Napster’s next act is an AI assistant made for the Mac

Remember when Napster was the go-to network for finding songs shared by people you’d never met? NOW. Napster wants to help you find everything else using – what else – a stable of AI assistants.

Last June, the company announced Napster Companion, a platform that offers a range of AI-powered agents that can provide advice on a wide range of topics. To interact with Napster Companion, the company offers Napster View, a 2.1-inch 3D holographic display that sits atop your MacBook like a webcam.

Napster held a media presentation last Thursday to show Napster Companion at work. It has a large number of AI-based assistants ready to interact with you on a variety of topics: cooking, design, education, finance, fitness, health, software development, etc. When you need advice on a topic, an AI-powered assistant (which is human-shaped and appears in the Napster view) appears and interacts with you in real time.

During a demo, Napster’s Edo Segal showed an example of how Companion can help someone. Segal used an AI assistant named Nyx to create a few songs while he chatted with the assistant. In another demo, Segal attempted to get technical support with Apple’s Test Flight software development tool. The AI ​​assistant named Amit appeared, but the demo stopped when the assistant was unresponsive. The AI ​​assistants had natural voices and speaking cadences; Edo said the responses were generated in real time and were not prepared responses.

Napster

The Napster device can also generate an “AI twin” that can communicate with other app users when you are unavailable. Segal called it “voicemail on steroids” and said he uses his own digital twin every week.

Napster is making Companion and View available on Mac first, with support for other platforms later. The first reason for the Mac is: Apple silicon. “The Mac is a uniform platform with a very powerful GPU, which is necessary,” said Segal, who pointed out that video from Companion AI assistants is generated on the device. “We have a neural network running on your Mac that creates this video, and that allows us to deliver it to you.” A PC version is planned for next year.

The companion costs $19 per month, or $219 per year. This includes the Napster View device, which can also be purchased separately for $99. Usage-based options are also available, with 100 hours of Companion access for $95 without Napster View. A 200-hour subscription with Napster View costs $189.

Napster began as a peer-to-peer file sharing application in 1999 and was primarily used to freely distribute copyrighted files, such as music. A series of lawsuits caused Napster to shut down and eventually go bankrupt. After that, the Napster brand was sold several times, with Infinite Reality purchasing it earlier this year for $207 million. Infinite Reality now uses the brand for its AI products.