Harman Acquires Roon Music Management Platform and Aggregation Service

November 27 2023, 17:00
Harman, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, announced the acquisition of Roon, the music management, discovery, and streaming platform for music enthusiasts, headquartered in Bedford, NY. For Harman, the acquisition of Roon - apart from the considerable global user community - means access to the connectivity and streaming technology that complements Harman's existing portfolio, particularly for its Luxury Audio division.
Roon was always the media library and streaming player software for those users who want to appreciate cover artwork and read all about the artists and all the recording credits, as much as listening to the music. 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. Recently, the company expanded its mobile experience with the Roon ARC app for iOS and Android mobile devices.

"At Harman we take great pride in our ability to create exceptional audio experiences for our partners and consumers around the world," says 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."

According to the acquisition announcement, 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 also states that it remains 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," the announcement says.

"Our team is ecstatic to join Harman, a visionary company that has been leading the audio industry forward for decades," says 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."
www.roonlabs.com
www.harman.com
 

 
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About Joao Martins
Since 2013, Joao Martins leads audioXpress as editor-in-chief of the US-based magazine and website, the leading audio electronics, audio product development and design publication, working also as international editor for Voice Coil, the leading periodical for... Read more

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