Apple Music unveils Giphy account when announcing Harry Styles doco exclusive

Apple Music launched an exclusive premiere of a Harry Styles album documentary –and in announcing it, revealed that it has an official Giphy account to increase its presence on social media.

While Styles releases his debut album today, Apple Music will follow up on May 15 with Harry Styles: Behind the Album.

It charts the making of the album in Jamaica, Los Angeles and London and padded out with interviews and behind the scenes footage.

A 30-second trailer sees Styles writing lyrics on a typewriter, scribbling in a Moleskine notebook, scuba diving, getting a haircut and having cocktails with his new band.

He says, “I’ve never had the process of making a full album in the way that I did with this one … I kind of wanted to see if I could write something that people liked without knowing everything about me.’

While tweeting to alert users about the Styles exclusive, Apple Music directed them to its own official Giphy account. It’s apparently been posting custom high-quality GIFs on the free-to-use platform since mid-April.

The content at https://giphy.com/applemusic features 85 GIFs of original content, including Taylor Swift’s 1989 World Tour concert video, music videos from Kendrick Lamar and Gucci Mane, and Apple Music ads starring Swift and Drake.

Giphy is a popular online database of animated GIFs, and it is clear Apple Music plans to use it even more as a way for consumers to discover new content and share them with friends through messaging services and social media sites.

Styles’ Behind the Album was produced by Fulwell 73 while also involved was Ben Winston, who directed most of One Direction’s music videos and their 2013 tour documentary This is Us.

The documentary also captures Styles and band perform the album live in its entirety for the first time at London’s Abbey Road Studios.

It’s a preview of what Australians will get when he tours later this year.

But postings have already appeared on YouTube of a secret show that he and the band did in Brooklyn, New York, at a Rough Trade shop.

The set interspersed his own solo material like Sign of the Times and Ever Since New York with Beatles and Bowie covers.

At one point he attempted a stage dive. Unfortunately the crowd didn’t catch him and he hit the ground. But he bounced up quickly, apologised for the stuff-up and said of the stage dive, “I’ve always wanted to do that. It felt like an appropriate time.”

It was filmed by iHeartRadio’s Hit Nation and broadcast in the US on May 12.

New York seems to be a special place for Styles. He’s just bought a 278 square metre three bedroom and three bathroom apartment for $8.71 million.

Among his 53 neighbours in the block are Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Lawrence, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. The building, in trendy Tribeca, is said to be high security and “paparazzi-proof”.