Napster relaunches as AI music platform, letting users co-create with AI artists instead of streaming

Napster Is Now a Slop Farm for AI Music

When it comes to AI slop, the hits just keep coming, and Napster (yes, that Napster) is responsible for the latest banger. Much to my chagrin, everyone over 30's favorite music piracy site is back from the dead zombie-style, and this time it's billing itself as a platform where people (not people I care to know) can go and create AI music slop together. Here's what the new CEO, some guy named John Acunto, has to say about all that: “Napster was born to break boundaries, and we’re doing it again. We see this as a declaration that the age of passive consumption is over. Fans aren’t here to be fed a playlist. They’re here to co-create, to fuse their identity with AI artists in real time, and to shape the soundtrack of a new era.†Sure, whatever you say, John. Because if there's one thing people hate, it's listening to music. So passé. You can go ahead and delete Spotify or Apple Music, everyone. Thanks to zombie Napster, you're co-creators now, not just a sheep who merely (scoffs) listens to music. There's, regrettably, a lot to unpack in the new direction for Napster, but the gist of it is that you can download an app (or use Napster on the web) to dive in and start generating music as you would on similar music slop apps like Suno. If music isn't your thing, then you can also generate podcasts, which is an even more depressing thought somehow. Napster doesn't just want you to listen to AI slop on its platform, though; as we already established, it envisions you as a collaborator, meaning you'll have the option to interact with its slop-generating chatbots. Naturally, I gave that harrowing idea a whirl, so you don't have to. I had the pleasure of interacting with slop specialist "Nia Jenkins," whom I prompted to make "AI slopo," which is a typo of "AI slop" that I didn't bother to fix. After a few minutes of "thinking," Nia generated me a song about AI slop, which was pretty meta if I do say so myself, and it sounded, well, a lot like AI slop with a hip-hop/R&B styling. I also made the mistake of allowing microphone access, which lets you speak to the chatbot and prompt it with words out of your mouth. If you've ever had a conversation with ChatGPT, it's the same vibe. Do I regret giving Napster access to my microphone? Yes. There's no second leg to that statement. I just regret it. The whole thing is as deflating as you'd expect. You type some words, and Napster's chatbot churns out some sounds that I'm told are meant to be music. To no one's surprise, Napster doesn't give any insight into what data its chatbot is trained on, but if I had to guess, it'd be copyrighted music. In that way, the new Napster embodies the same spirit as the old Napster, which at its core was all about stealing. Unfortunately, this stealing just isn't as fun as the old stealing. I mean, at least the other Napster pissed Metallica off. If I'm being honest, the whole thing just feels very hollow, but I'm not sure what one would expect from a platform that is predicated on taking the creativity, skill, and soul out of one of the greatest artistic mediums ever to grace humankind. I mean, just look at this official zombie Napster picture (which I am going to assume is AI-generated). The AI image generator literally tried and failed to steal an iconic Nirvana shirt, folks; you can't make this stuff up. I don't know, man, maybe I'm just not reading the room here. Maybe we all just hate making music now, and zombie Napster is the next big thing. Maybe John whatshisface is on the precipice of laughing his ass all the way to the AI-generated bank. Or maybe zombie Napster is destined to wind up the same way as the original Napsterâ€"as a footnote in the long and sordid history of music versus technology. Just a much, much, much smaller one.

I tried the new Napster app and built an AI-artist playlist -- here's what surprised me

Napster is back with a new reason for musicians to be concerned When people try to guess my age, I usually just start talking and give it away instantly. The moment I mention downloading music on LimeWire or Napster, anyone under 25 looks at me like I just described the invention of fire. I've been called "Unc" more than once. Which makes it especially surreal that Napster -- yes, that Napster -- is back, and this time it's not about downloading MP3s. It's about AI-generated music. I downloaded the new app expecting a novelty. Instead, I found a massive lineup of AI "artists" releasing songs across nearly every genre you can think of -- some I love, some I absolutely don't. The platform also lets anyone generate their own AI tracks, but for this experiment I stuck to listening. No creating, no tweaking, just pressing play and seeing what showed up. Some tracks genuinely surprised me with decent production and catchy hooks. Others sounded like they were composed by a robot that had just learned what emotions are five minutes ago. I ended up building a full playlist of the AI songs that stood out -- both the ones I'd play again and the ones that, to put it plainly, really missed the mark. What I found wasn't just a gimmick. It was a strange mix of impressive, awkward and occasionally hilarious -- and it says a lot about where AI music is heading next. So I went ahead and did some extensive listening to the first batch of songs available on Napster's new AI app. The genres it features so far include hip-hop, pop, metal, rhythm & blues, etc. I did all the hard work by going through every track labeled under that group of genres, and a few others, to hear which AI musical artists made it onto my self-explanatory playlists: "Bangers" and "Duds." So without further ado, here's how my playlists looked after my dedicated listening session on Napster's AI app: I'm pretty open-minded to all types of music, so I had fun diving into all the genres and accompanying tracks through Napster's music tab. The 12 songs I enjoyed happened to fall under the umbrella of my favorite musical categories and sound like the sort of quality tunes I'd throw on my iPod Classic (yes, I still carry one of those around! Don't judge me...). "Midnight Serenade" ended up being the AI song I went back to the most since it reminded me of an '80s R&B jam, while "Summer Breeze" got skipped real fast since it sounded like every generic electronic dance tune you'd hear in a Vegas club. So I'm of two minds here. Napster's collective of AI-generated artists and music seems like more of a fun side activity for curious audiophiles and producers who just want to play around with the technology. But to see Napster go all-in on AI points to the disappointing trend of real artists taking a backseat to the record industry choosing to prioritize AI content. Seeing major labels "signing" AI artists, flooding streaming services with AI-generated music, forgoing true art in favor of "AI slop" optimized for algorithms, and using AI to keep costs down by making music with a simple text prompt is disheartening. It's pretty crazy to see AI artist-made songs chart on Billboard. If you've heard the likes of "Walk My Walk" by Breaking Rust and "Let Go, Let God" by Xania Monet, you've already been exposed to AI artists that may sound eerily similar to some of your other favorite artists. At the end of the day, I'll always champion human musicians and the incredible music (warts and all) they regularly churn out. The songs that made me bop my head via the Napster AI app simply won't overtake the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Devin Morrison, Kaytranada, and Moonchild. Real music will always take precedence over music that sounds and feels like it was made through a simple AI prompt -- I need music with soul, and AI music still lacks that integral element. Napster's new AI-focused app is more of a fun toy to play with when it comes to creating content. Plus, its bevy of AI-created music ranges from shockingly enjoyable to unsurprisingly trash. I envision some beginner musical producers experimenting with the app to create their own tunes, but I just don't see experienced music makers taking it seriously. I left the app with some songs that I'll listen to now and then, but the music made by artists who actually live and breathe will always be preferable to my ears.

Napster's back -- and its new AI-first app wants you to help create the music, not just listen to it

Human-like AI music collaborators help you create the music you want Anybody old enough to remember the early-2000s file-sharing boom will remember Napster. It was the music-sharing platform that broke the internet, defied copyright law, and was sued out of existence, only for its core idea to be reborn later by Spotify, Apple, and the rest. Now Napster is back, and instead of being only about sharing music, it's about making and collaborating on it using AI. The new Napster app for iOS and Android (or via the web) is built entirely around AI-generated content and real-time creation tools. You can think of Napster as something of a hub for everything audio. It offers AI-driven music, podcasts, wellness experiences, and what the company calls "collaborative creation." "Napster was born to break boundaries, and we're doing it again," said John Acunto, CEO of Napster. "We see this as a declaration that the age of passive consumption is over. Fans aren't here to be fed a playlist. They're here to co-create, to fuse their identity with AI artists in real time, and to shape the soundtrack of a new era." With no traditional record companies involved, Napster is certainly pushing the boundaries of music once more. However, it's entering a space that's already occupied by incumbents like Suno, which arguably offer more detailed tools for creating AI-generated music, as well as a lot of backlash against the whole concept. On the plus side, it's certainly easy to create music with the new Napster. Once you load the app, you're asked to choose an AI collaborator to help you create music. Each AI mentor represents a different genre -- hip-hop, rock, country, pop, indie, and so on. You simply select your music mentor, then type in what kind of music you'd like to create. The app then generates tracks for you. You don't have that much control over how the music sounds from that point on. I downloaded the Napster app and asked one of its AI music collaborators, @nyx Nina Jenkins, its hip-hop music specialist, to help me create something with a "Bristol, UK sound like Massive Attack." After a few seconds, Bristol Nights, my 3:07-minute AI creation, was ready and available to share. It even came with a video of Nina rapping, although it wasn't lip-synced to the song. The app also generated a few similar tracks for me to listen to. They all sounded moody and downbeat, as requested, but a bit soulless and bland, a little too perfect, but still pleasant enough to listen to, which is a familiar criticism of most AI-generated music. Since it used "Massive Attack" and "Bristol" as lyrics in the songs, I don't think Napster really understood anything about the classic UK band or the Bristol trip-hop scene of the 1990s. This isn't the first time Napster has ventured into AI. Last year, it released a hardware product called Napster View AI, which put holographic AI experts on your desktop to help with whatever problem you were working on. And if you use the new Napster app via its macOS app, you can interact with the music experts via the Napster View hardware on a dedicated second screen. The conversational AI video companions in the Napster app are a nice touch and make music creation feel more collaborative. However, given the backlash against AI music from traditional artists, it's hard to know how Napster's new direction will land with anyone who remembers its heyday in the early 2000s. That said, it's almost certainly going to appeal to a younger audience. Whether that's enough to make Napster relevant again is an open question. For older listeners, the brand still carries the baggage of lawsuits, backlash, and a music industry it once helped upend. For younger users, none of that history really matters. To them, Napster isn't a cautionary tale; it's just another creative platform in a world where music is something you generate, remix, and share in real time, and that doesn't involve real artists. If the original Napster was about taking control away from the industry, this new version is betting that the next revolution is about taking control away from the artist, too.

Napster is back -- and its new AI app replaces playlists with AI artists

The new AI-first mobile app focuses on co-creation and experimentation Napster -- yes, that Napster -- has launched a redesigned mobile app for iOS and Android, and it looks nothing like a traditional music streaming service. Instead of offering licensed catalogs from record labels, the new Napster app is built entirely around AI-generated content. That includes music, podcasts, wellness audio and what the company calls "AI Companions" -- conversational video agents designed to collaborate with users in real time. The shift marks a sharp break from the streaming model most listeners are used to. There are no top 100 charts, no major-label releases and no passive listening queues. Napster says the goal is to turn listeners into creators, letting users co-create music and audio experiences directly inside the app rather than just press play. At the center of the experience are interactive tools that let users shape sound, experiment with genres and engage with AI agents that respond, adapt and build alongside them. In Napster's framing, the app isn't meant to replace Spotify or Apple Music -- it's trying to redefine what a music app can be in the age of generative AI. It's a bold reinvention for a brand once synonymous with digital disruption. Two decades after helping upend the music industry, Napster is betting that AI-powered creation -- not licensed streaming -- is the next frontier. What's different about the new Napster app At its core, the new Napster app is an AI creation platform rather than a streaming service. Users can interact with AI artists, experiment with original music generation and publish finished tracks without needing production software or technical expertise. According to the company, features in the app include: * AI-generated music across multiple genres and moods, composed dynamically rather than selected from a fixed catalog * AI-hosted podcasts that adapt over time based on listener feedback * Wellness experiences, including generative ambient music, sleep soundscapes and adaptive meditation audio * AI artist collaboration tools that let users co-write, co-produce and perform music with AI personalities, generating mixed and mastered tracks that can be shared or published instantly Rather than playlists or artist pages, the app presents a collection of interactive experiences that evolve as users engage with them. All AI, all the time One of the most notable aspects of Napster's new approach is what's missing: human artists. The app does not license music from record labels or host traditional artist catalogs. Every piece of content is generated through AI models and user prompts. Napster CTO Edo Segal says this model allows content to adapt continuously to each listener. Instead of replaying the same track, each interaction is meant to produce a slightly different result. The company positions this as a fundamental shift in how music and audio are created -- one where listeners can step into the role of producer or performer without upfront costs or technical barriers. AI Companions and a broader platform push The mobile app also connects to Napster's broader ecosystem of AI tools and hardware. Users can interact with AI video Companions designed to offer specialized collaboration or guidance, and the app supports web access and a macOS version. Napster says the app integrates with its previously announced Napster View hardware and follows the launch of Napster Station, which debuted at CES in Las Vegas. CEO John Acunto framed the app as part of a larger shift away from traditional media consumption, positioning AI as a creative partner rather than a recommendation engine. The takeaway For consumers, the new Napster app represents a different bet than Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Music. There are no familiar artists to search for and no static playlists to follow. Instead, the value proposition is experimentation -- generating music on demand, shaping AI personas and collaborating with synthetic artists. Whether that model appeals to mainstream listeners remains an open question. But it highlights a growing trend in consumer AI: platforms that prioritize creation and interaction over discovery and playback. The new Napster app is available now worldwide on iOS and Android, with sign-ups also open via the web. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.

Napster Is Doing AI Music Now -- and Still Taking Shots at the Major Labels

Three weeks after abruptly shutting down its user-scarce streaming service, the current incarnation of Napster is launching a new AI music app -- even as it continues to face a lawsuit from Sony Music over allegedly unpaid royalties. " We don't think that the future of music involves the labels anymore," Napster CEO John Acunto tells Rolling Stone. "I just think they're dead." The Napster app, available today for iOS and Android, adds a personality-heavy chatbot layer onto a prompt-driven music-generation format that should be otherwise familiar to users of services like Suno. The company boasts more than 15,000 AI personas, all powered by Google's Gemini, and they hope consumers will think of their approach as "jamming" with "AI artists." "What we're trying to do is create more of an experience," says Napster CTO Edo Segal. "The human experience of interacting with other parties, and a kind of multi-turn creation process, in the same way that humans jam and create stuff together." In contrast to the original Napster's defiance of copyright law, the company promises that they'll be licensing "ethically trained," copyright-friendly music-generating models. For Napster, music is now just one piece of a much larger operation. The brand was acquired last March for $207 million by Infinite Reality, a metaverse and AI firm that has since pushed into new territory, including an AI concierge kiosk called Station and a $99 holographic display, Napster View, that projects the company's AI companions from atop a MacBook. Napster also encourages users to make an AI clone of themselves and chat with that instead via Napster View; Segal says you'll eventually be able to use your digital double as a music collaborator too. The relaunch arrives amid considerable turbulence for the company. A promised $3 billion funding round fell through last year after the investor apparently vanished; the company has described itself as a "victim of misconduct" and says it is cooperating with law enforcement. Meanwhile, in its lawsuit, filed in August, Sony Music alleges $9.2 million in unpaid royalties, claiming that Napster continued streaming Sony's catalog even after a licensing agreement was terminated in June 2025. SoundExchange also sued the company over royalties, and at least half a dozen other labels and distributors have complained publicly about missing payments. CEO John Acunto spoke with Rolling Stone about the app, the state of the company, and more. (This conversation has been condensed for readability.) Do you have plans to compensate the major labels for the streaming royalties you owe them? When we acquired Napster, we acquired all kinds of problems, including the major-label relationships. We at some point look to repair the relationships with major labels. But I think major labels have been a suppressant and a problem in people owning their content, owning their data, and I think they're continuing to be a suppressant. So we just don't really have an interest in having a relationship with them. We don't think that the future of music involves the labels anymore. I hate to say this, because the problems that we have with the labels came with the acquisition. But I see nothing that tells me that the major labels want to do anything but control and use data that is not really from their creation. The old label model is dead. I think we've seen that with TikTok and other distribution platforms -- Instagram -- that are doing a much better job at distributing and getting the public aware of music than labels ever have in this new digital age. I just think they're dead. On our platform, when you create the music yourself, you actually own what you created... Major labels have been out of that game for a very long time. They're just cherry-picking individuals to take advantage of, quite frankly. What are they bringing to the table, right? Other than whatever's left of radio. Are you gonna get a Target CD deal? Are you gonna sell a couple of albums? What is the role of music within Napster going forward? What percentage of the company's time and energy will be put towards music, versus all these other things you're working on? I would say that music is a big part because it's a part of our culture. We really see music as a core way to connect with audiences around the world. But something like Napster View or Station -- that's not a music product. It's not a music product. No, not at all. And a lot of our products aren't music products. So it's of spiritual importance to the company, but direct music products are going to be one of many approaches, it's fair to say? It is fair to say. It's a way for us to continue to connect to audiences and introduce it to many different communities globally. What is the value of Napster's brand outside of music? You remember Napster. We all were a part of that whole world. If you recall, the core of Napster was that I would buy my CD in the store with all 27 tracks on it -- I only wanted one, by the way -- and then I would load that in my computer and I wanted the right to share the things that I owned. I owned it, I bought it, and I felt like I had a right to share it. Napster was attempting to help protect data. The core of our business is truly protecting and preserving data. The question that we have for our customers is: if you are typing into ChatGPT today, they know everything. They know who you are. They know where you work. You are not owning any of the data that you're getting for the research on that. Our pretext for everything is that we are building a platform where our customers own the data, own the content, and own the experience. At the bigger level of AI, the discussion that's not happening is: We are hearing so much about the power of machines, but who's empowering the humans? If you don't own the data, then you don't own anything as mankind. Just like [the original] Napster, we're trying to bring back that discussion. Because if we continue to just give away to the machines -- I share the sentiment that this gut scraping of intellectual property is disgusting. This gut destruction of not caring about IP is disgusting. We should be caring about what people own, how they own it. These big titans are expecting us to give away our value as humans. And yes, we're an underdog, and yes, we understand the challenges that we face, but there is no better vessel of a brand to deliver that same argument as what Napster delivered when they said, "Hey, if I buy a CD and I put it in my computer and I own the computer, and then I want to share that with a friend -- why can't I?" Do you have an update on your funding situation? Obviously there was a big issue with a funder who fell through. Are you solvent without additional investment? We aren't making any public comments on that. What I can say is that we stand by the statements that we did make, that we feel that we've been victimized, and obviously we are working our way through that. But we're very much active. As I'm sure you may have seen, we took home some awards at CES [for Napster View]. We just had a big announcement with Lenovo in the Middle East. We are continuing to execute and deliver on the business plan. You used the term "underdog." Suno has a first-mover advantage and a significant user base, and they've struck a deal with Warner. The labels are going to be putting their muscle behind Suno and Udio. How do you compete? That's a very IBM move, right? You've now allowed the major labels to figure out how they're going to own the data, own these things. This is the opposite of what we want to do. I want you -- literally you -- to own your data, own the content that you create. I don't want to be attached to some executive that thinks that you're good so he can give you a crappy deal, so you get an advance of money you gotta pay back. What we continue to see are people taking old business models and trying to attach them to new things, and that's just not how it works. I can't have a horse and buggy in a car. Your music app is centered around users interacting with AI companies. Why did you think that was the way to go? It's not the way, it's a way. It's about creative expression. And who owns that? It's about putting a face to your creativity. There's been apps around for a long time where you can change your voice and Auto-Tune. Now you can sit and allow someone else to deliver your creative thoughts. You don't need to be an engineer. You don't need studio time. It's all about creative expression. We need as mankind to own our ideas and then follow up with that ownership by how we turn those ideas into innovation. If you ask me 20 years from now, "John, what is the most valuable thing today?" I'm going to answer data. And you're going to agree. So when do we start sending the message out that data matters? When do we start sending the message that your idea is your ownership, that is your IP? That's the message that we want to deliver using that Napster vessel. We're being true to the brand.