon, audirvana, the Qobuz app, Yamaha music cast, Cambridge streammagic.

Roon is really something else. The other software looks and feels like it's 10 years behind.

The Cambridge streammagic app is ok if you just want a basic streamer. Same for the bluesound OS.

Audirvana is alright too but since they changed to a subscription based version I don't see why anybody should not just use Roon Instead.

Same for the pi streamers. Chromecast is not gapless. Airplay doesn't support hi-res. Bluetooth is crap. Free rasberry streamers cost money if you want the premium version.

So it's either pay for roon or settle for a bluesound node. At least for me.

My Cambridge Cxn V2 is roon ready (living room). And I have a MacBook M1 that I use only for music anyways. So I could just use that as a Roon core again (did the trial)

Nice thing about Roon is that my wife starts browsing qobuz on her ipad and listens to music on the stereo. That's basically already enough value for me

If only qobuz would finally Update their app and add a Roon-like skin + remote control

 

[JanesJr1]

There is one killer feature Roon that I liked a lot when I gave Roon a try for a few months.

Link Roon with Tidal, and you have a whole new way to access music that is very useful when you listen a lot to classical music. You can select a composer, a piece and then you get a list of all the different recordings available for that piece. You cannot do that directly on Tidal (not that I know).

Roon is not open source however. Is there an open source alternative that has this functionality? I guess it would need some free music database in order to function. Does this exist?

If you mean you're looking for a Roon like interface that does the classical search this way, I don't know. If you're just looking for a classical source that allows searches like this, Idagio does it. I don't know that it links into Roon or any other interface.

 

[NiagaraPete]

Roon is awesome but I can't justify the cost for one endpoint. Plexamp is a cheap alternative.

 

[Zensō]

There are lots of Roon fans out there, which is understandable given the feature set and attractive design. Their mobile controllers can be super buggy though. I use late model iPhones and iPads as my primary controllers and the Roon apps on those devices drive me crazy with crashes, UI quirks, and jittery scrolling. I’ve jumped through all of the hoops with Roon support for months and yet the bugs still persist (some of these issues go back over two years). And no, it’s not my network. The underlying issue is that Roon’s mobile apps are not built on native platforms, but instead are built on Xamarin which is a .Net cross-platform environment. Until Roon decides to move to the native platforms for iOS and Android, these controllers are likely to remain compromised. Sadly, I’ve given up in frustration and have moved to Apple Music as my primary streaming service. It’ll be interesting to see how Apple incorporates Primephonic into their steaming service; it may end up being be a good alternative to Roon for classical listeners.

 

[Snoopy]

There are lots of Roon fans out there, which is understandable given the feature set and attractive design. Their mobile controllers can be super buggy though. I use late model iPhones and iPads as my primary controllers and the Roon apps on those devices drive me crazy with crashes, UI quirks, and jittery scrolling. I’ve jumped through all of the hoops with Roon support for months and yet the bugs still persist (some of these issues go back over two years). And no, it’s not my network. The underlying issue is that Roon’s mobile apps are not built on native platforms, but instead are built on Xamarin which is a .Net cross-platform environment. Until Roon decides to move to the native platforms for iOS and Android, these controllers are likely to remain compromised. Sadly, I’ve given up in frustration and have moved to Apple Music as my primary streaming service. It’ll be interesting to see how Apple incorporates Primephonic into their steaming service; it may end up being be a good alternative to Roon for classical listeners.

Strange that you have issues with the remote app. I tried the app on a iPad air (not the current version) , iPhone 13 and a Xiaomi mi 9 lite android phone. And they work absolutely flawlessly.
Roon core is my MacBook air M1 In another room.

All over WiFi. No issue at all.

What I like most about roon is that it actually finds all The main albums from artists.. sometimes the Qobuz app and audio player pro would nearly drive me crazy when a major release by a artist wouldn't show up at all.

And room radio has been pretty amazing for me as well. Discovered so much stuff.

I'm thinking about just getting the lifetime license and a Mac mini M1 as roon core.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

Concertmaster, from Open Opus, might be worth a look (I'm not a classical fan, so not sure).

 

[Zensō]

Strange that you have issues with the remote app. I tried the app on a iPad air (not the current version) , iPhone 13 and a Xiaomi mi 9 lite android phone. And they work absolutely flawlessly.
Roon core is my MacBook air M1 In another room.

All over WiFi. No issue at all.

What I like most about roon is that it actually finds all The main albums from artists.. sometimes the Qobuz app and audio player pro would nearly drive me crazy when a major release by a artist wouldn't show up at all.

And room radio has been pretty amazing for me as well. Discovered so much stuff.

I'm thinking about just getting the lifetime license and a Mac mini M1 as roon core.

It’s not only me. The Roon support forum has a number of long threads with similar complaints from many iOS users, from the present going back at least a few years. It’s not only crashes and bugs (which are numerous for many), but also their refusal (or inability) to implement iOS UI standards.

 

[Snoopy]

It’s not only me. The Roon support forum has a number of long threads with similar complaints from many iOS users, from the present going back at least a few years. It’s not only crashes and bugs (which are numerous for many), but also their refusal (or inability) to implement iOS UI standards.

Maybe I'm just using roon in a very basic way. But I don't have any issues at all since I upgraded my router to one with WiFi 6 and get the M1 MacBook with wifi6.

Qobuz + Tidal along with my small local library (on the MacBook) has been super painless.
I'm using a bit of DSP but that's it pretty much.

What iOS standards would that be ?

Are you using a app like amphetamine to prevent your core to going to sleep etc?

My (old) windows laptop with a intel I5 was a nightmare with both audirvana and roon. And both remote apps would constantly disconnect and only a reboot would fix the issue