The music discovery, management, and streaming platform Roon is for music lovers. Roon was acquired by Harman, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, which focuses on collected technologies for the automotive, consumer, and enterprise industries. With its versatile playing engine that produces the greatest sound possible, compatibility with nearly any audio device, and intuitive interface for exploring and finding music, Roon produces a line of hardware server appliances known as Nucleus that is available for all widely used operating systems. With its current staff, Roon will function as a stand-alone Harman company. All of Roon’s activities will remain open and focused on providing engaging and customized audio experiences across the range of platforms and devices, in line with the shared goal of expanding Roon’s community of device partners and customers.
In keeping with its work with all approaches, Harman is dedicated to expanding Roon’s open device ecosystem, which entails working with over 160 other audio companies to provide audio to over 1000 high-performance devices. With the acquisition, Roon’s outstanding UI/UX design knowledge and commitment to its devoted community will further grow and thrive. If Harman were to acquire Roon’s multi-room streaming technology internally, it might be able to take Sonos on more directly. A line of Wi-Fi-enabled smart speakers named JBL authentics was recently introduced by the corporation under its JBL name. Despite supporting a number of wireless technologies like Google Chromecast and Apple AirPlay, the speakers don’t have a multi-room audio-specific platform.
Numerous well-known and well-liked wireless headphones and earbuds are also produced by JBL. It seems possible that Harman may utilize Roon to give these devices audiophile-calibre capabilities when used at home, given Qualcomm’s declaration that its most recent Snapdragon chipsets will have Wi-Fi.
Dave Rogers, President, Lifestyle Division, HARMAN, states, At HARMAN, we take great pride in our ability to create exceptional audio experiences for our partners and consumers around the world. The team at Roon shares our passion for 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.”
Enno Vandermeer, CEO of Roon, said, “Our team is ecstatic to join Harman, a visionary company that has been leading the audio industry forward for decades. 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.”
