Roon 1.8 Is Here: Let The Discovery Begin

I’ve had the opportunity to play around in the new Roon, v1.8, for the past month or so, and we’ve become ever better friends.

It’s difficult to know which of the new features people will like most because we all tend to focus on different things. For some,

The Vertical Scroll

….will appear as if manna from heaven.

Speaking of focus, Roon 1.8 brings with it improved an improved Focus feature that can now be used to find music anywhere in Roon – even across Qobuz and TIDAL – giving you a 360- view of your favorite artists, genre, performers and composers.

For visually-oriented Roon-ers, the refreshed layout offers bigger, bolder and more color-filled views which I’ve found refreshing. Different elements are easier to identify at a glance and for anyone with a good memory, you’ll see that Roon’s recommended New Releases for me, which appears on the new Home screen, are a near one-to-match with Stephen Mejias’ #NewMusicFriday picks which means that Roon is very smart.

The new Home screen also provides a handy overview of your recent listening habits (yes, I really really like Phoebe Bridgers Punisher).

Artists pages now offer a deeper and more refined view. The main post image and the top image above shows parts of the Overview for Eric Dolphy, while the Discography view, above, provides a Roon-curated selection of Main albums.

If you continue on your Vertical Scrolling journey of Eric Dolphy’s Overview, additional graphically appealing views into the music of the artist come into better focus.

Classical music lovers also get some improved love from the new Discography feature that includes a comprehensive new “performances” view, where you can use Focus to find the exact performance you’re looking for. Interested in hearing Martha Argerich performing Chopin? Maybe a Nocturne? All Bach recordings by Glenn Gould? In just a couple clicks, Focus will get you there.