I was right there with you in terms of expense/looks-great uncertainty. What ultimately changed my mind was last year they did a 4-months-for-$4 deal, and that was finally a long enough time for me to really test it out and see if I dug it. The short version is: if you have a large local library I think Roon at least is great, and Tidal makes it a little more fun.
The long version: I know it's a lot of money, and I'm not looking to die on this hill, but here's the bullet point list of why it really works for me:
- I have a large (400gb) lossless local library, and I really wanted an intelligent way to just put it on "random", if that makes sense. So the truly killer feature for me is being able to play an album/song -- and then have that mood continue afterwards without my interaction. My own local Spotify is worth quite a bit to me, as it turns out.
- related to the above -- I'm aware lifetime license means just the company, and I've been bitten before. But the people behind it have specifically stated that, in the event of a buyout or closing of shop, they would release a final "untethered" version of their product. They also apparently have a history of supporting products in similar ways, since I believe their previous, defunct companies servers are still operational.
- The metadata/connections are pretty fabulous. They have coverage for a significant amount of niche artists, and plenty of backup photos/notes. They do a great job of connecting musicians in the same "scenes" too, so I've had fun exploring my own library wiki-style and learning influences and collaborations I would never know otherwise.
- the wide cross-compatibility with other audio hardware. Not something I've explored much, but very reassuring since I can make it play out of pretty much anything I want.
- I realize Tidal is somewhat opposed to the local-Spotify goal I listed up top, but Tidal also had a deal at the same time, so I figured why not.
- What ends up happening is that I listen to an album or two I own, get busy in something -- then realize it's switched to Tidal and it's something I've never heard/like. I then go on Bandcamp and buy the album, thus adding it to my local library.
So it's given me this nice loop of discovery, to collection, to adding it to the main queue for when I switch to library-only mode.
()I was also fortunate enough to have a job during this pandemic, so I figured I could use the stimulus for something I would not otherwise purchase -- the lifetime license.)
CONS:
- Lossless music isn't a dealbreaker in a streaming service for me, so I do wish they integrated with something a little cheaper like Apple Music or even Spotify. But I get that's against their Audiophiliac Code of Conduct, and I can live with it.
- No good way to use it remotely, like in the car. Hopefully that'll be a part of 2.0.