Netflix releases Flixtape feature before harrowing day on the market

NETFLIX has released a new feature aimed at making the service more shareable, but will it boost customer retention?

What kind of Flixtape would you add House of Cards to? The “Trust No One” Flixtape?

NOW you can do more than just tell your mates and colleagues about the best shows and movies on Netflix. You can make them a mixtape of it.

The company has rolled out a cool new feature called Flixtape.

Get it? It’s like mixtape, but for Netflix.

It draws inspiration from that glorious time when love-lorn teenagers expressed their emotional leanings through a carefully curated collection of their latest favourite songs.

Aware that many of its customer might be a little too young to remember the mixtape age, the company released a tongue-in-cheek video explaining Flixtape.

Netflix subscribers will now be able to compile lists of their favourite content and easily share it with other subscribers, because “as we all know, making the perfect playlist is a fundamental life skill,” according to the video.

The new feature couldn’t come soon enough after Netflix copped a whopping 15 per cent drop in its share price in the US on the back of a disappointing quarterly report. Netflix saw significantly lower customer growth than was forecast.

In its letter to investors, the streaming giant blamed the weak subscriber growth on churn, meaning the exodus of existing customers.

“Our global member forecast for Q2 was 2.5m and we came in at 1.7m. Gross additions were on target, but churn ticked up slightly and unexpectedly,” Netflix said.

Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings blamed the disappointing performance on cancellations by subscribers facing price increases of as much as $2 per month, following the expiration of a two-year rate freeze for existing customers.

Netflix will no doubt hope that measures such as Flixtape, designed to make the service more shareable and social media-friendly, will help with customer retention by increasing the emotional investment subscribers place in the service.

The Flixtape feature pretty much takes the established queue feature but instead of having one long list of things to watch, customers can now create a bunch of thematically specific lists.

To get the ball rolling Netflix curated a few of its own including “The Kiss and Tell Flixtape,” and “The Family Reunion Flixtape.”

Originally published as Netflix releases Flixtape feature before harrowing day on the market