Ian McFadyen Design

Former file-sharing and music streaming service Napster just launched Napster 26, pivoting to an AI platform with a $99 holographic display that projects 3D AI assistants above Mac screens without the need for glasses.

The platform offers 15,000+ AI companions like coding specialists or wellness coaches, which appear as 3D holograms through the Napster View display.

Users can also create AI “digital twins” of themselves that Napster claims can attend meetings, answer questions, and manage an online presence.

The company was acquired for $207M this year by 3D technology firm Infinite Reality, which transitioned the music platform to an AI companion product.

Napster 26 launches for Mac with subscriptions starting at $19 monthly and the View hardware priced at $99 or coming free with annual plans.

While Napster’s brand may evoke nostalgia for the 90’s kids, this is a pretty wild “rebrand”. AI companies have been pushing AI that can view user’s actions, and this hologram takes that experience very literal — though given xAI’s Grok companion moves, there may be more of a market for this experience than we think.