Facebook parent Meta is well-known for liberally ‘borrowing’ features for Instagram and its other apps, relentlessly copying anything popular in the hope of scooping up more user data. It seems that new apps aren’t innovating fast enough so now Instagram has taken to plundering obsolete platforms.
The image-sharing influencer and sales app is rolling out the ability for users to embed a specific song in their bio. If you’ve been around long enough, you might remember that as a key feature of social media precursor MySpace. But, of course, Zuckerberg’s platform will do things a little differently.
Sounds like Instagram
For starters, there’s actually a point to this. More or less. The feature is being kicked off as part of a collaboration with popstar Sabrina Carpenter, who will host a snippet of a previously unreleased song on her Instagram profile. The track preview, of a song called Taste, will be exclusive to the platform before its official release.
But it’s not just pop singers who get access to the feature. Regular users can also use the same functionality to spruce up their Insta bios, embedding a 30-second clip from the service’s licensed music library to further explain to internet strangers how they’re a uniquely individual personality, just like everyone else. All they have to do is explore their accounts ‘edit profile’ section for the option.
The only upside is that this brief clip will not autoplay, so you won’t be greeted with a blaring rendition of Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day at an inopportune moment. That part of the early-to-mid 2000s is, thankfully, very far away from us indeed. Except on some websites. You know who you are.