Napster É A Primeira A Incorporar GIF em Seu Streaming

Napster Becomes The First Streaming Music Service To Incorporate GIFs

One of the biggest problems facing streaming music services that have not already been able to gather audiences in the millions is differentiation. When every company has the same catalog at the same price point, what can convince a user to go with a lesser-known platform instead of one of the more popular options? This is a question that many companies have had to deal with, and every so often one rolls out a new feature that might not be a game-changer but is worthy of consideration.

Today, Napster (formerly Rhapsody) has just become the first streaming music site to incorporate GIFs into its listening platform as part of an update aimed at significantly improving the playlist-making experience. The company has partnered with online GIF titan GIPHY to make millions of short, looping videos available to add to playlists, which is something that has been missing from streaming. 

Those who use their Napster account to create playlists for parties, for friends or even just for themselves will now be able to cover them with a GIF, which can often be much better at expressing the precise mood or feeling the music about to be played conveys than the album art associated with singles.

In addition to making playlists much more visually appealing with GIFs, users can now also take recommendations from the service when creating their next run of songs. Napster has added a Tinder-like function that takes cues from what songs have already been added to a playlist before suggesting what should come next. Users can listen to a few seconds of a song and swipe one way or the other, depending on if they like what they’ve been served or not. 

Neither of these new features will convince many to switch services or begin paying if they aren't already, but they are welcome additions to the streaming world. While many of the bigger services already allow users to make as many playlists as they want, that’s typically where the fun ends. Sharing these creations isn’t always easy, and there aren’t many options when it comes to creating or adding a cover, nor is there much help for those users who aren’t sure what they should add next. Napster is taking a step forward with these sensible innovations, which probably should have been made available a long time ago.