Sonos targets platform audiophiles by qobuz

In that sense I would say Roon competes more with Sonos then it does Spotify. The playback options for the home become Sonos-like, but with far better quality and UX for a true music library. That has obvious disadvantages, but the advantages it brings are significant as well: their playback options are oriented around home zones and Roon endpoints (of which there can be many, and they're very flexible including mobile devices, airplay, 'Roon Ready' network players, or DIY clients). Roon's goal isn't to be your on-the-go, mobile, access anywhere music platform, it is a home music library platform specifically. It's significantly better optimized for listening at home. The feel becomes more like you're curating a music collection than browsing an infinite realm of music. When you find an album on your streaming service, you can of course just play it-but you can also add it to your library, and in that case it becomes exactly as though you've purchased and downloaded it in file form.

I find this very different from most streaming services, and it feels more like shopping around for Albums as you'd buy them in a record shop than it does picking out individual tracks in the modern digital sense. The philosophy of Roon centers around your library, and your library primarily centers around Albums as opposed to Tracks. I have a few thoughts on it as it differs from your standard standalone streaming service (Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, Apple Music, etc). I have a total of 20,000 tracks in my library, with only ~5,000 of those being from streaming (Qobuz). I use Roon with a mix of local library and streaming library music.

Sonos targets platform audiophiles by qobuz