Instagram taps Sabrina Carpenter to debut a feature copied from…Myspace?

Instagram has a new feature, and Sabrina Carpenter just brand-newed it for ya.

The singer behind the summertime smash “Espresso” teamed up with the Meta-owned app to premiere her new song “Taste”. To hear the track, Carpenter’s fans must venture to her Insta profile, where a music player offers a taste of “Taste”.

If the idea of adding a song to your profile sounds familiar, you might be nostalgic for one of the earliest social media platforms. For those who grew up in the 2000s, profile songs are associated with Myspace. The ability to add a track to your homepage (often an emo song) remained one of Myspace’s signature features long after its heyday.

Meta, of course, has developed a reputation as a company that likes to borrow features from its competitors. Instagram has lifted Snapchat’s Stories, YouTube’s monetization features, and TikTok’s user interface. The platform’s description of Music on IG Profiles acknowledges the feature’s origin. A press release explains that users can now display songs “just like you could back in the early 2000s.”

Music on IG Profiles may have ancient inspirations (at least by internet standards) but the star Instagram has tapped to debut the feature is a Gen Z icon. Carpenter has enjoyed a breakout year in 2024, with many listeners hailing her bop “Espresso” as the song of the summer

. Tracks like “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” have become the soundtrack to millions of short-form videos, and by owing the premiere of “Taste,” Instagram is getting ahead of the next big Sabrina-inspired meme.

That’s not the only thing Instagram is doing to placate Carpenter’s passionate fanbase. The platform has also laid some easter eggs that will reveal themselves when users type specific words in the Notes format. If you want to turn your Notes baby blue, all you need to do is type “I’m working late cause I’m a singer” — a reference to a viral “Espresso” lyric.

If “Taste” takes off like “Espresso” did, it will validate Instagram’s decision to repurpose a decades-old social media feature. We shouldn’t be surprised to see Myspace’s influence within the current tech industry. After all, if Limewire can come back, then the mid 00s are truly alive and well.