HARMAN BUYS ROON
Jim Austin
Roon, the server/music-management software of choice for many audiophiles, has been sold to Harman, the parent company of Mark Levinson, Revel, and JBL as well as AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, and Lexicon. Since 2017, Harman has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. The sale was announced in a press release on November 27.
In that press release, Harman committed to continuing Roon’s “open to all” strategy; that is, the software will not become exclusive to Harman products. “Roon will operate as a standalone Harman business with its existing team,” the press release continued. “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.”
“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, with notable enthusiasm. “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.”
So, is this deal good or bad for those of us who appreciate Roon? Online opinion has swung both ways. There are risks, I suppose: Software projects work best when they’re small—too many cooks can spoil the music, so tossing Roon to Harman/Samsung could be problematic. That isn’t likely, though, unless the new management involves itself too much in Roon’s business, and it’s clear from the press release that Harman understands the risks. They seem unlikely to make that mistake.
My take: Roon will continue as before, with access to more resources, for development and marketing. Those who bought a lifetime license can now rest easy, because this deal assures Roon’s long-term viability. (An early adopter of Roon, I was too risk averse back then to buy a lifetime license. I have now spent considerably more than what that license would have cost for annual renewals.)
Here’s the possibility that excites me, though I know it’s a longshot: For years, I’ve thought Roon’s and “Addicted to Love,” who died much too early, at age 54—was listed in the info for Miles Davis’s . Why? Because another Robert Palmer—the great music writer best known for , who also died too early—wrote liner notes for one reissue, and the two Robert Palmers got mixed up. (Robert Palmer the music writer was also listed in the Roon credits for .)
