If you’ve been following my posts for any length of time, you may know that I have a deep and abiding love for music. That love began early, listening to jazz records with my father, was set ablaze by the Beatles in the mid-60s, and continues to burn brightly today.

From the moment I started earning my own money, I’ve been an avid collector of music in all its forms. Over the years, I’ve owned music on nearly every format ever released—buying or downloading more than 1,000 albums. That may sound excessive, but I know collectors with libraries far larger than mine!

As an aspiring musician, one of the most compelling aspects of collecting has always been the history and stories behind the music. I’ve spent countless hours exploring musicians’ careers and tracing their creative paths. When I was collecting LPs (or “vinyl,” as they’re now called), the album covers were an incredible resource. They often featured striking photos, complete lyrics, and detailed musician credits. Many of my favorite artists were discovered simply by following the thread—if I liked someone on album XYZ, I’d hunt down their next recording.

In the mid-1980s, I made the shift to digital and began buying CDs. While not everyone agrees, I found their sound quality superior to LPs, and they were blissfully free of the dust and scratches that could ruin vinyl playback. Eventually, streaming took over—and yes, I (gasp!) gifted my entire LP collection to a close friend who’s passionate about vinyl.

Despite the convenience of CDs and streaming, something vital was missing: the joy of easily discovering musical connections and hidden gems. That sense of exploration eluded me for years—until I discovered Roon.

Roon is a powerful music management and discovery platform that revived the deep-dive experience I’d been missing. Before parting with my LPs, I made a list of every album I’d ever owned and tagged them as favorites in Tidal, my streaming service of choice. Roon integrates with Tidal (and Qobuz), giving me rich, detailed information on every album. It also syncs with local digital libraries, seamlessly blending metadata from your digitized collection with your streaming catalog.

It’s hard to fully capture how Roon works without seeing it in action, but here’s a brief excerpt from their site:

“While traditional music apps focus on playlists and algorithms, Roon encourages organic discovery. Click on a jazz trumpeter, and you might find yourself tracing the lineage of bebop across decades. Explore an obscure composer, and you're led to performers, ensembles, and related genres. Roon connects the dots between artists, producers, composers, and collaborators with an academic depth that rivals music encyclopedias—but with the accessibility of a modern interface. If you’ve ever wished for a deeper connection to the music you love—or a better way to discover what you might love—Roon just might be the key to unlocking that joy.”

For me, it certainly has. Roon has rekindled my love and appreciation for the music of my lifetime. If you have the time and interest to curate your collection in a more meaningful way, I highly recommend checking it out—you won’t regret it.