John Darko
Roon has always been an Apple-grade streaming system within the hi-fi enthusiast space — and some would say with Apple pricing to match. It streams to pretty much everything that isn’t already a Roon Ready device – including AirPlay, Google Chromecast and Sonos devices – all without sending the end user into system configuration hell. One-click and you’re up and running with your network endpoint of choice.
Furthermore, the Roon app’s hyper-linked interface is both album art-heavy and with – Tidal and/or Qobuz integrated – can go long on music discovery via Roon Radio or curated playlists. In many ways, Roon is like your favourite 1990s music magazine that comes alive with music. One-click and you’re up and running with tunes: sometimes long-forgotten, sometimes new but always with gapless playback.
These are but some of the reasons why Roon has been my go-to music streaming system at home since its launch in 2015. And so it was really only a matter of time before Roon would get snapped up by a larger corporation. And today that day arrives with the news that HARMAN (a Samsung subsidiary) has acquired Roon with the core Roon team staying on to oversee product development for the foreseeable future.
Here’s the press release, copied and pasted verbatim…
HARMAN Acquires Roon, a popular Multi-Device, Multi-Room Audio Technology Platform
Roon’s Audiophile-Quality Music Aggregation, Connectivity and Streaming Technology to Complement HARMAN’s Comprehensive Audio Offerings
STAMFORD, CT – November 27, 2023 – HARMAN, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer, and enterprise markets, today announced the acquisition of Roon, the music management, discovery, and streaming platform for music enthusiasts.
Roon is a music player platform for music enthusiasts, which features a rich interface for browsing and discovering music, compatibility with almost any audio device, and a playback engine designed to deliver the best possible sound. Roon is available for all popular operating systems and manufactures a line of hardware server appliances called Nucleus.
“At HARMAN we take great pride in our ability to create exceptional audio experiences for our partners and consumers around the world,” said Dave Rogers, President, Lifestyle Division, HARMAN. “The team at Roon shares our passion in bringing exceptional sound and connectivity to music lovers as they browse, discover, and listen at home and on the go. We are looking forward to welcoming Roon, whose impressive talent will join the HARMAN family and bolster our already robust engineering capabilities.”
Roon will operate as a standalone Harman business with its existing team. All Roon operations will stay in place and continue to be dedicated to serving and growing Roon’s community of device partners and customers, under a joint mission to deliver engaging and personalized audio experiences across a universe of products and platforms.
Aligned with its ‘work with all’ strategy, HARMAN is committed to growing Roon’s open device ecosystem which includes collaborating with more than 160 other audio brands, delivering audio to more than 1000 high-performance devices. Roon’s dedication to its loyal community and its exceptional UI/UX design expertise will continue to expand and flourish with the acquisition.
“Our team is ecstatic to join HARMAN, a visionary company that has been leading the audio industry forward for decades,” said Enno Vandermeer, CEO of Roon. “By combining forces with HARMAN, Roon gains the incredible scale, resources, and reach of a global technology leader, while maintaining our independence to invest in the business’s growth and future. We look forward to continuing to bring our advanced data management, SaaS expertise, and consumer engagement capabilities to our broad ecosystem of partners, as we join forces with HARMAN to deliver even greater audio experiences to our customers.”
