When Spotify acquired British music-tech firm WhoSampled last year, it said that it would be tapping the company’s database of samples and covers for a new feature called SongDNA. Today, that feature is rolling out globally to premium subscribers.
It’s all about the context. SongDNA takes the form of a ‘card’ accessed from the Spotify app’s ‘Now Playing’ view. When tapped, it will show the writers, producers and collaborators on that track; trace back any samples and interpolations used within it; and show covers of it too.
“You can tap into any of those creators to discover the other artists they’ve worked with, then explore those collaborators in turn,” is how Spotify described it in a blog post today.
“It’s an interactive way to follow the connections between tracks and see how artists, eras, and genres intersect, giving you a deeper understanding of how what you’re listening to came together.”
Spotify is very keen to stress that artists and their teams will have a strong input to the data being used for those SongDNA connections, as well as the “community-sourced data” that made WhoSampled such a beautiful rabbit-hole of a site.
“As we continue to evolve this experience in beta, eligible artist and label teams can review and manage the components of SongDNA in Spotify for Artists, ensuring they have a direct hand in how their musical story is told,” promised Spotify.
The new feature is rolling out from today in Spotify’s mobile apps, and is the latest addition to be restricted to premium subscribers – another nudge for free listeners to upgrade. SongDNA should be available to all of those subscribers by the end of April.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source musically.com ’
