Once synonymous with disrupting the music industry, Napster is back—this time selling $99 holographic AI companions designed to sit atop your laptop. The new Napster View display projects digital assistants and “AI twins” in lifelike 3D, offering users a personal AI presence they can see, not just hear.

But while the concept sounds futuristic, Napster’s latest move is stirring both excitement and skepticism. For a company once mired in controversy over digital ownership, this leap into emotionally responsive AI raises a familiar question: can Napster be trusted with something even more personal than our music—our data, emotions, and digital likenesses?

Napster’s journey has been anything but ordinary. Once the symbol of digital disruption, from its 1999 debut as a peer-to-peer file-sharing pioneer to its later evolutions as a streaming platform and Web3 music hub, the brand has continuously reinvented itself.

Now, under the ownership of Infinite Reality—a company focused on immersive media, XR, and AI—Napster is entering yet another frontier: AI-powered holographic interaction.

Its new platform, Napster 26, merges AI software with physical hardware in the Napster View, a 2.1-inch “glasses-free” holographic display that clips to the top of a MacBook (Apple Silicon M1 or newer). The device is designed to render 3D AI companions capable of conversation, visual interaction, and collaboration.

Napster’s official specs highlight its goal to make AI interaction tactile, visual, and frictionless:

The product aims to provide an “uncluttered canvas” by keeping the main laptop display free of AI windows while enabling immersive 3D collaboration. This “second screen for AI” aims to make digital interactions more personal and persistent—bringing virtual collaboration into real-world visibility.

Napster View is currently available only in the United States, sold either as standalone hardware or bundled with subscription plans on the Napster Companion platform.

Pricing options include:

The Companion platform connects users with thousands of AI agents trained across diverse domains—from accounting and marketing to fitness coaching and personal productivity.

While introducing a new and impressive way to visualize AI, Napster View has reopened familiar debates about data ownership and emotional AI ethics.

The display interacts with users through voice and facial feedback, likely monitoring behavioral or emotional cues to respond appropriately, and raises questions about how much behavioral or biometric data is processed. Because Napster has not fully detailed what data is collected or how it is used, consumer advocates warn that holographic AI could blur the line between assistance and surveillance.

That ambiguity—paired with the company’s complex history—has led some analysts to question whether consumers are ready to trust Napster as an AI steward.

In an age when companies like Meta, Rabbit, and Humane are racing to create embodied AI, Napster’s sudden entry feels both timely and risky. The hardware represents a bold vision of how we might one day coexist with digital entities—but also underscores how little regulation exists in the emotional AI space. The tension mirrors Napster’s earliest days—innovation colliding with oversight.

Even as privacy debates swirl, Napster executives are using the technology themselves.

Edo Segal, Napster’s Chief Technology Officer, revealed in an interview with Business Insider that he regularly deploys his digital twin to meet with his engineering team:

“My digital twin is spending a meeting every week with my entire team of 120 engineers, where they’re talking to my digital twin,” Segal said. “It’s been an incredible experience for me.”

According to Segal, his twin receives project updates and summarizes them into an email—demonstrating how embodied AI could eventually supplement human leadership and communication at scale.

The irony of Napster’s latest evolution is hard to ignore. For many, Napster’s resurgence evokes déjà vu.

In 1999, the company redefined how music was shared—prioritizing innovation over legality. Two decades later, it’s redefining how identity and presence can be replicated through AI—again ahead of the rules, and again asking users for trust it hasn’t fully earned.

But as AI becomes more personal, trust and consent may prove to be the new battlegrounds of innovation.

Napster’s strength has always been its ability to spot cultural inflection points early. But history suggests that breaking ground too fast can leave ethical and legal gaps in its wake. The difference now is that the stakes are more personal: this time, Napster isn’t asking for your songs—it’s asking for your self.

Q1: What is Napster View?
A: 2.1-inch clip-on holographic display that projects AI companions in 3D for live chat and collaboration.

Q2: How does it connect?
A: Through USB-C, paired with the Napster for Mac App (Apple Silicon M1+).

Q3: What can it do?
A: Users can interact with thousands of AI agents—or their own digital twins—across fields from fitness to finance.

Q4: How much does it cost?
A: $99 standalone, or free with select annual or 200-hour plans starting at $219 per year.

Q5: Why does this matter?
A: It represents the embodied AI era, where assistants evolve from invisible text chat to physical, persistent presence.

Napster View captures a key moment in AI evolution: the shift from text-based interaction to embodied presence.

By merging holography with conversational AI, Napster is staking a claim in what some analysts call the “next interface layer” of computing—one where AI no longer lives in a browser tab but occupies persistent physical space.

For the broader industry, this move signals three major trends:

In the end, Napster View is more than a gadget—it’s a litmus test for whether people are ready to let AI occupy real-world presence alongside them.

Users may embrace AI companions, but only if they know who’s behind the screen—and what’s being recorded when the screen is watching back.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant used for research and drafting. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.