While You Ate Turkey, This Was Happening: Harman Buys Roon

(November 27, 2023) In one of the more interesting acquisitions of the year, Harman has purchased Roon, the music management, discovery, and streaming platform adored by hardcore music enthusiasts. If this raises red flags and leaves you concerned about potential changes to the Roon experience, rest assured; it appears there's no cause for alarm. According to Harman, Roon will operate as a standalone Harman business, and its existing team will stay intact to serve Roon's community of device partners and customers.

"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."

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.

"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."

Of course, this is great news, especially for Roon users with gear that falls outside of the Harman ecosystem. For a rundown of Roon's latest partner/device announcements, in addition to a detailed explanation of recent Roon software enhancements and what they mean for Windows and Mac Roon Core users, read the Roon November Blog, here.


Additional Reading:

• Home Theater News Review: HTMR 11.27.23 PLUS Cyber Monday Deals!
• Dirac Collaborates with sonoro, Brings Dirac Live Room Correction to the New MAESTRO Quantum Receiver
• Affordable WiiM Streamers Can Inject Your Audio System w/ Wireless Hi-Res Functionality! CEDIA 2023
• Korg and Auro-3D Join Forces to Bolster Korg's "Live Extreme," Delivering Hi-Res Audio and Video Streaming

 

[JStewart]

Hmmm. There’s a large number of Harman competitors on the Roon partners list. I wonder what they think about it?

What does Roon work with?

roon.app

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Maybe this will be good... I love Roon and have the lifetime subscription.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I think this is super positive from a financial support perspective. Roon has a tough model, especially as streaming services get better at presenting a cohesive experience. How much more can it grow? Can it make a case for younger generations that only want to stream (same for causal listeners)?

Great product, limited market.

 

[austinblackboxspace]

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(November 27, 2023) In one of the more interesting acquisitions of the year, Harman has purchased Roon, the music management, discovery, and streaming platform adored by hardcore music enthusiasts. If this raises red flags and leaves you concerned about potential changes to the Roon experience, rest assured; it appears there's no cause for alarm. According to Harman, Roon will operate as a standalone Harman business, and its existing team will stay intact to serve Roon's community of device partners and customers.

"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."

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.

"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."

Of course, this is great news, especially for Roon users with gear that falls outside of the Harman ecosystem. For a rundown of Roon's latest partner/device announcements, in addition to a detailed explanation of recent Roon software enhancements and what they mean for Windows and Mac Roon Core users, read the Roon November Blog, here.


Additional Reading:

• Home Theater News Review: HTMR 11.27.23 PLUS Cyber Monday Deals!
• Dirac Collaborates with sonoro, Brings Dirac Live Room Correction to the New MAESTRO Quantum Receiver
• Affordable WiiM Streamers Can Inject Your Audio System w/ Wireless Hi-Res Functionality! CEDIA 2023
• Korg and Auro-3D Join Forces to Bolster Korg's "Live Extreme," Delivering Hi-Res Audio and Video Streaming

interesting. my wife has the crazy first gen devialet phantoms in her campus office.