14 DAY TRIAL // Panoramio is introducing an interesting new feature enabling users to add music to the photos they share on the site. The idea is to enhance the experience by providing a musical background for the image. For now, only select users have access to the feature, but it will be rolled out for everyone eventually.
"We are very excited today to announce the new Panoramio music player. We have launched it this week for a limited amount of users but this will be soon an option you will all have," Panoramio's Gerard Sanz announced.
"Together with your photo you will be able to add a music file that will play when another user visits your photo, this way you can enhance the experience of your visitors. Accepted formats will be: MP3, Vorbis, Musepack, AAC, ATRAC," he explained.
Users will be able to add their own music to the photos they upload. From the looks of it, users will be able to upload their own files, as opposed to selecting from an online repository or other similar solutions. There's quite a lot of flexibility when it comes to the music format as well, it seems.
While the idea of enhancing the image with music doesn't sound that bad, it is a somewhat odd feature for the geo-tagging focused photo sharing site. Apparently, users will be able to embed their music, along with slideshows, via the Widget API.
"The new feature will allow you to create Playlists (using the Widget API) with your favorite photo/music combination as music tracks can be sorted by music type," Sanz added.
Panoramio has always been about showcasing great places all over the world and adding music that somehow ties into the specific place and photo sounds like an interesting idea, but it could prove more trouble than its worth.
One of the main problems is that most users probably wouldn't want to listen to music while browsing the photos. Hopefully, the tracks won't start playing automatically when you load the page either.
There is also the copyright issue, Google has only now managed to get YouTube under control. Enabling music uploads to Panoramio could open up a whole new set of problems. The move could be tied with Google's rumored music store plans, though.
UPDATE: Well, there you go, aparently this was part of a joke Panoramio decided to play on its users on the Spanish 'version' of April Fools' Day which is on December 28. So, no, there will be no music uploads from Panoramio.