Roon with/without Apple Music

[fordiebianco]

Dear All,

I have used Apple Music (and iTunes before) pretty much since the release of the first click wheel iPod, so ca 24 years. I am firmly enshrined in the Apple ecosystem and am happy to use my iPhone and various Macs for streaming at home and away.

But.

First world problem, I know, but Apple Music has been tearing my ripped album collection apart and filed (particularly my classical rips) quite randomly, so that instead having one album on Music after ripping a Mahler symphony CD , you end up with three different instances of them in iTunes.

I have a few dozen albums I bought from Apple as downloads. Would adding Roon to my home stream environment make a difference here, particularly around Apple's erratic filing attempts?

Hope this makes sense.

 

[qirex]

Roon does support airplay and has more robust metadata and organization options for classical but one of the big value-adds of it is integrating local music with streaming and you won’t get any of that. I’m hoping with the Harman buyout they might have better resources to convince (read: bribe) them into support because I’d prefer Apple Music as well but for now it’s Tidal and Qobuz. I guess Samsung owning it might also make them less likely to integrate, but nobody who knows for sure is willing to talk about it.

For the price I don’t see it being worth it, maybe look into a more advanced retagger.

 

[fordiebianco]

THank you for your help. Ahem, what's an 'advanced retagger'?

 

[qirex]

THank you for your help. Ahem, what's an 'advanced retagger'?

Something like Musicbrainz Picard or Meta for Mac can at least get things organized how you like them. Tag updating in Apple Music is a chore.

 

[BeeKay]

Yeah. Would happily drop Tidal and feed Roon with Apple Music. Just doesn’t feel it’s ever gonna happen. Apple simply don’t care about niches.

 

[Zgrado1970]

I stopped using Apple Music and switched to Roon because of the hash it made of my library when I tried to integrate my CD collection. I am very happy about that choice, because of the music discovery and headphone eq, as well as seamless integration of streamed content and ripped CDs. But Roon is its own thing, and Roon will never have Apple Music streaming.

 

[fordiebianco]

Something like Musicbrainz Picard or Meta for Mac can at least get things organized how you like them. Tag updating in Apple Music is a chore.

Brillant. Just what I need. Any particular preference?

 

[amper42]

Yeah. Would happily drop Tidal and feed Roon with Apple Music. Just doesn’t feel it’s ever gonna happen. Apple simply don’t care about niches.

I'm an Apple lover since 1984. But Apple Music is one of my least favorite music interfaces. Even iTunes was better than Apple Music. The interface I really like is Audirvana and Qobuz. It offers a superior interface, more control and is way easier to use. I bought Audirvana back in 2020 when you could simply buy the app. Now they require renting if you want the streaming version. It's not hugely expensive but I've never been a fan of renting software.

Another option I tried recently, instead of just using RPI4/Moode as a streamer I copied lots of tunes to the SDCARD and played them directly from Moode. Not a bad option if you don't own Audirvana.

 

[qirex]

Brillant. Just what I need. Any particular preference?

I haven't used any in ages, I only buy a few CDs a month and let Roon handle tagging now, but I'd start with free options.

 

[ceedee]

I love Apple Music but the tagging capabilities are lacking. It works great on Mac but the Windows app is barely functional.

 

[Madlop26]

Yeah, I stopped fixing albums in my Apple Music account long time ago, not worth it, instead I just do search or playlist.
For streaming of my own music files I use "Music Assistant" now, it is not as sleek and informative as Roon, but finds all my players around the house, has DSP, metadata was as good as Roon for my collection, and is FREE, But still a little glitchy tough, still in Beta, and needs a learning curve, but hear me here, has integration with Apple music!. ok still not perfect, not officially supported, the developers purchased Apple Developer account through donations, but now I can listen to my apple music playlist or my music collection anywhere in my house now, besides as part of Home Assistant you can do crazy automatizations with your music, but will drive you wife nuts tough.